# Better Sound Quality : In Walkman or iPods



## eggman (Oct 16, 2006)

Well, before you(iPod fans) jump on me I would like to say that i've tried both. I own a w810i(Walkman Phone)  and my room partner has a iPod. I've listened to both, an I would like to say that that w810i sounded much better.Wvwn an iRiver sounded better than iPod. All i wanted to say that what's so great in iPod. It doesnt provide best sound quality(its good, but not great).I am unable to understand why people drools whenever they hear an iPod...?

Note:The poll is limited to sound quality only. Dont say tht it has 30GB of mem, cause w810i has 2mp cam and much more. The debate is only limited to sound Quality.

PS:Even iPod sounded better with w810i headhpoes


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## drvarunmehta (Oct 16, 2006)

eggman said:
			
		

> PS:Even iPod sounded better with w810i headhpoes


That only shows that the W810i's headphones are better than the iPod's headphones not that the W810i is better than the iPod.


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## VD17 (Oct 16, 2006)

Yeah... its a case about the Headphones... I plugged in my Philips SHP805 in an iPOD and it was the best performance my headphone gave... absolutely no distortion at high volume and the bass was equally good... altho i havent heard the sony ericsson, but i doubt it'll drive any headphone that well...


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## goobimama (Oct 17, 2006)

Doesn't the walkman bundle In-ear earphones? The one's that go right inside the ear (passive noise-cancellation or something'). Those designs have always tended to sound better....(in my opinion)


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## gxsaurav (Oct 17, 2006)

one thing u are forgetting that Mobile phones with music playback capability are the future, it's all in convergence, ipod might be cool, but someone who wants convergence should go for W810i insted, it gives better audio quality & also a camera, all in one

even apple is going the same way with iphone


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## q3_abhi (Oct 17, 2006)

gxsaurav said:
			
		

> one thing u are forgetting that Mobile phones with music playback capability are the future, it's all in convergence, ipod might be cool, but someone who wants convergence should go for W810i insted, it gives better audio quality & also a camera, all in one
> 
> even apple is going the same way with iphone




Watever that may be , a dedicated performer always outperforms an all-in-one performer.


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## cvvikram (Oct 17, 2006)

I don't know about IPods....since i am having the W810i .... this phone rocks in music and i love it.......and i rate it high for it.


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## busyanuj (Oct 17, 2006)

eggman said:
			
		

> Well, before you(iPod fans) jump on me I would like to say that i've tried both. I own a w810i(Walkman Phone)  and my room partner has a iPod. I've listened to both, an I would like to say that that w810i sounded much better.Wvwn an iRiver sounded better than iPod. All i wanted to say that what's so great in iPod. It doesnt provide best sound quality(its good, but not great).I am unable to understand why people drools whenever they hear an iPod...?
> 
> Note:The poll is limited to sound quality only. Dont say tht it has 30GB of mem, cause w810i has 2mp cam and much more. The debate is only limited to sound Quality.
> 
> PS:Even iPod sounded better with w810i headhpoes



okay, limiting the debate to sound quality only, let me tell you why you're let down by iPod's sound quality, it is *simply* because of the crappy default earphones bundled with iPod which aren't any good.

I simply threw away the original iPod earphones within the first week of my video Pod usage. 

Get a *good* earphones/headphones set from Sony/Philips and you'll know _how_ iPod sounds better. Good earphones/headphones set doesn't mean the usual crap that's thrust into your face by most of the local dealers in the name of earphones/headphones. I know the price of the original iPod earphones but for that much money, trust me, you'll get much much better earphones from some other company.

Personally, I'm not in for a feature or performance comparison between a mobile phone and a music player. Both have their own strong points. So let's keep out the discussion about 30gb and 2mp cam etc.


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## eggman (Oct 17, 2006)

goobimama said:
			
		

> Doesn't the walkman bundle In-ear earphones? The one's that go right inside the ear (passive noise-cancellation or something'). Those designs have always tended to sound better....(in my opinion)


Yeah it bundles that. 


			
				q3_abhi said:
			
		

> Watever that may be , a dedicated performer always outperforms an all-in-one performer.


