iAudiophile forum member Gungr spent some hours figuring out how to open up the Z2, so you don’t have to. So far it’s a bit of a lengthy procedure, involving setting up the Java and Android SDKs, editing info files, and some more in-depth wizardry. I’m sure a neatly packed, easy to install, rooted ROM update will follow shortly.

I don’t think I have to count the advantages of having root access on an Android device: official Android market access, ad blocking, backing up or deleting superfluous system apps, over/underclocking the CPU, and so on.

So, if you’re the lucky owner of an imported Z2, run, don’t walk over to iAudiophile and check out the instructions on how to make the most of your Z2.

[iAudiophile Cowon Z2 root access hack by Gungr]

While we may be a little partial here at ABI to some great sounding headphones paired with a clean sounding DAP on the go, there are surely those times when you just want to share your tunes with everyone around you. Those of us that don’t venture into the iOS world have a little harder time pairing up to a speaker dock, but there are still some choices out there. This is when the Sony SA-NS500 portable speaker comes into play. A portable speaker rated up to 8 hours of operation without being plugged in, 4 tweeters spreading 360 degree sound, and an upward firing woofer packaged in a….dare we say eye catching design, is sure to land on our radar. To top it off, the NS500 is DLNA compatible, Airplay compatible, and is set up for Sony’s Party Streaming feature to spread music around your house in different rooms wirelessly. How does this intriguing package stack up to the dime a dozen companion speakers out there? You’re going to have to read on to find out.

Design & Build Quality

I’ve always been a big fan of Sony products over the years. They make some excellent gear from a hardware standpoint, and the NS500 is certainly no different. The lamp shade style design is as much form as it is function. Instead of just bringing an aesthetically pleasing design to market, Sony has really thought about how people listen to their music in these portable and party situations. After all, that’s what this thing’s for.

As I said earlier, the design lets Sony place 4 30mm two way speakers facing every which direction. North, south, east, and west, Sony has you covered here. The benefits to this are obvious, giving listeners a consistent sound regardless of where they are around the speaker. You don’t have to worry about the sound fading in and out when you walk past the NS500. The top firing 110mm woofer has the bass shooting through the top of the speaker, which also acts as a carrying handle. It’s a pretty slick design with an excellent eye toward utility.

The build quality is really second to none. While the Zeppelin Air might be the premium speaker on the market, the NS500 is right up there with it. There’s a decent amount of heft to the unit, weighing in at around 8.5 lbs, which gives it a really nice premium feel. I’m not against light products, but there’s a reason behind some quality heft at times.  Overall, this is definitely a minimalists dream. Barring the unique design, there aren’t any crazy logos or artwork on the NS500. Sticking to typical Sony style, you have the Sony logo on the top of the speaker with a couple of glowing lights telling you whether the unit is powered on or off, Party mode, Airplay mode, Aux mode, etc. Like I said, pretty nondescript.

Features

As far as the audio inputs, the NS500 has an auxiliary jack on the rear. The rest of the audio is sent through wireless networking through DLNA, Airplay, or Sony’s Party Streaming mode. Basically, the latter 3 all work the same way using your wireless network. Whether this is good or bad depends on your location. At home, it’s a nice solution to get music throughout your apartment or house. Using Sony’s Party Streaming mode, you can connect up to 8 speakers to the same stream to wirelessly send and sync music throughout your home. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Just think Sonos, but not as efficient or easy to use. Not being on your home network though means you’ll need to carry that 3.55mm aux cable to plug into your DAP for playback, as you lose the wireless capabilities without wi-fi.

Unfortunately, this is where the NS500 really falls apart. You can check Amazon or even Sony’s website to see user sentiments, but they all say the same thing…it’s basically useless. It won’t connect to wi-fi. When it finally gets connected to the network, the signal drops out. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Unfortunately, I had the same issues as everyone else. Full disclosure, I purchased this for my personal use. Following Sony’s user manual of running the setup disc, plugging the speaker in through the LAN connection to my router, and running the setup utility, I was unable to connect  the NS500 to my home network. Once in every 15 reruns of trying to connect the speaker, the Sony utility would finally recognize there was a speaker turned on and connected to the router. Every time this happened (which wasn’t often, as most times I never had the speaker “connected”), I’d type in my password only to have the utility lose connection to the network. I would then have to start over from the beginning and have it retry the process. This went on for a couple of hours before I finally gave up.

