In our forums we had some heated discussions about Hifiman’s prior ‘flagship’ portable audio player, the HM-801. For around $800 you got a gigantic brick with less than 8 hours battery life, based on a Chinese Rockchip SOC and an ancient PCM1704 DAC that was implemented with improper filtering, resulting in rolled off treble response. Besides inverting the signal phase it had very high output impedance and couldn’t drive multi-armature IEMs properly.

Now that the HM-801 is discontinued, Hifiman announced its successor, the HM-901. This new one sports a new user interface and revamped controls, which can be tried here, in an online Flash demo: http://www.hifiman.com/uidemo/

The HM-801 was a case study of how not to design an interface, time will tell if the new one is easier to operate. In my opinion, Hifiman should just have done the smart thing and put Rockbox on their players – a port for the HM-801 is already available, so I’m a bit bewildered why they didn’t take advantage of that and still cooked their own UI/firmware from scratch. With Rockbox the player would even play gapless audio, among other things – ‘as the artist intended’.

Some questions remaining are:

• Will the HM-901 cost less than a kilobuck? [UPDATE: price appears to be closer to $1250, according to some rumors.]
• Will its battery life be measured in minutes, or hours?
• Will it have low enough output impedance to drive multi-armature IEMs properly?
• Will it sound ‘better’ than the next average quality player, or will it have rolled off treble, like the HM-801? Or rather, will anybody make out any audible difference at all, considering almost all digital sources available are transparent and linear to human ears?

[Thanks to 3602 for the tip]

Remember Samsung’s Pebble MP3 player? In what is a surprising move to say the least, Samsung brought back the design and the name yesterday during its Galaxy S III smartphone announcement. The new S Pebble is classified as an accessory to the S III, and is essentially a 4GB screenless MP3 player that has the ability to sync directly with the S III as well as a computer. The controls are a mix between switches to control power and shuffle, and touch buttons on the front of the player (yeah, touch buttons…ugh). The tiny player is said to do 17 hours on a single charge, and sync via the 3.5mm port.

You may be asking why on Earth anyone would want such a device, or perhaps you’re already angry because Samsung has essentially taken a feature that exists on devices with USB host (assuming the MSC-enabled player you plug into it doesn’t try to charge off it) and made it a proprietary accessory. The idea of this device is that people who do activities where a 4.8-inch smartphone is unsuited – like running – can leave their phone at home and bring the S Pebble instead. There aren’t any features like pedometers or other sports related sensors in the thing though, it’s just an music player. With Samsung releasing a new Music Hub service with cloud syncing and iTunes Match-like  functionality, it makes some sort of sense that they’re enabling the player to be synced directly from a phone that has all of this, instead of assuming that all music comes from a computer.

As long as they keep the price low I don’t see any problem with leaving this device unhated for now, but I fear that this is going to be another overpriced official accessory like all accessories Samsung and other first parties have ever released. If that’s the case, I have a feeling that I’m going to be struck with a sudden and uncontrollable need to bring my Galaxy  S II, USB host cable, and Sansa Clip+ around with me and politely inform people that Samsung didn’t just invent the wheel.

[Engadget]

This time it sure took Cowon a lot longer than usually to release a device outside of Korea, but it seems they’re almost there. According to Engadget, an “early May” release date should be possible. Apparently, the 16GB version of the Z2 will only come in white and will go for around $280, the 32GB version will only come in black and go for a slightly painful $320.

Those prices are quite a bit higher than, say, same-sized iPod Touch variants, and a lot more expensive than Samsung’s various Galaxy Players. But if you want BBE sound enhancements, many more tactile buttons than average Android devices offer, and a shnazzy S-AMOLED screen (hopefully a non-Pentile one), then you really don’t have a lot of alternatives. At least the Z2 should be snappy enough to be usable as an all-around Android device, contrary to its severely slow and laggy ancestor, the D3.

[via Engadget - thanks to Nathan for the tip]

Highlights of this version are USB support for the Sansa Clip+, Clip v2, and Fuze v2, as well as ‘stable’ status for the Sansa c200 v2 and MPIO HD300.

Many interface- and theme-related features made it into this release as well. Customization of the main menu list items, editable shortcuts in the main menu, 32 bit alpha transparency for icons and theme/WPS images. On the audio side of things, downmixing multichannel FLAC files to stereo is now supported.

Read the full changelog here: Rockbox 3.11 release notes – or download it right away: Rockbox 3.11 download

Update: Rockbox 3.11.2 maintenance release is out – this fixes some bugs with Sansa radio tuner chips and a boot freeze issue with the M:Robe 100.