Prejudice

I'll rate the sound quality as follows(thats my personal experience:

1)w810i with original headphone
2)iPod with w810's headphone
3)iPod with its bundeled headphones

One may say that its beacuse of headphones. I agree, getting a better headphone will increase the sound quality. Thtas whatNokia is doing by goving Boss headphones. But if you listen to both the devices with same headphones, you can find that w810i sounds better,though the difference was not very high.. I suspected it may be beacuse of equalizer. So I turned off the equalizer in  iPod and made it flat in w810.Still w810i sounded better. 
Its just some assume that iPod are having best sound in the world, while its not.


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## aryayush (Oct 17, 2006)

LOL! Either there is some defect in his iPod or in your ear.


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## gxsaurav (Oct 18, 2006)

so, if the ipod is not giving quality audio, it's not the player, it's the user who is deaf or dumb, is that what u r saying aryayush


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## freshseasons (Oct 18, 2006)

OK this from a another user who own Both.w810i and ipod mini. And my Experiece. iPod Beats w810i hands down.Really to an audiophiles ear there is no comparasion. 
  I used Sennheiser MX550 and really ipod is far ahead in terms of quality. Reason i think sony W810 sound good to you may be because of the inear earPhones bundles along with it which plays the bass effect well but isnt much justice to mids.
  But try this test. Take a good Speaker something with atleast more than 400RMS rating. Set Equliser setting on both to normal.Then give those speaker input from both.
  And it doesnt take more than 2 minutes to know where ipod Stands in quality.Really its that good. However i woudlnt rate ipod more than what the new Zune will be offering because of if option of Digital Out interferace.However some model of iriver do have them but then they are not what ipod is .


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## krazyfrog (Oct 18, 2006)

Sound quality is totally subjective issue. What might sound great to one would sound ordinary to other. If your idea of great sound is huge amount of bass, then yes the W810i does have great sound. But apart from bass, the other frequencies represented by the walkman aren't that great, especially the mids and the highs. The iPod on the other hand represents each and every frequency perfectly without being partial to only bass and neglecting mids and highs. It has a much more balanced and neutral sound that presents music the way it is without much change. Also the bass effects in walkman phones are courtesy the headphones they provide. The ear plug design tends to reinforce the bass and makes it artificially powerfull sounding. Its not because of great speakers or anything. If a set of high quality headphones were to be connected to both the iPod and the W810i, the iPod would easily win. Also Sony has to sell its own range of mp3 players. They would never provide the mobile phones with that great sound as it'll jeopardize the sales of their mp3 players. In short my vote goes the iPod. Cell phones still have some way to go before they can defeat the undisputed king of portable music.


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## dIgItaL_BrAt (Oct 18, 2006)

it's all in the headphones.


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## drvarunmehta (Oct 18, 2006)

Headphones are the wrong way to test the quality of mp3 players. Connect them to high quality speakers and then decide which player is better.


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## koolbluez (Oct 18, 2006)

Guyz, before the fight gets intense, I might add... did *Anda*man check out the music with the same files? u know... encoding quality too matters.

I've a SE800i walkman phone. The first time i heard music on it, it was 128kbps of mp3 and i found it not worthy. But after i encoded in 256kbps of aac, it was terrific.

The bitrate, audio type too matters. This brings me to another point i would like to mention. AAC(mp4) rocks in comparision to mp3. A 128kbps of aac sounds better than a 192kbps of mp3!!! Pity there are not many commercially available AAC players out there.


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## freshseasons (Oct 20, 2006)

I testest music on both with lossess Codecs and ipod was really terrific.
  Really there is no point comparing dedicated music player like ipod with Mobile music phones.Agreed they have improved a lot but still for Audiophiles its a huge compromise.