Yeah, I decided that Sony just hasn’t figured this wireless thing out yet.  Not long ago, I received the junior model, the NS300 for free after purchasing a product in store. Though I was able to actually get that connected to my network after just a handful of tries, the speaker kept dropping out of the network and having pairing issues. I dismissed this when I looked at the NS500, but perhaps I’ve just finally realized Sony is dropping the ball on this one. They just aren’t ready for things yet, and it seems these are beta products.

Sound Quality

While the network issues certainly hurt the NS500, the sound quality should satisfy most. Though I had to rely on a 3.55mm auxiliary cable and my laptop (Sony Vaio SE), Clip Zip, and HTC TITAN to pair with the speaker, I’m not sure how much better the wireless network could improve the sound quality. It’d be nice if Sony teamed up with KLEER to provide lossless audio between devices, like Arcam did with their rCube.

Due to the design, you won’t get a wide soundstage obviously, but the sound is certainly pleasing and can get plenty loud. As I said earlier, the 360 degree design is great for a party setting pushing air out to all corners of the room.

The lower frequencies are surprisingly robust for such a compact speaker. Initially the bass comes across as boomy and slightly muddy. However, after several hours of listening, it seemed to round out nicely. While this isn’t as tight and accurate when compared to the Zeppelin Air, the bass still brings a nice presence. The lower frequencies seem to roll off a little to my ears, which bring more focus to the mid bass hump companies seem to enjoy now-a-days.

The rest of the sound spectrum seems a little distant. Vocals seem to travel from backstage as oppose to the artist singing in front of you. Perhaps this is a downside to 4 omnidirectional speakers where one of them is angled towards your direction at most, but there never seems to be a real connection to the music. Other than this distant feeling, the audio comes through and fills the room. There’s still plenty of clarity. While listening to Jamey Johnson’s Mental Revenge, I could still get wrapped up in the guitar working throughout the song.

Conclusion

The Sony NS500 could be a very nice addition to any party. Unfortunately, this is basically a beta product Sony seems to have crippled from the get go. The sound should definitely please most, as the bass can get people dancing and bring some life to the party, and the omnidirectional sound will fill up the room without issues. This just won’t make up for what Sony aimed to bring customers for this speaker. Clearly, network communications are an issue for a lot of people, and there just isn’t an excuse for that this day and age. It’s not exactly like DLNA is a new technology that needs to be ironed out. It’s been around for years now, and hopefully Sony can figure out a way to harness it. If they can, they certainly have a compelling product on their hands to offer customers who don’t want to be entangled into one ecosystem. As it stands though, the NS500 is an overpriced yet enjoyable speaker that fails to do what sets it apart.

Sony SA-NS500 ($300-400)

There’s nothing new or exciting as far as the B170′s specs go – it’s the exact same as all the other B-series players before it. It plays MP3 and WMA, sports the usual bass booster and ‘Zap’ (intro scan) button, and is rated at about 18 hours of playback time. A three minute quick charge should give 90 minutes of playback time, and a full recharge only takes 70 minutes. A USB plug is hidden under the B170′s cap, so one doesn’t need to bring an extra cable for file transfers or charging. I assume MTP is the transfer protocol of choice here, as with all other Sony players, but usually they can be easily changed to MSC transfer mode, if one wishes to do so.

The B170 comes in 2 and 4 GB varieties – without expansion slot, of course. Its retail price hasn’t been announced yet, but I guess it won’t cost an arm and a leg.

[Sony press release via Engadget - thanks to Peaceful1 for the tip.]

Not long ago, I got my hands on some sport focused earbuds from the team over at Yurbuds. Designed for athletes, by athletes. The idea behind the Yurbuds team is to give users headphones that won’t fall out under the most grueling conditions. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed in the performance of the headphones, not being able to get a comfortable and stable fit. The sound quality wasn’t up to par either, but clearly the idea behind the brand is focused on the fit and comfort. I was hoping round two would bring some much needed improvements to the lineup, as I truly liked the focus from the Yurbuds team to provide active individuals with another choice in the under developed world of quality active headphones.

Well, recently Yurbuds contacted me to review their newest addition to the lineup, the Endure Pros. The new design adds an over the ear stabilization loop as well as a 3 button mic and remote to control your media. They sound like welcome improvements, but can they topple the Sennheiser MX 85′s from the active headphone throne? Let’s read on to find out…

Design

The new Endure Pros ($60) keep the same format as the originals with the 4 ft. evenly split and rubbery Y cable leading up to the exclusive Yurbuds earbud funnel system. In fact, these add-ons are what brought Yurbuds to the market to begin with. The splitter houses the 3 button microphone that can be used with most smartphones and iDevices. Unfortunately, the volume buttons didn’t work with my HTC Titan (the middle button responsible for advancing tracks did), nor did any of the controls work with my Sansa Clip Zip. You can pick up the standard Endure’s and save $30 if you forego the 3 button mic control.

