THis
is is the html version of the file found on the blog version ;tHis is
just a short refurbishing in oreder to be read more easily
You know that I am a music fan having a very big interest to Asian
music, and more particularly to Malaysian and Indonesian kinds. If you
don't know you can ? See my reports on the start of my revierws part
http://zlgr.multiply.com/reviews/item/2 (malay persoal hits )
http://zlgr.multiply.com/reviews/item/4 (dangdut personal hits )
http://zlgr.multiply.com/reviews/item/36 , 37 , 38, 39, 40
My small Degen 808A with a memory just 512 MB which today seems to be quite short , has a maximum number of ca 250 songs
compressed in WMA on 48kbps.
This mode this the highest in order to ensure good quality audio at the
shortest possible ? le size. Considering that my personal music col-
lection from casetes and albums goes more than 5000 songs , all of
them converted from casetes and LPs manually into MP3s as well form Sw
direct to computer, it is sure that this collection is still too big
to ? t into this player.
And I finally I managed to ?find a good solution for
this.Looking at the local market I found the Sansa E130. The SANSA
E130 the smallest mdel of the 100 series with 512 MB bought from
Multirama (major hardware seller chain ) at a price of Eu70 (for
2006)which was possibly the right price for me. Surely this short
memory does not impress you , but Sansa as equipment manu- facturer
can offer better products than its rivals with the same price: the
model is expandable to 2.5 GB using an external SD memory. I alerady
had a 2 GB momery that i used for my Nikon 70 camera and is now
dedicated for the player The model seemed to me as a rival to Ipod,
and was my entry to the new tehnollogy of Ipod likes.
The model seems quite more sophisticated than my previous Degen 808A , 512 MB and my intermediate Crypto of 512 MB.
The Degen 808A has a LED screen and series of icons navigated
by a thumbbutton rightwsards adn leftwards and selected by pusihng
the button
The Crypto (this is the name of the intermediatery Greek
compamy who imports and sells them, not the OEMs whose name is not
evaialble anywhere!) works nearly the same as the degen model , with
a USB direct connexion , however has been given immedaitely to my
parents after very short for a special project and has not been
tested. It's main purpose is to play 24hrs a day in a remote place
The e13o instead shows a menu of operations from standard playback
of MP3s (and WMAs and other formats which will be noticed below )
 |
As
you may see the model is very simple. A LCD screen of ca 1 x 0.7 sq
inch where everything is shown four directivity/ touch-up buttons and a
small button on the middle. On the top side there is a headphone- plug
socket 1.9 mm and a USB connector. The connector is preserved with a
detach- able plastic that i have lost it a few houss after i bought
it... At the right of it there is a digital adjusted volume control .
At the left side is just key lock switch and at the right side the
socket for the memory and the on/off button.
After i bought it i returned to the of? ce, as it was morning. Trying
to open its very strong plastic packing the player dropped from the
table , but did not happed anything to it. Or just is what i supposed |
From below you will see several pictures of the model . (please notice
that the following pictures come from diferent photo sessions ths is
the reason the lighting differs )
Once switched on this picture is shown , showing the model and the standard memory:
and immediately after it shows this mes-age , in ca se a external memory card is inserted:
As i always use the external card this message is always shown
to the player, during its startup for about 5-10 sec- onds so
that it is quite ennoying to me,
But this time varies according to the changes made in the external
memory. AS far as i can understand , the player checks the ? les
and their ID3 tags and renews its data- base. The least timeis abot 5
seconds and in case of totally new collection can pass the minute!!I
mean surely for a new collec- tion of about 1000 songs as i do usually
!!
Playbak capabilities: The model pays : MP3 , WMA and
protected WMA . IN a later version of this article i will in- clude
more info on these capabilities Here is a picture of the main menu.
Chinese letters (possibly new writ- ing ) are corectly shown. I think that the same happens to my 808A
For anyone knowing the song shown below, one of my
most favourite chinese pop songs and has excellent excellent melody
! (zaihui shou )I knw this song since 89 from Singapore having re-
corded it from the local FM station City Sounds.
Also once again pressing the middle button some information is
shown in the display. The display is here illuminated. as you can
seee the mode is quite high for Windows Media ,and info is for the
same song as reffered above
Also greek letters are correctly shown
Radio:
There are two modes for FM region European and International . I did
not found any signi? - cant diference between both except that the
memories have been deleted!!! another intresting point is the
on/off frm FM stereo.
