Cowon s9, Samsung P2, Sony NWZ 828k and Apple Touch Sound test.

Right, So I got my hands on some good quality Senns this weekend. The dfkt recommended Sennheiser HD555's to test and compare the sound quality of a range of some of the most popular players on a level playing field. Here's the set-up....
From left; Cowon S9, Samsung P2, Sony NWZ 828k and the Apple Touch.


First up, the Cowon. I've already mentioned the stellar sound quality of the S9 before in my detailed review. But with the HD555's, it really does thunder through the head. I had some off my friends listen to it, because at first I couldn't think of a way to describe just how good the sound on this thing is. We all agreed on the aforementioned term, "thundering". Acoustic tunes are clean and clear and basey tones are perfectly balanced which is a very difficult quality to find in a portable player once you reach the very high volumes. Hands down, the best sounding player I've ever used, I didn't want to stop listening to it once I'd started. Here it is with the Senns:


Next up, The Samsung P2. I've had access to this player for a while, but never really spent enough time to appreciate just how much effort Samsung put into making this a great sounding device. It did very very well with all the songs i played on it, really enjoyed it. Considering it will be updated with the P3 very soon, people should have great reason to be excited about it. Bass tones did begin to top out at the very highest volume, but by then listening was getting uncomfortable, so down one step in volume and it was perfectly within it's capabilities. Impressive stuff. With the Senns:


Now, the Sony NWZ 828k. Ignore the silly name, Sony have really cleaned up their act after some shiny mediocre players bundled with some terrible software. This player was very close behind the P2 in terms of sound, matching it mostly to be honest. On the level playing field with the HD555's, the blind test proved it almost impossible to tell whether I was listening to it, or the P2. No easy feat for many players out there. As with the P2, it sounded well in all tones, and while being slightly quieter, it never went beyond it's own capabilities in the high volumes and kept everything well balanced even as we reached the "too loud to listen to" volumes.


Last, and least. The Apple Touch. Interface, fantastic. Multitude of features, best there is. Sound Quality, mediocre.... How do they manage to do this? I'm beginning to believe that after the interface and such had been researched, perfected and paid for, there wasn't a whole lot of money left to concentrate on the sound quality. Audiophiles concur around the world that the Ipods fall short when it comes to the originally, and still widely considered, most important feature of having good quality portable music. The quietest of all the players I've tried out in this comparison test, it tends to sound hollow when the music should really have more substance to it. Bass tones (in some equalizers I tried in a vain attempt to counter-act hollowness) are over done in such a way that you begin to think it was purposefully done to cover up for it's acoustic shortcomings. Not what it should be on a very nice looking and feature rich piece of equipment. Here it is:


All said and done (if you haven't already realized) the order of sound quality in which I rate these players is
1st: Cowon S9
2nd: Samsung P2
3rd(A very close one at that): Sony NWZ 828k
4th: Apple Touch

I also (mostly for fun) did a blind test in which I listened to the same song on each of the players as one of my friends plugged a different player in without letting me know which one. I could easily pick out the high quality Cowon S9 and and the mediocre Apple Touch every time without fail. However, I had real difficulty differentiating between the Sony and the Samsung.
So there you have it, the even playing field courtesy of the Sennheiser HD555 headphones. Feel free to give me your input. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

-Sacramento