Clip Zip verses Sony E474 8GB

[Tacoboy]

Currently using Sandisk Clip Zip.
But can get a new Sony E474 8GB (BK) for $74, as I like the bigger screen.
Any other advantages for getting the Sony, over my current Clip Zip?

I was off on the model number, it's E464 (BK), at Toys R Us.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Tacoboy

Currently using Sandisk Clip Zip.
But can get a new Sony E474 8GB (BK) for $74, as I like the bigger screen.
Any other advantages for getting the Sony, over my current Clip Zip?

Battery life is the biggest one. And if you did want to use an amp, the Sony offers a line-out through the WM-Port...a line-out cable can be purchased from FiiO for maybe $10 or so. And the Clear Bass in the custom equalizer menu sounds nice.

I'm not sure I would replace the Zip with the Sony, but it would be cool to have both.

[The DarkSide]

You forgot one other thing. If 8gb is enough the Sony is a pretty solid "extra" player. The Sony has no sd card slot, the clipzip does. Not everyone is complacent with 8gb,...I'm sure not.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

You forgot one other thing. If 8gb is enough the Sony is a pretty solid "extra" player. The Sony has no sd card slot, the clipzip does. Not everyone is complacent with 8gb,...I'm sure not.

That's why I said I wouldn't replace the Zip with it, but it would be cool to have both. I just wasn't clear enough.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

You forgot one other thing. If 8gb is enough the Sony is a pretty solid "extra" player. The Sony has no sd card slot, the clipzip does. Not everyone is complacent with 8gb,...I'm sure not.

For this reason and rockbox I prefer the Clip but Marvin does have a good point, both is better

[Tacoboy]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

You forgot one other thing. If 8gb is enough the Sony is a pretty solid "extra" player. The Sony has no sd card slot, the clipzip does. Not everyone is complacent with 8gb,...I'm sure not.

I doubt I could fill up a 4GB unit, so 8GB should plenty.
( My Clip Zip is 4GB + 8GB micro, and only using less then 5% of storage).

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Tacoboy

I doubt I could fill up a 4GB unit, so 8GB should plenty.
( Clip Zip is 4GB + 8GB micro).

A few years back I couldn't imagine ever filling the 4GB Fuze + 8GB micro that I had (my first ever DAP). Now, I have well over 100GB of lossy tunes.....

[skip252]

Out the box I'd prefer a Sony. If you consider Rockbox my preference becomes the Clip Zip.

Sonys tend to be better in hardware quality than sandisk players. The firmware is also usually more stable and feature complete. Both of those are reflected in the better battery life, sound enhancements and overall stability.

The newer Sony players also have 5 bookmark lists that can be used as on the go playlists. If you're using Windows making playlists using your PC is a simple as it gets.

The only time I would see an amp as needed with Sony players would be if you wanted to use multi-armature with cross over headphones. Sonys tend to have relatively high output impedance that make that type headphone tend to hiss. Using an amp can help in that case.

With full size cans like the Sony V6 you've mentioned you have I don't believe you would need an amp. I don't have that particular model but I have other Sonys and don't find a need to make them any louder.

I notice the "(bk)" as part of the model designation you give. When I google the full model number the results come back from the EU. Is the one you have in mind from the EU? If it is it will be volume capped. Some find the volume to be too low, others have no problems with it.

[Tacoboy]

Originally Posted by skip252

Out the box I'd prefer a Sony. If you consider Rockbox my preference becomes the Clip Zip.

Sonys tend to be better in hardware quality than sandisk players. The firmware is also usually more stable and feature complete. Both of those are reflected in the better battery life, sound enhancements and overall stability.

The newer Sony players also have 5 bookmark lists that can be used as on the go playlists. If you're using Windows making playlists using your PC is a simple as it gets.

The only time I would see an amp as needed with Sony players would be if you wanted to use multi-armature with cross over headphones. Sonys tend to have relatively high output impedance that make that type headphone tend to hiss. Using an amp can help in that case.

With full size cans like the Sony V6 you've mentioned you have I don't believe you would need an amp. I don't have that particular model but I have other Sonys and don't find a need to make them any louder.

I notice the "(bk)" as part of the model designation you give. When I google the full model number the results come back from the EU. Is the one you have in mind from the EU? If it is it will be volume capped. Some find the volume to be too low, others have no problems with it.

I was slightly off on my model number, I was looking at the Sony E464 (BK), Toys R Us is selling it for $74+ tax

[skip252]

Models sold in the US aren't volume capped. Any Sony you get here should handle the Sony V6 just fine.

The two minor irritations I have with Sony players is that they don't make use of Replaygain tags or have gapless playback. I use foobar2000 to apply Replaygain values to a copy of my mp3 files before I transfer them to the player. That permanently alters the files themselves so any player will play them without the volume jumping around.

MP3Gain does essentially the same thing but writes tags that will losslessly reverse the process. MP3Gain works nicely but is much slower. Since any file I send to a player is on a one way trip I prefer doing it quickly with fb2k.

There's not much that can be done about the lack of gapless playback. The files usually play very close to gapless but there can be gaps that are just long enough to make me notice and think playback has stopped. Just when I reach for the player to check, the next file start to play. That doesn't happen much so I live with it.

The only alternative would be to use PCM (.wav) files. Those play without gaps but the size of the files and limited tagging options make using those out of the question for me.

[Enigmatic]

Originally Posted by skip252

The two minor irritations I have with Sony players is that they don't make use of Replaygain tags or have gapless playback.

Sony MP3 players, while not supporting ReplayGain, do have a feature they call Dynamic Normalizer. It does, however, shorten the battery life.

[JK98]

Have you considered getting a 16GB Sony? Imo it is much too easy to outgrow an 8GB player. While some can outgrow a 16GB player, carrying my favorite 14 or so GB of music wouldn't be so bad.

[Just Some Guy]

Agreed. I still have and use my S545. 16 GB (14 or so after formatting and system files) is good enough for using at work, at home or in the car.

I do wish they had more sizes for those models, though. A 64 GB E or S series would be a purchase for me, no question asked.

[Tacoboy]

I just bought a used Sony E465 16GB off eBay for $53
Should arrive with in a week
I'll compare it to my Clip Zip and post what I think about it.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Tacoboy

I just bought a used Sony E465 16GB off eBay for $53
Should arrive with in a week
I'll compare it to my Clip Zip and post what I think about it.

Hope it's in nice condition....good luck!

[skip252]

I had the E464 for a while. Nice DAP but the capacity just wasn't enough for me to justify keeping it when I had 2 other 16 GB Sonys. I hope yours is in great shape and works as well as mine did.

BTW, those are some nice headphones you've added to your sig. I've heard the ATH-A900 but not the ATH-A900X. Do you know offhand if there's much difference between the two?

[Tacoboy]

Originally Posted by skip252

I had the E464 for a while. Nice DAP but the capacity just wasn't enough for me to justify keeping it when I had 2 other 16 GB Sonys. I hope yours is in great shape and works as well as mine did.

BTW, those are some nice headphones you've added to your sig. I've heard the ATH-A900 but not the ATH-A900X. Do you know offhand if there's much difference between the two?

I own about 8 more headphones, I just listed the important ones.
Never listened to the ATH-A900s, but sometimes when others have compared them, the A900s will win in a few categories over the A900X, but I think it was well broken in A900s verses brand new A900Xs, so if the A900Xs were well broken in, they might be better in comparisons. But the A900Xs do sound nice, to me I can find anything wrong with the sound. it just "right" for my listening (not sure why the lettering changed?). The only two negatives is the support wings use weak springs and they can't get very loud plugged in my Yamaha A/V receiver.