Power mode is universal determining the sleep time (when the apparat
will be shut off ) and the autio shut off , ie after how much time
the player will shut off ,in case of non usage
The radio is very simple display . A pointer shows the freq on a bar
And here is the listing of the stations you store: Pressing the up
down , you move into presets , with the right or the middle you set
the station. Up to 20 stations can be stored
Audio effects: SRS wow
SRS is noticed as an audio enhance- ment , due to losses from the
conversion into MP3 or WMA . I never use it as audio is severely
`destroyed . Insetad of this i could really use the 10 band equalizer
IInformation:
The information of the model and its ver- sion ! Now there is a new
version but i have not installed it so far. But there was no
information on what are the updates ... ..
Stopwatch
And there is a stopwatch , I really do not unser- stand in what it
can be used except that is just a chronometer with 100s of seconf of
accuracy
Earphones
The earphones are insulated type and go into the ear . they offer
some less nose then the standard ear buds, If you push them more in-
side the ear they become more bassy . They offer good audio but still
prefer the
929 from Degen. These are the earphones
from 1103 and offer better bass and higher trebles
Favorites
The player has ca 30 favorites .For the stand- ard mode of 500 MB or
140 songs on 128/44 (a total of 505 secs), 30 MP3 as favorites are
OK . However as far as I use it with 48kb WMA and with external
memory of 2 GB , or a total of ca 1200 songs , the unchanged number
of 30 favourites is very short v
Two observations i did not like:
Power usage: the company says : 17 hours using MP3 on 128 kb. However using it always
on WMA and with external memory of 2 GB an alkaline battery drains in about 6 hours!!
For this reason i have bought a mains to USB adaptor , together with mains cable extension
Volume: still in its maximum the volume is just strong.I found abt 32 steps be-
tweeen minimum and maximum Using the 808A volume is nearly the same on 16-17.
Startup : the time requied to chack up the external memory in order to update the database.
Comments:
Now this model is my most favourite among all the MP3 s i have used so far even that the model
has sevrel very impoertant ? was as for example the very slow starttup and and the high batery drain |
PART 2
MEASUREMENTS
And here are several measurements made with it and a audio processing program:
First step : Making a noise ? le: It is a white noise of duration of 1 minute
A) This is the original WAV ? le in spectral view , mean levels just the linear view
The ? le has been converted into MP3 and WMA giving the curve as below
This is the 128 MP3 From the above picture it is clear that
the MP3 format in the 128kb compression goes maximum to 18kHZ , that
surely lossy but for most ears it is OK. As far as I tested so far my
ears can listen to tones up to 14 kHz
Just look at the bandwidth ! It has a bandstop on 20 kHz .......
.........then transfered to Sansa and played
This is the resulted curves !
As is shown , this is no linear curve . Signals drop to 16 db after the 18.5 kHz . However it is still a
linear response for all of us
MP3 128 kb
Hmm from the above here you see that it is not a linear curve.
All freqs above the 18000 Hz drop by several db.. Is as like someone
is turning down the treble
WMA 64
Instad here the response it quite linear . Just above
19kHz. the linearity drops somehow. and it ends on the 20,2 khz WMA
has the same linearity as 64 . In contrast , when listened there is
some `arti? ciality' in audio.
If you thinkt that this is too theoretical , i am including here a
more real example with only the results of a song conversion. But
the song was quite bassy and came from a cassete
This is the resulted wav MUSIC ? le.Here is the resulted MP3 ? le:
Here is the resulted MP3 ? le: Uncommonly there is a bandwidth stop on 15.5 Hz !!!
This is the result of the WMA 48 v ? le Look at the differences between the WAV and the WMA 48
and here is for the WMA 64 As you see the curve is nearlay the same with the 48's !!
Here is the pix- mix between all modes: WAV , MP3 and WMA as you may see being the WAV as `linear'
and here is a comparative between WMA and MP3
THis is the results between the original and the playbacked MP3 ?le .
Both ? les have been at ? rst normalized for having the same audio
level. This here can mean that above the 2000 kHZ the response drops
up to 10 db
My conclusions :
As it is clear the MP3 format lacks the ? delity WMA offers , and thogh i am generally contrary to this
format , I always use it for its very good capability have very good results with the highest posible compres-
sion. For me the 48 kb WMA is the best compromizse for portability and quanitty
Nowadays my Sansa together with a 2 GB SD memory can keep about 1200 songs , ie more an 100 albums!