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## abhijit_reddevil (Oct 20, 2006)

My friend recently got the W810i and I got a chance to listen to it with mega bass on. It is terrific, awesome. I listened to it with ericsson's bundled sony headphones. My colleague has a 30GB Ipod. When tested with the same song and the same earphones, the sound quality was not so good. So my personal opinion would be that W810i is better.


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## rockthegod (Mar 28, 2007)

Never heard on 810i, but I own a W850 as well as a 80 GB IPod, Played a 160 KBps encoded m4a (LC AAC) file on both and used the same headphones (Sennheiser HDC451) and I personally felt that the walkman delivered better audio quality over IPod.


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## saikibryan (Mar 29, 2007)

i don't hav a ipod...hav a walkman phone only
sound quality is superb, magabass significantly improves bass
guns n roses roxx on my walkman phone
heard them on some other phones also
lame sound...drums don't sound like drums...


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## eggman (Mar 29, 2007)

As far as people saying that Walkman phones only delivers good Bass, I don't agree. Surely it has a Megabass feature, and it gives terrific bass in expenses of mid and  lows.Thats  the only reason I don't prefer MEgabass, its just a marketing gimmik. But as I said, if one try with neutral settings you can find that Walkman phone delivers all ranges well.


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## freshseasons (Apr 27, 2007)

Have tested both and both Suck a huge time. 
  Tried the ultimate Apple lossless codecs with Original Cd's and the experience was totally disappointing.Rock losses on Lower Frequencies and Mids are all ok.Treble is just so so.  
  Sony 850 was also disappointing at 340kbps mp3 made from same original Cd.All Hisses and Boom Boom with out quality bass.
   Who ever said Audiopiles equipments includes iPods must be joking.
    Too say Walkman is justice to music is laughable. 
    Try this. Get a Hi-Fi from Sony or Yamaha.Make sure The Cables and connections are all Digital ( Sorry Analog is totally out) Lay hands on DTS Audio Cd( Not even plain vanilla Audio cd ) and listen to it.Get Bose Sound Cancellation headphone or Altec Lansing (Head Phones not Ear Phones)if youare audio head phones freak.Best let all 21" Speakers take Control and immerse into the true DTS.
    Whos the best and what music is ....The dabates just stop there..


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## goobimama (Apr 27, 2007)

^^ First of all you can't compare earphones to a full blown home theatre. The idea is portability. Sure you mentioned headphones, but those are still not as portable as earphones. 

I'm not saying that the iPods earphones are the best, but they aren't that bad that one has to consider spending 14-20k on some bose headphones. And as for your DTS CD, you need a good decoder to do the job, otherwise, if you use something like Winamp's in_dts plugin, its a total waste. And have you heard of MLP on DVD Audio? Yeah, that's even better than your DTS CD. I got the Eagles DVD Audio Disc, and it also includes a DTS track. MLP really kicks asz....


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## iMav (Apr 27, 2007)

my brother has a walkman and me ipod ... well the ipod beats the walkman big time


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## Pathik (Apr 27, 2007)

yea... ipod >>>>> walkman... 
no comparision...


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## freshseasons (Apr 27, 2007)

goobimama said:
			
		

> ^^ First of all you can't compare earphones to a full blown home theatre. The idea is portability. Sure you mentioned headphones, but those are still not as portable as earphones.
> 
> I'm not saying that the iPods earphones are the best, but they aren't that bad that one has to consider spending 14-20k on some bose headphones. And as for your DTS CD, you need a good decoder to do the job, otherwise, if you use something like Winamp's in_dts plugin, its a total waste. And have you heard of MLP on DVD Audio? Yeah, that's even better than your DTS CD. I got the Eagles DVD Audio Disc, and it also includes a DTS track. MLP really kicks asz....


