Meizu vs everything else

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

I decided to mess around a little with my old SigmaTel player today. When i tried to power it on it wouldn't work, so i connected it to my computer to charge. I charged it a little then tried turning it on again - it would just flash the USB screen. Cool, the firmware's crashed. :lol: I flashed my backup, voila, it worked.

So i put some new music on it, plugged in my Sony earbuds that i also use with the Meizu (right one on the Meizu earbuds broke, have to update my sig). Hit play, turned it up, and was like "what the f is this???" It sounded like CRAP. Then i asked myself: "have i been listening to this piece of junk till i bought the M6SL???" Yes, i did. Actually, no, i didn't, as i had that Actions player, which died coz a capacitor came off the board and i couldn't solder it back. Then i bought this SigmaTel, which i thought sounded worse than the Actions, but i couldn't make a fair comparison as the Actions was dead.

Plugged my earbuds back to the Meizu - it totally blows away the SigmaTel. In fact, it's about to literally blow my old Sony earbuds as they ring a bit on heavy bass, i'll go get some Creatives. The 10-band EQ on the Meizu is very effective, the separate bass and treble boost controls are nice to have, and the spatializer on the Meizu is the only effect of this kind that i ever kept turned on. The Virtual3D effect is awesome and doesn't negatively impact sound quality unless you abuse it. It gives that "surround" feeling to the music without making it sound like a tin can. And the PCE (Phase Corrected Equalizer) is pure bliss, a slight touch of it is all you need to brighten up any kind of music. You do have to turn the volume down a little to avoid amp clipping, but even so, you'll be overdriving your earphones (or ears ) before pushing the amp's limits.

Of course, we are talking about different price ranges, but imo, the Meizu M6SL was worth every penny. The dedicated audio circuitry makes a night and day difference between the Meizu and your average clones, and it also beats Apple's overpriced and overpopular ipod in just about everything, a little minus would be the user interface which is beautiful compared to chipods but doesn't get to Apple's smoothness.

Wow, this turned into a mini-review of the M6SL. Well, guess i'll finish it later, in the meantime feel free to post your Meizu experiences here. 8)

[Buzzygirl]

Thank you for the great mini-review of the Meizu M6! I have an M6SL and I agree that this player blows away the competition in sound quality. The much higher-priced 3rd gen. iPod Nano and the iPod Touch are not superior to the M6 in the audio department.

How do I know this? I have either owned, or used extensively (via borrowing) most of Apple's iPod line; from the old-school, original 2001 iPod to the newest Touch, the 3rd generation Nano, iPhone, Classic and Shuffle. I honestly believe the M6 kicks the collective a$$ of all Apple offerings in the audio department.

My iPod fanboy boyfriend has asked for an M6 SL for his upcoming birthday; this is a request from a man who has owned every single model iPod that Apple has produced since iPods first came out. Damn!

[booboo773]

I can attest to the Meizu sound being superior. I love it. I had my old Chipod plugged in the other day and it doesn't even compare to my Meizu.

[lattesurf]

I'm contemplating on a new M6SL.. Just saw a store in a local shopping centre selling the 8GB M6SL for SGD$216 (approx USD$150). Slightly cheaper than online stores, what a deal..

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Originally Posted by lattesurf";p=&quot

I'm contemplating on a new M6SL.. Just saw a store in a local shopping centre selling the 8GB M6SL for SGD$216 (approx USD$150). Slightly cheaper than online stores, what a deal..

I say go get it!

Update. I listened to my M6SL on my DJ headphones, well, not exactly pro stuff, they're made by Watson and i paid like $15 for them from a supermarket, but i've had them for 4 years and they still work great. These things get a clear sound with tons of bass out of anything and take a lot of power before even thinking about distorting - only the headphone output of my amp can max them out.

Result? I just can't get enough of it. The M6SL is the only player i've ever had that is able to fill up those headphones. The bass is really good even with only a slight boost from the EQ and no enhancements, now bring the bass boost and spatializer into play and i had those headphones nearly jumping off my ears. Seriously. 8) And even though the bass was kicking the headphones off my head, the voice could be still heard clearly. Now that's what i call a proper amp. :wink:

With my settings the amp maxes out at volume 35/40, but believe me that's more than enough, your hearing will suffer if you listen to such a high volume for a long time.

The only player i had that got close to the M6 in terms of sound was my Archos Ondio running RockBox, but a broken power regulation chip (common issue on the Ondios) gave it an early death.

Hope the M6SL will be around me for a while.

Long and elaborate EDIT:

To be able to make a fair comparison, i gave the SigmaTel player a run on my DJ headphones too. That led me to some pretty interesting results...

Bass is good, nowhere near the Meizu but it packs some punch. The sound isn't distorted at all, as the SigmaTel's max volume doesn't overdrive the amp. No custom EQ settings possible here, and the presets suck, so i just left it set to Normal.

My biggest problem about the SigmaTel when i used it with earphones is that the voice "hurt", there was too much "sharpness" in it. I think it's cause the midrange is boosted too high, to make the player sound louder. This wasn't that annoying on my DJ headphones, but still the tone of the voice was a bit unnatural.

Head to head tests:

I turned the spatializer off on the Meizu and played my favorite bass test track (the "Woofer Cooker"). The bass was literally mind-blowing. Loud and clear, no distortion. I then played the same track on the SigmaTel. Not bad but far from awesome. Bass was good, not very powerful but clear, but the amp clipped on a few occasions with audible clicks and pops.

Rap: I played "Laffy Taffy" by D4L on both players. First one was the Meizu. Bass was great, voice sounded good. No need to elaborate. :P Next up, the SigmaTel. Ouch, that string hurts. It really hurts. (Grab the song to know what i'm talking about) Voice sounded fair, bass was decent, but it didn't excel. And damn, that string hurt my ears!

Okay, now for something more interesting. I got tired of those basslines so i played "Summer Wine" by Scooter. I just love this song, i think i have all its interpretations, but i find Scooter's to sound best. The drums are perfect, the acoustic guitar is nice, the female voice is sweet, what more could you want from a song?

This time the SigmaTel was first. Not bad, not bad at all. Bass drum was nice and crisp, guitar sounded good. The female voice sounded a bit unnatural though, but as i said above this is a general issue with the SigmaTel.

Well, i said that "Summer Wine" sounded nice on the SigmaTel, but what about the Meizu? When i plugged my headphones into the Meizu and played this track, the sound wasn't awesome. It was divine. Drum was deep but still crisp, just right as any more bass would've ruined this beautiful song. Guitar sounded like it was played in front of me, and the female voice was so sweet i thought i was dreaming. A little touch from the Phase Corrected Equalizer here, but with Virtual3D off as this song doesn't get along with 3D effects.

To make a truly fair head to head test, i decided to turn off any enhancements on the Meizu. Spatializer off, EQ off, any boosts set to 0. Although a lot of bass was lost in the process and the voice sounded a bit duller, the M6SL still sounded smoother and crisper at the same time than the SigmaTel.

So the bottom line is: While your average generic player will benefit a lot from good ear gear, it won't excel in sound quality. And while a generic MPx device sounds fairly nice on good quality phones, the Meizu M6 sounds AWESOME.

In terms of sound quality, the Meizu M6SL is great bang for the buck, but it's not a player for the purists. Meaning if you like to listen to music in lossless formats and turn any audio enhancements off, you'll lose a lot from what this great little device has to offer.

That's about it from me, too bad i didn't have a Rockchip player to test. I'll borrow one from a classmate of mine if he lets me to (i think he will if i'll let him have my M6SL while i use his Rockchip ).

Maybe i'll merge these posts into a proper review.