M6 questions

I'm thinking of getting a M6. It will probably be the 8gb slim version (SL). I will probably not get it until there are more impressions and possibly real reviews (and as you know the 8gb version is not yet available).

I have only had Cowon mp3 products before (my latest being the 2gb U3) and I have been very happy with them. I want more capacity and bigger screen. I mostly have mp3 and flac files. I don't want the nano for obvious reasons. I'm not a big fan of the Cowon D2 8gb because it is kind of big and I do not want touch screen (though having SD slot is nice). The new Zen 8gb is tempting but there is no flac support and it is a significantly thicker than slim M6.

Questions:
1. For people that have had Cowon products and Meizu products how does the quality compare?
2. There seems to be a fair amount of unhappiness here relating to Meizu firmware. Is this an issue that affects everyone or is it only an issue that impacts certain situations?
3. How loud is the output? How many mW at maximum volume? The D2 is rated at 74mW. If only the non-slim version is known that is good enough.
4. How fast (Mbps) is file transfers? My U3 has great transfer speeds. If only the non-slim version is known that is good enough.
5. Is the screen 16 million colors?

Thank you for all your help!

1) built quality is similar, very sturdy and well finished. Sound quality in my opinion is equal or better, firmware quality is slightly less. not that use is less easy but the meizu firmware is slightly more buggy than cowons

2) the unhappiness regarding the firmware on this forum is not a clear representation of the actual thoughts of all users. People who have problems with their firmware come here to complain and ask for help. people who don't have problems don't post about their non-problems.(obviously )
besides that most problems seem to be caused by 1) not carefully following instructions 2) people without any experience experimenting with their firmware.

If you know what you're doing nothing will go wrong.

3) Loud enough to blast your eardrums to pieces within 10 minutes if you like. Not that i recommend that

4) sorry i have no clear info that that. With me XP actually was fatser then Vista is. Speeds are pretty high, dont know any exact numbers

5) no, 260K-Color QVGA (320x240) TFT LCD

Originally Posted by wildfire

3. How loud is the output? How many mW at maximum volume? The D2 is rated at 74mW. If only the non-slim version is known that is good enough.

D2 is known for its high-power output, much higher than the majority of PMPs available on the market. I don't believe the M6SP or the SL can match that kind of output power. That being said, whether the volume is loud enough also largely depends on the sensitivity of your earphones, the source material, personal preference, etc.; especially the sensitivity of the earphones, which usually is the predominant deciding factor. So the output power from your PMP is only one of the elements, not the only factor, but if you want to play it safe, obviously the D2 offers more margin.

Originally Posted by wildfire

4. How fast (Mbps) is file transfers? My U3 has great transfer speeds. If only the non-slim version is known that is good enough.

From the reviews on www.meizu.com, it seems the SL is benchmarked to have somewhere between 6 to 7 MBps (that is mega bytes per second, not mega bit per second) for writing to the player's storage and 5 to 6 MBps for reading from the SL's storage.

HTH.

If you see complains concerning firmware is due to a simple reason: Meizu devices are not just players... is also a customisable gadget that user enjoy playing with, so upgrading of firmware is another option to enjoy of.
That's why this task is as simple as it can be... and the users is involved on it. Meizu users enjoy to install new skins to make the player look different from time to time.
Meizu users enjoy to have a fansite where to go and learn about his gadget (that's why this fansite is owned by Meizu).
That's why Chinese players sports that sentence "firmware upgradeable". Let's said that is the essence of a Meizu, Teclast, Onda and many other Chinese manufacturers.

Cowon D2 is not that kind of players, despite of the option it has to replace background, is still just a player that do everything as it was designed. Maybe I am wrong, but Cowon is the first Korean company that has this option, in other words, have understood that some users would like to change a bit.

Some users would like to have that kind of players, which plays well without troubles. Meizu users don't... we enjoy the challenge of put our hands in the device.

Concerning quality I have tried a D2 and sound really good, touchscreen is awesome and to deliver millions of colours in the screen is a good point, it's said that iPod delivers millions of colours too... all this could make lots of people to choose them... but believe me... without the challenge of hand craft the player I would get bored... as I get bored of an iRiver X20 and I get rid of it.