The earbuds are your standard iPod looking buds in a glossy black with a slick looking red triathlete logo on each bud, with an L or R to denote which ear they go in. The attached ear loops are made out of a flexible silicone with breathable cutouts to keep air flow I assume. The ear loops are intended to gain more stability in use, which I assume was a frequent issue with the originals as my wife and myself both experienced comfort and fit issues. They are not able to be shaped or formed to your ear though, and are a one size fits all situation which I will touch on later.

One major improvement that really shows Yurbuds have their ears open is the headphone jack. Taking my cue, Yurbuds switched their jack from a straight plug to an angled connector which really has improved the ruggedness of the earbuds. No longer is there a weak cable coming from your MP3 player, but rather a hardcore angled plug that should last most peoples lifetimes.

As with the original, the Yurbuds team has put out a nice quality product from a materials standpoint. The rubbery cable is very thick and durable, and combined with the headphone plug, shouldn’t give anyone issues from a reliability standpoint. you won’t find many headphones at this price point that are made this well, and it’s worth pointing out in this world of cheap knockoffs.

Sound

To my ears, the sound remains the same from the original Yurbuds. This isn’t a compliment as they don’t differentiate themselves from bundled headphones from MP3 players. It’s a shame considering the build quality is excellent. Lower frequencies don’t even get register, which is a combination of the poor drivers, and the un-sealed design of the earbuds (which allow external sound to be heard for passing cars, etc).

The mids and highs are a muddied mess. Vocals come across as distant and tinny without a sign of depth. Nothing is really detailed, and essentially just provide “sound” as oppose to music. Again, just expect stock earbud sound quality.

Daily Use

The sound quality of the Endure Pros will surely frustrate most of us, but the focus on the wear-ability, especially in athletic situations is what should give these the edge over competitors. The new over ear loop design should give some much needed stability over the originals right? But do they?

Not during my use. Heck, my wife tried to wear these on a long run day, and looped back around the house after the first couple miles to switch headphones they were that bad.

The pre-cut, unmoldable silicone ear loops designed to improve stability actually just become annoying accessories for the Endure Pros. The loops don’t fit snuggly around my ear, and instead leave plenty of real estate between the top of my ear and the loop. The ear loops also dangle and dance around the backs of my ears. This isn’t added stability. Instead, it made me want to rip these off my head the second I put them on.

Instead of using conformable loops that can be shaped to an individuals ear, Yurbuds should have mimicked my Sony MDR-EX600 (among others) earbuds that have a form-fitting silicone design that can be shaped to my ears and everyone elses for a somewhat customizable fit. It’s a simple feature that brings much needed stability to any headphone, let alone some athletic ones while keeping the weight down. Perhaps that can be adjusted for round 3?

While the ear loops drove me crazy, the 3 button mic was even worse. It’s a nice feature to have for some normal headphones, but when you’re running and training, a heavy object bouncing off your chest every time you move isn’t a comfortable experience. I tried to run the cable on the inside of my shirt (which essentially takes away the benefit of the control) and was left with a similar result that was merely minimized. An even worse experience was doing any plyometric move that involved quick movements back and forth and a lot of jumping. During these training sessions, I found the Endure Pros better left on the ground with my water bottle and gym bag, which is something I never had to do with the Sennheiser MX 85′s. Getting the standard Endures without the 3 button mic (and saving $30) clears up this issue.

Conclusion

These Endure Pros don’t improve upon the original in any real way. I appreciate the change to the angled headphone plug, as that move will definitely ensure some long lasting quality. But, that’s the only improvement I see. Unfortunately, the poor sound quality hasn’t improved whatsoever. The additional “Pro” version of the Endures (3 button mic) creates more problems than benefits. The ear loops don’t conform to anyone’s ears, so unless you have huge ears, you’re probably out of luck with them not bouncing around behind your lobes.

This is the second go round from the Yurbuds team and they managed to make their product more frustrating than the originals. I really would like to see them revamp their lineup with better sounding headphones, have form-fitting silicone ear loops, and ditch the fad of the 3 button mic (which is optional, but it’s counter-intuitive for athletic use, which these are aimed at), and continue to improve their fit and comfort for users. The quality of materials they use is a fantastic starting point, which is usually the most over-looked feature for active and competitively priced headphones. So here’s to round 3, which should be just the beginning for a CEO who’s a tri-athete.