    Hey Goobimana ...nice to see you ..and Hello.
  Anyways Thanks for the Update on MLP but still i think DTS 5.1 are still better than MLP's ..Heres why : *www.audioholics.com/education/surr...s-dts-a-guide-to-the-strengths-of-the-formats

     And theres no question of using PC n Winamp with Dts Plugin..its a big cheat and total waste of time, like you correctly pointed out and i had like to add that i never mentioned PCfor the same reason in the above post.I said HI-FI and mosts HI-FI ( not Mini Hi-fi tough some have) have inbuilt Hardware DTS decoders.I love listening to Pink Floyd on DTS and Yes correctly Eagles too have it On DTS. Torrents Provides it.  
     One more thing.For Ear Phones CD's are ofcourse the best else whats the point in Down mixing DTS to Stereo again.And those Virtual Technologies for Ear Phones are all crap.
    Still one thing is pretty sad . Not many titles there . Not even to buy.In Bollywood theres just one . Dhoom 2 That came on DTS 5.1. But Getting that music Cd is really tough. Wish more people drop into the real Audio Stuff.
    Have fun and let the music Play !


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## ankushkool (Apr 27, 2007)

Why u guys comparing a phone with a mp3 player???

the right comparision sud be btw ipods n sony new walkman mp3 players..... no competition here sony wins with very good sound quality

for de entire sony range goto
*shop.sonystyle-europe.com/SonyStyl...=GB&languageId=GB&s=external&ss=show&id=nwa3*

or check out this one
*www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2065449,00.asp


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## runeet (Apr 29, 2007)

the in-ear headphones that are bundled with the w810 phones are actually very hazardous as compared to those bundled with the ipod, prolonged use of those earphones can cause a certain amount of deafness, even the earphones bundled with ipod cause the same thing but those of w810 cause it faster, so try to use those big headphones.


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## nix (Apr 29, 2007)

ipod...rules...its a style statement man...and also, its so so easy to use...
esp in india ppl will turn and look at ur toy...
edit: i wanted to add..these Nseries and the other (have it all) phones havent come of age yet you know...they have everything but they are perfect in nothing..there is so much delay jumping b/w menus you know...


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## iMav (Apr 30, 2007)

@ ankush the ipod is better thr also ... friends' reviews


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## goobimama (Apr 30, 2007)

@freshseasons: what does that link have to do with DTS being better than MLP? MLP tracks are if I remember correctly, upto 18mbps against DTS' 1.5Mbps. That site only says that MLP is not that widespread, doesn't mean that it isn't good. There's also the higher resolution frequency of 96khz as against a 48khz of DTS (though DTS does have 96khz, only not that widespread).

Anyway, my point was that this thread is about portable music, not Hi-Fi...


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## freshseasons (Apr 30, 2007)

Yaa if the thing is portable music then Ipod with Apple Lossless encoders ( ughh and ofcourse some decent ear phones ) is unbeatable.
  Why ipod. Cuz it is able to play Lossless Encoders which is exactly like hearing the original CD and you need more than 4Gb min to carry around some amount of decent music to make it portable with lossless taking enough space.
   So ipod it is presently. 
   Since its just between Walkman and iPod so Ipod. But given a choice go for Zune as it has Digital out unlike one analog on ipod.The drool guage is not much as an ipod however Zune will just belt out better sound quality than it.( when using Digital out )

Why DTS is Still better than MLP .....
   Correct Link :*www.audioholics.com/reviews/software/dvd-audio-reviews/toy-matinee-dvd-a-dts-review




> The Winner Is...
> So you're probably wondering which multi channel format to choose when listening to a DVD Audio Disc and given the choice of more than one option. Though the question may be phrased easily, there is no simple answer. Because of the implementation shortcomings of MLP DVD-A, there may be cases where the DTS soundtrack will be the preferred choice. For example, if you have all small, or bass deficient speakers, and your DVD-A player and/or Receiver do not process bass management in the analog domain, than the DTS soundtrack may be the way to go to ensure that all the bass from the disc with be faithfully reproduced by your subwoofer and therefore avoid straining your speakers by alleviating them from the bass duties. Assuming bass management is not an issue for your system, you may still prefer the DTS mix over the MLP mix, or vice versa, just because of personal preferences or the quality of the mixing and transferring processes. My point is, you should listen to both soundtracks carefully and determine which one sounds best to you, and which one is most compatible with your system configuration and set-up. In my experience, both formats truly offer better than CD resolution, and the world of multi-channel audio keeps getting better. In addition, the nice thing about DVD-A discs that offer a DTS soundtrack is that they can be played on all existing DVD players that will also play DTS DVD movies. So if you have a DTS decoder on your Receiver or Preamp/Processor and a DVD player that can read the DTS soundtrack on a DVD, your good to go. You don't have to worry about buying any new hardware or multitude of cables to configure your system, just simply put in the disc, select DTS and press play and listen.


