X1060 32GB - S-Master in Sony's finest

Its been 2 nights since I got my Sony X1060 32GB Walkman (or PMP as Eo likes to call it), but as often things turn out, I had only really been able to spend the past hours or so using it in its full fidelity. When coupled with my AKG K319 Earphones, this is simply amazing. Not amazing as in seeing a UFO, but amazing as in getting abducted only to find your experiment is to mate with hundreds of beauties... or something like that...

Seriously, in my 10 years of personal audio (and annoying people on the bus with high decibels), nothing ever came close to reproducing the fidelity of a real HiFi (it didn't help the fact that I always had high end stack systems), even now with my ear tuned to the distinctively good sound of my X-Fi sound card pushing the magnets in the Bose system, I can say without any research that this X1060/AKG setup offers a superior sound quality and experience (albeit no vibrations on the ground).

The sound really is that rich and clear. Anyone who has ever used the Sony HiFi Amp would have known the S-Master Digital Amplifier (first introduced around 2005?), well now this technology has being minimized so much it fits into the X1060 (a first for Sony) the end result is a player that can rival full sized amplifiers (and indeed Sony provided a separate line out cable via the connector at the bottom, by-passing the earphones socket completely) So what else is on tap for making it sound so good? Well there is a 5-band EQ with Clear Bass, VPT Surround Control (S-Master), DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement), and Clear stereo. To be honest, you only need the EQ, Clear Bass and VPT to bring out the goodness.


The Stock earphones are pretty weak (compared to AKG, still far better than stock iPod ones), but you have to use it if you plan on using the "built in" (not really build in if you are stuck with stock earphones) Noise Canceling function. This when I tried, didn't really made much difference and ear canal earphones are not my cup of tea anyways.

The UI is very simple to use, on par with the ipod or any other player, nothing revolutionary. Having hard buttons for key functions like play/pause, FF, RW, Volume is very good idea for a touch screen, coupled with a special hold mode where only the touchscreen is disabled this makes a lot of sense.


Put it simply you buy this baby for sound quality and nothing else, sure the simple drag and drop approach is better than iTunes, but most other non apple players offer that anyways. Only one player so far comes (very very) close to this player for sound quality, and it is the Cowon iAudio7, which really made me realize how much a gap there was between my Sony Xperia's sound quality to a "proper" mp3 player.

For now, if you like your music to sound their best (and money no object) go for either the iAudio7 (eo's player) or X1060, both will blow your mind with their Sound Quality.

+ Sound quality
+ Screen
+ Buttons

- No standard USB (Come on Sony!)
- Bundled ear canal earphones
- Price (e340)

Cowon iAudio 7 - mp3 as it Should Be

Hello, Cowon iAudio 7. Welcome to my pocket.

The best mp3 player I had ever owned was the iRiver H320, it had a huge capacity, great sound quality and was simple as possible to use. There's a reason they still go for one hundred euro second hand.

Since mine started electrocuting me whenever I had it plugged in (don't ask) I've been bouncing back and forward between audio devices. The creative zen (the hard drive based one and the flash memory one) and then the players on my phones and they were all fine. But nothing came close to the H320 and there is nothing worse than a down grade in this day and age.

Then, I bought the iAudio 7 and I feel the good times are back again. 16gigs of space, check. Plugs in with any standard usb cable and becomes an external drive in windows, check. Browse music by directory structure, check. Supports every codec you can think of, check. Sounds good, triple check.



I have something that almost matches the H320's HD space, is tiny, flash based and blows it out of the water sound wise.

The sound generated by the iAudio 7 is noticably better on any ear phones but when paired with something like Alan's AKGs it enters a different league of mobile music. It is far better than it should be.

You get used to accepting lower quality music from an mp3 player, its lack of bass and clarity but the iAudio 7 changes that to some degree. It can produce real music, not just a pale imitation of it. A slightly pricey purchase but your ears will thank you for it.