The Z2 is basically the exact same product as the D3 with a few hardware flaws ironed out. The Z2′s 1GHz Telechips Cortex-A8 processor isn’t quite as outdated as the D3′s 750Mhz ARM11 (although it’s still far from what’s usually built into Android devices nowadays), and it has 512MB Ram, which is quite a bit more useful than the D3′s paltry 170MB (usually 60MB free). Gone is also Cowon’s proprietary 32-pin port – the Z2 sports standard MicroUSB and MicroHDMI ports. While this is generally a great update, it might however mean the Z2 doesn’t do S/PDIF-out anymore, as found on the D3′s proprietary port.

The Z2′s screen is a 3.7″ 800 x 480 AMOLED one, just like the D3′s – let’s hope Cowon used one with a real RGB subpixel matrix this time, not an inferior Pentile one. I also hope they got hardware-accelerated video contrast ratio right this time – I’m still hoping for a fix for this glaring bug in the D3… Still available on the Z2 is one of the D3′s best features over almost all other Android devices out there – plenty of tactile buttons, making usability on the go quite a lot easier than touchscreen-only controls. Battery life on the Z2 still isn’t great – 22 hours for music, 8-9 hours for video. Let’s hope those synthetic benchmark numbers are somewhat close to real-life performance.

The Z2 still runs on Android 2.3, and the user interface looks quite similar to the D3. The big clock on the main screen says “Happytime” – must be some Korean thing. If one doesn’t like all that, it’s easily changed with custom launchers, 3rd party audio- or video apps. Other than that, it seems the Z2 just got a few more EQ and sound enhancement presets over its ancestors – mostly of the gimmicky bathroom reverb variety. There’s also a feature called “Lossless Mixer” – which we probably will find out more about soon enough.

It goes without saying that the Z2 plays every audio and video codec under the sun, and memory of course is expandable via MicroSDHC cards. Wi-Fi – check, Bluetooth – check, speaker, mic, FM radio – check. Still no camera or GPS, though.

In my opinion the Z2 certainly looks less fetching, more generic  than the D3. Cowon’s marketing drones call it “Floating Design” – by which they mean the edge of the back plate resembles a bevel or bezel. I can’t imagine that being overly nice to hold, compared to a more regular curved back plate.

Same as the J3 was an evolutionary upgrade on the older S9, the Z2 doesn’t seem ‘revolutionary’ compared to the D3. This is often a good approach – Cowon has a track record of trying to reinvent the wheel with each new player, and often failing at it. Let’s hope this time they learned from their mistakes with the D3 and deliver another killer device like the J3.

A release date for the Western world isn’t known yet, but the Z2 goes from 259000 KRW (~230 USD) for the 8GB version to 339000 KRW (~300 USD) for the 32GB version in Korea.

[Cowon Korea via iAudiophile]

A lot of tech is packed into the fancy brushed metal housing with the familiar two-color OLED display. Inputs and outputs certainly are on the more versatile side of things: two parallel 3.5mm headphone outputs, an S/PDIF input (presumably both optical and coaxial), a line input, FiiO’s proprietary 18-pin port (working with their L7 dock and E9 desktop amp), and of course a standard USB input. The E17 supports 24/96 over USB and 24/192 over S/PDIF, so audiophile dogs and bats won’t complain about lacking treble.

Several sound adjustments can be done in the E17′s firmware: bass, treble, gain level, and – sometimes miracles do happen – pan/balance. It seems FiiO did read our E7 review, and the included rant about audio balance missing on almost all portable devices nowadays. I, for one, am very grateful that they added this basic – yet for some people very important – feature.

The E17 should go for about $150, which definitely is a fair price, considering all the included features and the nifty metal housing.

[FiiO.com.cn]

Some hardware and software specs sure are a bit of a letdown – no MKV or subtitle support for video, no FLAC/Vorbis for audio, only 20 hours audio and 5 hours video battery life, no SD slot, no camera, no GPS, almost no tactile buttons, and so on.

On the other hand, the 1 GHz dual-core Tegra 2 in the X series should be beefy enough for demanding apps, and the included official Android Market makes sure you get said apps as easily as possible onto the device. All is fine on the connectivity front as well, from Wi-Fi B/G/N over Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (A2DP, AVRCP, OPP) to HDMI-out. The Z series sports Sony’s usual S-Master amp and tons of sound enhancements and EQ presets. Let’s hope those are global settings, like on the Cowon D3, so any 3rd party app can access them as well.