 
   So Go ahead the Enjoy the Best music on DTS


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## Zeeshan Quireshi (Apr 30, 2007)

well my iPod nano rocks , there's not a single distortion at full volume

although i max out at 70% , have to save my ears for later use too


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## freshseasons (Apr 30, 2007)

Why was this post moved to Review Section ?


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## blackleopard92 (Apr 30, 2007)

well, i have listened to both w700i and iPod.
I was shocked when i listened to iPod,  w700i was soo much better.
i know it was because of the headphones, but, who's fault it is?
cudos to SE for bundling excellent headphones to bring out the best in the walkman. and it's a shame that apple included 3rd class headphones with an excellent player.
if someone buys a costly music player like iPod, one expects excellence from it.the last thing he would want is to goto store again and invest Rs 3000-5000 more.

as for drool value of iPod, i don't get it.I mean, who cares when a pack of donkeys start drooling over you?


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## Kiran.dks (May 1, 2007)

Think smart, convergence is the way to go. SE Walkman Phones deliver exceptional sound quality and is a total value for money. iPod truly is a useless expensive crap.


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## mr_sriram (May 30, 2007)

I've tried all of the things mentioned..iPods, Walkman & iRiver..

I don't find iPod to be superior to iRiver...iRiver is much better than iPod. In terms of clarity of sound.

As said by someone, it depends on the person....

My rating would be:

1 - Walkman & iRiver
2 - iPod


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## gxsaurav (May 30, 2007)

Walkman phones are indeed a very good converged devices. Mobile phones with integrated Camera & Music/ Video capability is indeed the future. Too bad that takes away  a lot of battery.

Apple has realised what they are missing, thats why iPhone. You wouldn't be supriced if Apple discontinues iPods which are upto 8 GB.


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## eggman (May 30, 2007)

drvarunmehta said:
			
		

> That only shows that the W810i's headphones are better than the iPod's headphones not that the W810i is better than the iPod.



Now if I spend 1000s of rupees on a music player, I surely want it to be a complete package. I don't want a player and then go and find headphones(and ofcourse paying for it).


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## daniel_joseph (Jun 1, 2007)

I own the SE W810i phone and a 30 gb ipod video. SE has megabass which creates the '_thumping_' effect by sacrificing the mids and highs. I must say that rap songs by Eminem,50 Cent etc su(ks on the SE even with the equalizer set to normal.
Yo! Dudes, I connected SE's headphones to the iPod and tested them. They seem to be very bass oriented. Another minus point is that the SE phone does not support any loseless codec (except .wav) which is a big minus point. The video playback on the iPod is waaaaay better than SE. 
Also the iPods being *very very very* popular has about 4000 accessories for it manufactured by different companies. iPods are also being used by the English cricketers to see and revise their opponents tactics. Courtesy, great,crisp,clear and vivid video quality. 
Finally,_THERE HAS TO BE SOME REASON WHY TEAM DIGIT AWARDS THE GOLD BEST BUY PRIZE TO THE iPods ALWAYS!_ C'mon, it's the great sound quality, of course.


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## chesss (Jun 2, 2007)

if one is playing the same file, shouldn't all that matters is the headphones!!


