Dedicated walkman in era of smart phones

[joshiks7]

hi,
Does it make sense to spend extra bucks for dedicated FLAC player in era of smart phones?
We are getting v good DAC equipped cell phones.Does dedicated players still sound better?
Whats opinion of audiophiles?

 

[asliarun]

hi,
Does it make sense to spend extra bucks for dedicated FLAC player in era of smart phones?
We are getting v good DAC equipped cell phones.Does dedicated players still sound better?
Whats opinion of audiophiles?

What are the examples of cell phones with good DACs ?

Quite frankly, you can replace audio player with camera and you will have your answer. Cell phones have very high level of integration and do a bunch of things reasonably well but also not exceptionally well. That is why products like asytell and Kern exist.

It all depends on what compromises one is willing to make.

The other thing is - will the cell phone be capable of driving decent headphones?

 

[mpw]

if you are referring to the sony walkman - the new one... i think its a good idea.

the pricing - i am not so sure ( i reckon its about USD 399 )

i use sansa flac player for my morning routines and when i travel and the sansa is not such a well made product and so sometimes can be irritating to use. The plus point is it is very small and is hugely portable and exercise friendly.

At the same time i do not own a single Apple product and i intend to stay that way.

IMO...therein lies the market for a good quality portable flac player..

regards
mpw

 

[tnvijay]

A smartphone , however smart it may be cant replace a dedicated audio Player I have a humble transcend mp860 Which plays all format(ogg,FLAC) Etc with a customisable srs wow hd sound. Couldnt compare it with any smartphone in terms of its sonics.Hope this helps.

 

[shanindia]

Battery life should be a major deciding factor as well. Separate players can last a week of moderate usage, but the smartphones can hardly last one day without any usage.

I use Sansa in my car - need to charge it once every two weeks!

 

[sameuun]

like said, battery is main issue.
suppose if u need to carry a smart phone in gym and play ur fav track during workout, im sure by the time u ended u work u cell battery wud drop to 50%

thats a major drawback

 

[sameuun]

let me know when and what u finalyze

 

[musicbee]

The problem will be playing FLAC format, but otherwise an iPod makes the most sense. SQ is one of the best for portable devices and better that most smartphones.

In fact I use my old 4th gen iPod Touch for YT videos instead of any of the smartphones or tablets (both Android and Apple) that I have at home. iPad is extremely limited for music, the iPhone does a decently good job and most Android phones and phablets suck... but the iPod still sounds the best for YT videos or when using a dock. I have simple iPods too (the non-touch varieties) and their SQ too is way better... but again space is premium unless you are talking mp3 rips.

 

[rohan{_mhtr]

Compairing my ipod touch 3rd gen with my Sony Xperia z1 i honestly find no difference at all with my 2.5k brainwavz m2 headphones . When i connect them to my AVR/Amp , i will give 9 to ipod and 8 to my phone but because of the convenience factor using a smartphone i hardly use the ipod . There are so many different apps available for the phone , the customization factor is great . I think audio quality of high end smartphones is upto the mark of budget players like the ipod and stuff . I honestly think its a dying market !

 

[shibashis]

Phones today can surprise you, quality phones now come with very good DACs, my Lenovo K900 had a Wolfson WM8740 and sounded fantastic. Clarity was superb, perhaps lacking a little in volume when you use better quality headphones. I can honestly say it sounded better than my iPod touch 4th gen. I had a thread running on this here:
http://www.hifivision.com/portable-...oid-audio-quality-my-surprise-revelation.html

A dedicated DAP like the Fiio X3/X5 or the upcoming Sony high resolution player likely will sound better, but quality phones now can not be discounted. I recently heard a midranger Xperia SP, it sounded quite good for its price, same goes for my HTC Desire 816 (816G on the other hand sounds pathetic).

With the option to expand your storage and many different quality music players (Poweramp, Neutron and others) available, it is difficult to ignore phones today.

 

[kiranjoshi7]

Hi friends,
Sorry for late reply.
I have made up my mind for fiio x1 with v sonic GR07.
Both to be shipped from US through my friend who is coming to India.
Later on planning for portable amp, possibly fiioE12 Monte black for above gear and to be used with PC.
Regards

 

[square_wave]

We are taking a hobbyist persuasion and trying to view it from the perspective of mainstream and in many ways non-connected utility device.

A smart phone is a utility device and it can do many things at a time.

A hobbyist will extract the maximum out of his music using specialist devices.

Whether you need a specialist device or not depends upon what demographic you belong to. Hobbyist or general user.

Is this a smart phone era for an audio hobbyist ? Is it a smart phone era for a SLR wielding photography enthusiast? In both cases, no !! Is it for the general user ? Yes !!

Smart tech has a place in life of an enthusiast but it cannot replace specialist devices.

 

[noking]

hi friens,
A smartphone no matter how high-end and brand can NEVER replace a Personal audio player,currently im using a FIIO X5 pairing with V-Moda M100 with all the files in Flac or Hi-Res 24/192 and the difference is a Maruti 800 and a Audi A6:yahoo:
just my 2 cent