Considering Sony’s competition in the Android non-phone market, ranging from various inexpensive Archos devices to Samsung Galaxy Players, the price of the Z sure isn’t the biggest bargain, with the 8 GB model going for $250, the 16 GB one for $280, and the 32 GB bigwig for $330. Remember: no SD slot available.

On a side note, I wonder how that “Eurphoric” typo managed to sneak into Sony’s official press image on the right… I would recommend MP3Tag for future press shots.

[Sony press release (with full specs sheet) via Engadget]

There have been more than a handful of so-called “high end” audio players released by Chinese manufacturers, and they all have a few things in common: horrible user interface and usability, pathetic internal storage size, no support for audio features like gapless playback, Replaygain, playlists, and so on. Not to mention, the claim that those devices sound any “better” than the next quality brand player has yet to be proven.

Leaving the subjective sound quality debate out of the picture, iBasso, well known manufacturer of portable headphone amps, seems to show other “audiophile” brands how it could be done better when it comes to designing a portable player. While still sporting an immense brick form factor like its Hifiman, Colorfly, and HiSound peers, iBasso realized that user interfaces cobbled together by some hacker kids in their spare time are worthless – so they did the smart thing and put Android on their DX100. This should hopefully enable the usage of Rockbox, Poweramp, Player Pro, or other quality software for audio playback. It is not known at the moment if the DX100 will sport Wi-Fi or other connectivity.

Internal storage apparently goes up to a whopping 64GB, and a MicroSD slot is available as well. Here’s where the question about the price of the DX100 should come up. Good question, I know as much as you do – just that it probably will be a bit more than what a Sansa Clip goes for.

As for the “audiophile” features of the DX100, I let iBasso’s announcement speak for itself:

The DX100 is our reference Digital Audio Player (DAP). It can play most of the 24Bit/192kHz Lossless music. The whole design is based on the ES9018, which ESS claim as “The World’s Best DAC Chip”. We are finalizing the DX100 now. We can release it within 20~45 days.
The following are some main features. We will release more information later this month.
• Support up to 24/192 Decoding
• ES9018 DAC Chip
• Built-in +/-8.5V Headphone AMP
• Up to 24/192 Optical/Coaxial Output
• Line Out Function
• 256-Steps Digital Volume Control
• 64G Onboard Flash
• Support up to 32G External MicroSD
• 3-Setting Gain Switch
• SRC Function
• Slow Roll-off/ Sharp Roll-off Digital Filter

On a side note: this quite overkill-ish 8-channel ESS Sabre ES9018 DAC of course isn’t intended for portable use, but for stationary devices. Let’s hope the battery life of the DX100 is measured in hours, not minutes.

[iBasso.com via Head-Fi | Erji]

Besides gaining root/superuser access to the device and various interface tweaks, this ROM includes the Voodoo sound patch, effectively fixing Samsung’s botched audio output. Voodoo fixes the amplification gain for less background hiss and louder output, and – similar to Cowon players – adds a hardware parametric EQ and a hardware 3D spatialization effect for the Wolfson audio CODEC as well.

Kernel changelog

• Based on Original XXKPQ Kernel
• Added Voodoo sound patches
• Can work with XXKPN and XXKPQ stock Samsung ROM.
• To use Voodoo sound you need to install Voodoo Control or Voodoo Control Plus

ROM changelog

• Contains the latest STeVE’s Kernel 1.0: you don’t need to flash separately
• Based on original XXKPQ Samsung stock ROM
• Contains root and superuser permissions
• Tweaked theme: Honeycomb status bar icons, transparent notification pane, ICS windows effects
• CRT screen off animation
• If you start from a XXKPN or XXKPQ you can skip wipe to keep your existing applications and settings

Check Steve’s forum thread for discussion and download links.

Everybody’s favorite audio player replacement firmware, Rockbox, turned ten years old. On December 7th 2001 the first mail in the Rockbox mailing list was posted. Initially only supporting the Archos Jukebox behemoth, it went uphill from there on. Today Rockbox supports approximately 75 different targets, as well as running as an application on Android, Maemo, and perhaps iOS in the near future.

Well timed with this significant anniversary, a new stable version, 3.10, has been released. While this release doesn’t support any new targets, there are several feature additions, improvements, and bug fixes. Read the 3.10 release notes for more details and installation instructions.

Congratulations, Rockbox team – here’s to (at least) ten more years!

[Via Daniel "Bagder" Stenberg's Blog]