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## drgunjankumar (Dec 7, 2007)

well the sound quality frankly depends more o the headphones bundled rather than the player(talking bout the reputed manufacturers)... frankly the headphones bundled usually are greatly biased on the lower end ie bass.. personally i feel ipod headphones are average and as for sony.. well, i felt they were the best few years back, but now i realise they are considered best because they overwhelm u the first time u here them with there boomy bass and bright sound.. its after prolong hearing and the accompanying headaches that u realise the fineness thats missing

btw read somewher in this thread that iem cause deafness.. i guess its quite the opposite.. if used correctly they reduce the chances of hearing impairment.. our ears are so designed that they tend to give pref to the loudest sound and ignore the lesser ones.. so in heavy traffic and in noisy areas we tend to increase the volume of earphones so that the sound from the earphone is loudest... this may cause permanent hearing impairment.. while iem block the ambient noises and the volume thus is very low... iem are dangerous only if u r in a situation in which u have to be aware of ur surroundings (like jogging, driving, etc)

p.s- i myself use an iem XTREMEMAC FS1


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## eggman (Dec 7, 2007)

@daniel: I know you are the biggest w810i hater so its no surprise seeing that coming from you.
As far as saying HPM-70 is bass oriented, I completely disagree. Play it with Megabass, yes it'll flood you with bass. But , turn it off and listen. It hardly compromise with mids and lows.I myself don't use Megabass. And I now own ep-630, and it's got better bass  than hpm-70. Nobody complaints about that,cause its not bundled with SE.Its kinda prejudice that Since w810i comes with mega bass, its earphones, has to be BAss-oriented.

And at people saying, The iPod is better playing device, but only got an inferior earphones. What kind of excuse is that? Is it SE's fault that it provided good headphones or Is it another Apple's Innovation of the Millennium that it will provide  crappy earphones by default? 



			
				daniel_joseph said:
			
		

> The video playback on the iPod is waaaaay better than SE.
> Also the iPods being *very very very* popular has about 4000 accessories for it manufactured by different companies.


Man!!Can't you read? I already told that the debate is only about *Sound quality*. I don't go saying around that w810i has a FM(must in Music Device) or it has got camera.



			
				daniel_joseph said:
			
		

> iPods are also being used by the English cricketers to see and revise their opponents tactics. Courtesy, great,crisp,clear and vivid video quality.


Thats why they keep losing all the matches .And what are you in English team. The waterboy?


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## lywyre (Dec 7, 2007)

My brothers K790 sounds better than my iPod nano. But I've to agree, I used the bundled earpieces that came with the iPod.


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## nimesh2india (Dec 7, 2007)

AS a Suggestion To W810i users,instead of using Hpm-70 or the Creatives EP-630's use the Mylars Crossroads X3's or XB's,sounds terrific,will surely blow ur ep630 headphones.i have been using w810i for last 14months,completely satisfied with HPM-70,then i purchased the EP-630 in june,while searching on the net and reading the reviews from (lamington creative dealer).

Then in Oct i had the another craze of the sennheiser's opening a shop's in mumbai,i was really into CX-300 ones,which are more bassy.(bassified).but that cost around 3500rs too pricy for a graduate.

Then searching here and there i came accross these Mylars Crossroads X3's headphones that has good reviews under his belt.

I purchased them online from Jaben.net singapour for 65$.it is quite worth its price and gives the edge over CX-300.took 10working days to arrive free shipping no customs and nothing extra to pay.Packing is damm Good as if they have packed jewellery inside.i wil try to post some of my headphone pics.


now iam waiting for iphone and also gearing up for trying this one on that.
ALL in All W810i is good and solid phone and player,mod it if u want.
but ipod is a steal comparing its 12 band EQ with 5band EQ on w810i is no justice.


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## x3060 (Dec 11, 2007)

well music is a personal preference . . it varies from person to person , i dont like bass much . . and am not in to comparison either . cause your mind set at that time matters the most . if i am doing a comparison now i will vote for SE , i like SE now , so am looking forward for its plus points , naturally my mind will be more comfy with it and will always say SE to me . for that reason alone i hate comparing .


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