At the end, quality goes together with pleasure... I know lots of users that are happy with a brick like an iPod... almost perfect... but without surprises... and a really mediocre plastic sound.

Is you who choose... I LOVE MY MEIZU!!!... and my Teclast and my Onda! :D

Originally Posted by DaremoS

At the end, quality goes together with pleasure... I know lots of users that are happy with a brick like an iPod... almost perfect... but without surprises... and a really mediocre plastic sound.

I think you left to mention the most important thing about the Ipod's sound:

The big and incomparable "SOUND DISTORTION" that comes from it.

Originally Posted by DaremoS

that's why this fansite is owned by Meizu

this website is not owned by Meizu, Err0r is running it.

MeizuMe.com is an independent resource for all things Meizu. Meizu, Mini Player, the Music Card and all other related logos are the property of MEIZU Electronic Technology, Inc. Designed by ForumTemplates. © 2007 MeizuMe. All Rights Reserved

Hi Wildfire,
some people here in the forum always find an excuse for Meizu. I think it is obvious if you read what people are writing about that the problems are not only realted to incorrect handling of the devices. There are bugs - many - but what is really annoying that Meizu is ignoring it. Ah!, that is what I have thought about before.
Today I have the strong suspicion that Meizu at moment does not have the engineers to get a good working firmware, or may be much more worst: the hardware concept limits out the solutions.
In my view this could be the only two explanation why so many issues are not solved with each new generation of firmware.

How much you want put your hands on on a device, when the firmware is not given for Open Source?

Good luck with your buying decision!

M6 sp
8GB

i would say get it. i listened for this for about a month then after that, i tried my brother's iPod and the sound quality hurts my ears! and just incase you are wondering, i used the same headphones.

you eyes cant even read 1million colors, why would u need that much. i think the human eye can read somewhere around 1000

The Cowon D2 is also fully skinable, with far more features and user definable settings than any other player I have seen. It's battery life, audio, video and build quality are second to none and despite it's dimensions it is no less portable than my Meizu players but with its SD slot infinitly more expandable. In fact the only time I use my Meizu players now is when the D2 is charging.

Originally Posted by Whatakevin

you eyes cant even read 1million colors, why would u need that much. i think the human eye can read somewhere around 1000

Just because an LCD supports 16 million colors does not mean you see them all at once what it does mean is that you get smoother gradients, higher definition and color separation resulting in a far more enjoyable viewing experience.

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

this website is not owned by Meizu, Err0r is running it.

MeizuMe.com is an independent resource for all things Meizu. Meizu, Mini Player, the Music Card and all other related logos are the property of MEIZU Electronic Technology, Inc. Designed by ForumTemplates. © 2007 MeizuMe. All Rights Reserved

This is my source:

Meizu Acquires Meizu Me :D:D:D:D:D

Originally Posted by madman

The Cowon D2 is also fully skinable, with far more features and user definable settings than any other player I have seen. It's battery life, audio, video and build quality are second to none and despite it's dimensions it is no less portable than my Meizu players but with its SD slot infinitly more expandable. In fact the only time I use my Meizu players now is when the D2 is charging.

It's really nice to know this... I have Cowon in my country... a bit expensive though... it cost here about US$ 270.-... I could get it from USA.... it would cost less.

Is there any site I can visit to know about the resources I can use with it?

not really sure about that. I think the firmware looks good though.

Thank you for the replies.

I have several points:
1. As I mentioned in the original post I have no interest in an ipod. I fully understand the negatives of the ipod.
2. I was not hoping that the M6 was as loud as a D2, I knew that would be a long shot. If it loud enough to drive good head phones with out an amp that is all that interests me. I use several different head phones but when I can I use Sennheiser HD280 pros.
3. 6-7 Mbps transfer speed is OK but not nearly as fast as my U3 or the D2. This I will miss...
4. There is a huge difference between a 260k and 16.7 million color screen. This probably will not be a huge factor in my decison but it will be part of it. The Zen is 16.7 miilon colors and the 8gb version is fairly close in price to the 8gb M6.
5. As much as I like Cowon products the D2 just does not excite me. I really do not want a touch screen device and it really is too thick for me (16.6mm...almost 10mm thicker than the M6 SL). The 8gb D2 version is also $250 US.

