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New Generation of MP3 Players, New Features
i4u writes "We got our hands on new Flash MP3 Players from two Korean Manufactures. Both players feature audio functions not seen in MP3 Player before, like SRS, WOW and TruBass. The Muzio JM-200 uses a two color OLED display. The Eratech EMP-100 is betting on small size with measurements of only 30x75x16mm." The larger (and stranger looking) JM-200 also lists ogg playback as a feature.
Googled up some info on these players, as I4U seems to be dead.
The EPM-100 has 512M flash, a very small 3-line display, and is about the size of a thumbdrive. I found it selling for $220.
The JM200 has 256M flash (unknown if upgradeable via cards), includes a FM tuner, and looks downright funky. It doesn't seem to be available for purchase yet.
Both players feature audio functions not seen in MP3 Player before, like SRS, WOW and TruBass.
At last check, my iRiver iHP-120 supports SRS, WOW, and TruBass in amongst its EQ settings. Don't know about their Flash-based players, but it would be surprising if some of them didn't.
TruBass is not an indicator of how good your car's stereo system is, to be frank. Effects like TruBass do DSP magic on the audio, and it's been my experience that such effects (ProLogic, TruBass, Circle-SRS) fuck the audio up royally. You should only use something like ProLogic or C-SRS if the stream was meant for it, like the Dolby Surround tracks on some DVDs (mostly TV shows), which were specifically encoded for ProLogic channel reproduction.
But using things like TruBass is basically worthless. Your car's stereo system is probably fine. The DSP that TruBass does just happens to introduce a ton of artifacts into the sound that may or may not be perceptible, depending on what kind of music it is. For example, try listening to piano music with TruBass or Circle-SRS. It'll sound awful.
Just stick with 2-channel stereo and mirror the front two channels to the back two in your car. You'll have a much fuller sound field, and you won't be fucking with the original sound any.
Essentially, these all mess with the audio in some way. These are all by SRS Labs, BTW.
This is all my opinion, more or less. Quotes from SRS are found here: http://www.srslabs.com/ConsumerTechMonoStereo.asp
SRS - Sound Retrieval System
Claims to be able to "retrieve the spatial information that is lost during ordinary audio compression from any stereo recording and restores the original three-dimensional sound field." Also claims to be able to eliminate the "sweet spot" and "isolate and restore the spatial cues and place them in the proper space relative to the direct sounds, such as a soloist or dialogue."
What it really does, as far as I can tell: It uses an algorithim to isolate the audio into various sets of frequencies, which it then amplifies on various speakers and introduces a slight time delay. The effect of this is to give a slight emphasis to various parts of the sound. In a 5.1 surround system, this will make it seem as if the various chunks of frequencies are coming from more specific parts of the room. This is a neat effect, but the truth of the matter is that you can't restore what isn't there. Not really. It's a trick that lets there appear to be spatial orientation on the sound, but the spatial orientation it gives is entirely made up. It's not really what it is supposed to sound like, and it's not "much closer to what the artist originally intended" as they claim. You think artists don't listen to their own work and talk to their sound engineers? The original source material you have in the player is what the artist intended because it's what you actually got from them. SRS is a neat trick, but not actually any better. It'll work on headphones, but works best in a 5.1 surround situation. On a 2 speaker scenario, the artifical delays it introduces really hurt the sound noticably.
WOW
WOW claims to "dramatically improves the quality, dynamics, image field size and bass tones of digitally compressed audio file formats including WMA, WAV, MP3 files."
What it really does, as far as I can tell: It enhances a small band on the high end of the frequency spectrum, compresses the low end, then sticks the whole thing through a phaser to make it sound kinda deep and slightly echo-y (a phaser, for those not into audio, basically eliminates very specific frequencies.. whatever ones you have it set to... you can do all sorts of weird things with a programmable one, but it creates a pretty distinctive type of sound). On cheap ass speakers, this sort of thing can make it sound like your speakers are bigger, but the actual bass output suffers horribly on good speakers, and the echo type of effect is annoying as hell once you notice it.
TruBass
TruBass claims to "produce the perception of lower bass tones and deeper, richer bass from products that contain small, medium or large size speakers."
What it really does, as far as I can tell: Basically it increases the Bass. What? You have a bass control? Well, TruBass does it better. Oh wait, no, it doesn't. It's using some kind of tricky harmonics deal to enhance the low end of the audio to make it seem louder without actually making it louder. In other words, TruBass will increase the *perception* of the bass without actually increasing the amount of bass there. The human ear is better at certain frequencies than others, and TruBass adds harmonics to the bass that increase those frequency ranges, increasing the amount of bass you hear. But it will not increase the amount of bass that you *feel*, which to me, is kinda the whole point of bass. TruBass will work best on small crappy speakers, in other words, where you don't expect to feel any bass anyway. And the distortion on the bass is pretty severe, if you have a song with good bass to begin with.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I have an IRiver iHP-120. My player already has all those "new" features. Whats the big deal?
My player is just slightly larger than an ipod. It lasts twice as long. It handles the Ogg format. I could keep going but I should get back to work.
Zarnce