I've been spoilt by iriver's SQ and sound abilities. After owning the H340 and clix2 (with a well set-up SRSWOW) I can tell the difference between most different sources of music... from ipods the the clix, discmans to the H340.

Really enjoying it!


BTW alyanm, quite a posse of DAPs there.

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I have to agree, with the right SRS Wow the Clix is starting to spoil me for my other players!

Thanks, and those are just the ones I currently own, not even counting ones I have gotten rid of already

What exactly does DAP stand for? I seem to have a lot to learn about acronyms around here!

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DAPs: iRiver Clix2 8GB redline, Archos 605 160GB, iPod Touch 16GB, iPod 160GB Classic, iPod Nano 1st gen 2GB, Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB
Earphones: Bose IE, Shure SE500, Shure E3C, Etymotic Er6i

Digital Audio Player, same as mp3 player.

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Also just bought a Clix 2 8GB 1 week ago. I agree, you have to tweak the SRS settings to get the most out of this player. The iPod Shuffle (last gen) that I won wasn't bad either (no brainer with no settings though), but if you get used to a certain sound quality, it is hard to switch. I found that I had to turn up the volume of the Shuffle to get satisfying sound, but with the Clix 2, I can enjoy music at moderate volumes. Especially voices are very well defined.

First I only wanted to use the Clix' EQ (thinking it would represent the "original" recording), but after trying the SRS WOW it is hard to accept the EQ quality. I think people are used to the idea equipment should sound perfect out of the box (for the geeks: try to get an Asus motherboard to work out of the box. But if you got it working, it's unbeatable).

I found some background hiss which is quite pronounced when using SRS WOW with a high Definition number, for example Daft Punk's Something About Us (Discovery album), but I found this hiss is also present when listening to the ripped file on the PC, i.e. it's not an iRiver issue but an MP3/Ogg issue (tried them both). The original CD does not have the hissiness.

The Clix 2 and its software were clearly designed by/for PC lovers. iRiver 3 Plus is exceptional software compared to iTunes. I don't get the logic behind iTunes anyways.

Only thing missing is FLAC support. Where is that firmware upgrade?

Btw I am using a pair of "old" Sennheiser MX400's. Since they are completely burnt in, it is very easy to pickup flaws in sound quality.

I've not noticed much hiss on MP3 (LAME 3.97 -V2 --vbr-new), although there is a low level 'beep' at the start of a song when I suppose that the decoder is moving a lot of data into a buffer. My bugbear is the medium pitched buzz on Ogg Vorbis (oggenc283 -q6) which is audible in quiet passages (but is most noticeable at the beginning of the track as the decoder starts up).

If it weren't for that, Ogg would be magic, as it has oodles more low level detail than MP3 at the same bit rate. Please listen again to your Ogg tracks, and if you agree that the buzz is a problem, complain to iriver technical support. I suspect that not enough people have complained yet, because there is no sign that they are going to fix it.

You make a good point about listening levels. I find that with the best SRS settings, I don't feel the need to turn the volume up to deafening levels. That's a real plus for the clix.

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Clix 2 8GB Red Line Zen Touch 20GB
Shure SE530 Shure E2C Creative EP-630

Indeed the start of the Daft Punk track mentioned before starts silently, but there is an audible hiss (almost like cassette). The hiss is indeed a little bit less using MP3 (LAME 3.97 vbr minimum 256 kBit/s) compared to Ogg (vbr 350 kBit/s), but it is definitely audible. SRS needs more volume to reach the same sound level compared to the custom EQ, but the hiss seems to be independent from the musical recording and gets amplified quite badly at higher volume settings.

I hooked up the Shuffle and had to install iTunes again . On the Shuffle the hiss is comparable to the one on the original CD, i.e. it is not distracting.

Overall I think the iRiver's sound is more enjoyable compared to the Shuffle when using SRS, but the background hiss is problematic enough to contact iRiver.

Sound quality test from a very serious French e-zine (not carried out w/ original headphones):
12 baladeurs MP3 classes suivant leur qualite audio, par GMP3 | Generation MP3 : le blog des baladeurs MP3

Results are not based on measures so they can be quite subjective. However, the whole team participated to the event so I guess they all had the same feeling about Clix2 sound quality !

Thanks for posting that jagon, that's very interesting. And good to hear.

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That is interesting, if only I could get a translation... what the heck does souffle mean without the chocolate in front??

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DAPs: iRiver Clix2 8GB redline, Archos 605 160GB, iPod Touch 16GB, iPod 160GB Classic, iPod Nano 1st gen 2GB, Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB
Earphones: Bose IE, Shure SE500, Shure E3C, Etymotic Er6i

Yes that's good to hear ! Clix2 is definitely a player to watch (i'm waiting mine) !
"Souffle" means "background hiss".

Some more translation :

- Clix2: very "clean" output, powerfull ("punchy") sound
- Sony NWZ-A810: very light background hiss, well balanced sound
- Cowon D2: very light background hiss, powerfull sound, clear instruments
- Samsung P2: quite "clean" ouptut, light background hiss, powerfull sound

Sorry no time to go further, but i'll try to translate the whole test.

Another "large scale" test is planned for 2008, with more players and more measures ! I'll keep you informed

Thanks jagon, that really clarifies things. So I gather that their major gripe about the iPods is that they don't have equalizer settings and background hiss?

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DAPs: iRiver Clix2 8GB redline, Archos 605 160GB, iPod Touch 16GB, iPod 160GB Classic, iPod Nano 1st gen 2GB, Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB
Earphones: Bose IE, Shure SE500, Shure E3C, Etymotic Er6i

Yes that's right ! No EQ, quite average sound (background hiss, lack of punch, lack of accuracy...).

I get amazing sound quality using custom EQ with my Livewires T1. SRS WOW just colours the sound too much.

Livewires are extremely revealing custom phones, and they show just how good the Clix2 is. I have to adjust the EQ for the best balance for my ears.

SRS WOW does colour the sound if you turn it up to the high numbers, but at low numbers it seems to deemphasise some parts of the mix based on the L-R blend in the recording, which can have the effect of decluttering the production and making it more enjoyable (for me, YMMV). It doesn't work well with all music, but sometimes sounds gorgeous.

I have never found a Custom EQ setting that I can live with. Surely with good phones it should sound pretty much OK flat, but it just sounds a bit dull and muddled to me, and just shaping the frequency response with a couple of bumps doesn't fix that.

Anyhow, one of the good things about clix 2 is the amount of EQ options available. The flip side is that I spend a lot of my waking hours trying to understand why they work the way they do. I have to get a life.....

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Clix 2 8GB Red Line Zen Touch 20GB
Shure SE530 Shure E2C Creative EP-630