Thanks for the help!

Originally Posted by Whatakevin

i think the human eye can read somewhere around 1000

oh, you're absolutely wrong here, average people can easily see a difference even between 16 bit and 32 bit colors which is a difference of 65536 and 4 million colors. Make the self experiment : use Photoshop to reduce color depth of a photo with lots of colors and save it in different versions, then cycle between them in full screen. I'm sure you will start to see differences from 16 bit and below at least. 1000 colors would be 10 bit by the way.

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

oh, you're absolutely wrong here, average people can easily see a difference even between 16 bit and 32 bit colors which is a difference of 65536 and 4 million colors. Make the self experiment : use Photoshop to reduce color depth of a photo with lots of colors and save it in different versions, then cycle between them in full screen. I'm sure you will start to see differences from 16 bit and below at least. 1000 colors would be 10 bit by the way.

I agree with you on that the human vision is a lot more sensitive than most of us willing to believe. Though that brings up another interesting point that I thought about briefly in the past. The videos we watch on these PMP all have to be converted (or downloaded from YouTube) I would speculate that the final quality of the video is determined by the conversion software, meaning that if the software downscales or can only handle color depth to, say 16 bits, then the 32-bit or 24-bit TFT screen won't make any difference,:D not to mention the videos from YouTube.

Now I'm not defending the M6 for having a smaller color depth, just that we should look at the whole picture (no pun intended) before coming to a conclusion. From the specifications point of view, for sure a greater color depth implies a better viewing experience, but as we all know, the throughput of any system is only as good as its weakest link. Just my two cents.

Originally Posted by odmanca

I agree with you on that the human vision is a lot more sensitive than most of us willing to believe. Though that brings up another interesting point that I thought about briefly in the past. The videos we watch on these PMP all have to be converted (or downloaded from YouTube) I would speculate that the final quality of the video is determined by the conversion software, meaning that if the software downscales or can only handle color depth to, say 16 bits, then the 32-bit or 24-bit TFT screen won't make any difference,:D not to mention the videos from YouTube.

Now I'm not defending the M6 for having a smaller color depth, just that we should look at the whole picture (no pun intended) before coming to a conclusion. From the specifications point of view, for sure a greater color depth implies a better viewing experience, but as we all know, the throughput of any system is only as good as its weakest link. Just my two cents.

I use very good conversion software (FairUse Wizard 2) to make my xvid files and other format videos. I always make my own videos and never download them from the internet (I'm very picky on quality). You do have a valid point though. While having a maximum bit rate of 512kbps at 320x240 may seem adequate this may in itself affect the quality of the video. I still think I could tell the difference color wise though. This is not a huge issue for me though because in all reality I would watch very little video on the device. I have a pocket pc with a 3.7" 16.7 million color screen that is great for videos and I have only watched video on it a handful of times.

I also planned on viewing (and having other people view) photos on the device. This I would do more often than video and here you can really tell the lack of 16.7 million colors.

I'm still very tempted by the M6... the SL's form factor is so much better than the competition...

Wildfire,

I agree with you on all of your points. Yeah, I too have a pocket PC with a VGA screen which I use on a regular basis to watch videos converted from DVDs on the plane. The video quality is actually quite good.

Yeah, the color depth may become critical if viewing photos is one of your major applications. Well, sounds like you know what you are doing so have fun shopping for your next PMP!

How about Sansa View ?

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mp3/ne...Killer-v2-0/p1


I think that if you use the rockbox firmware it will play Flac format as well. I am not too sure about audio quality though.

But if your looking for thin, this seems a good choice.

Originally Posted by Moogle Stiltzkin

How about Sansa View ?

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mp3/ne...Killer-v2-0/p1


I think that if you use the rockbox firmware it will play Flac format as well. I am not too sure about audio quality though.

But if your looking for thin, this seems a good choice.

Wow, thanks for the link. That looks very promising.

H.264 video at 30fps...drool.

Expandable MicroSD/SDHC...

Inexpensive as well: $150 for 8gb version and $200 for 16gb version.

I think I will wait for some reviews.