Hollywood-based V-Moda are known for usually taking a bit of a style-over-substance approach to headphone design, but with the M80 they obviously got the sound aspect right as well – next to the flashy design with changeable ear pad covers and removable cables.

While one of their first products, the V-Moda Vibe (which I reviewed ages ago – back when I was young, stupid, and slightly less caustic in my posts) sounded nice for the median quality available back in the days, they certainly had bad build quality and durability issues. With the M80 however it seems that V-Moda tackled that problem as well, delivering a well built and flexible phone with quality materials.

Sounds interesting? Check out Jörgemeister’s full V-Moda M80 review in the forums.

While the E40 posted below isn’t anything overly exciting, iriver shows with the B100 that they still have some tricks up their sleeve.

Noticeable is the rather unusual 3:2 aspect ratio of the 480 x 320 pixel 3.1 inch capacitive TFT touch screen – it’s smack in the middle between the usual 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, and it reminds of the higher end Palm PDAs of yore. That screen makes perfect sense on the B100, since it’s one of the very few (non-Android) portable media players that supports useful ebook formats – ePub and PDF, not just the usual plain text files.

While the B100 doesn’t play HD movies or sports an HDMI output, it still supports a lot of useful video formats in standard definition – MKV, MP4, and even MPEG Transport Streams are a few of those, next to the usual variety of AVI, WMV, and the like.

On the audio side of things we find iriver’s usual SRS sound enhancements (when will they switch to the far superior BBE bundle… nudge, nudge, wink, wink), an EQ with lots of presets, and FLAC, APE, and Ogg Vorbis playback, next to the MP3 and WMA standards. MP4/M4A/AAC support appears to be missing on the B100, though. It is unclear if the B100 sports gapless playback.

Other features are the usual FM radio, voice and radio recorder, image viewer, and a cheesy user interface that seems to come straight from the Cowon design department, sporting slogans like “romantic”, “lonely”, “relax”, and the like. One thing I’m missing on the B100 are tactile buttons. There’s only two of them, to change volume (and a “home” button on the front, which hopefully can act as a play/pause button). I wish the B100 at least had as many buttons as the Cowon S9 or J3 – that would make it a lot more practical to use on the go.

The B100 comes in puny sizes of 4 and 8 GB – but expandable via MicroSDHC cards up to 32 GB. Synthetic battery benchmarks claim a life of 36 hours for audio and 8.5 hours for video – not bad, if that turns out to be close to real life usage.

So far the B100 isn’t officially released in Europe or America, but I’ve seen it pop up in shady and not-so-shady import outlets and flea markets going for $120 to $240.

[iriver Global - thanks to TDS101!!!!!!!! for the tip]

Remember those guys that in 2003 brought us the innovative H100 series player with optical S/PDIF output, and two years later the sturdy H300 “Soviet iPod” (as CNET called it) with changeable cover designs?

Yeah, they didn’t make many waves lately. They quietly released a lot of players, but they mostly went under the radar. The new E40 shows that they still stubbornly hold on to touch interfaces without tactile feedback, and the 220 x 176 pixel screen is right at home in a top quality player from 2005. Same goes for the supported video formats, which are MPEG1 and the proprietary/elusive/dead SMV container.

On the positive side, battery life on the E40 appears to be very good – 51 hours for audio playback is claimed. It also uses a standard MiniUSB port – not quite the MicroUSB port one would expect nowadays, but everything is better than some proprietary plug. Transfer protocol of choice is MSC, which is great as well. Next to iriver’s usual SRS sound tweaks, the E40 sports an equalizer with lots of presets, FM radio, recording (radio and voice), and an image viewer which is about as useful as a video player on the tiny low-res screen.

That being said, the price is right for what you get – the 4GB version goes for about $50 and the 8GB one for $70. No, it doesn’t have an SD slot.

[iriver Global - thanks to Splashback for the tip]

Other than that, there really aren’t any big differences to spot between the various models. They all have the same 800 x 480 resolution (in an IPS variety on the 4.2, contrary to Samsung’s usual AMOLED screens), same 1 GHz processor speed, same Android 2.3 operating system, same codec support, same connectivity options, and so on. The new 4.2 still seems to lack HDMI output – an issue users have criticized as one of the biggest shortcomings of the 4.0 and 5.0, and a major drawback of an otherwise nicely specced PMP.

The 4.2 comes with 8 or 16 GB of internal memory, and of course a MicroSD slot to add some more. Its battery holds 1500 mAh, so let the speculations about its run time begin. No release date or street price have been announced yet.

Oh yeah, before I forget it – the 4.2 comes preloaded with some random game. This seems to be a big enough deal to mention it in the specs sheet of the press release.

[Samsung press release via Engadget]

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)