How To Improve MP3 Player Audio Quality ?

[Trimble]

A few months back I bought one of those super cheapy 'from the Far east'
1 Gig Mp3 & FM Tuner Ipod styled things from Ebay ...you must know
the sort of thing e.g. like this one ; Around £20 UK Pounds / $35 USD inc.
post.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-1Gb-1G-Bl...ryZ73839QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The spec, regardless of seller, is always the same other than memory size..
So my 1st question is
are these all using the same chipset ? ...who makes that chipset ...is there
some Net Page place
where some Bunny has opened one up & fiddled & analyzed its innards ???

I chuck it vaguely around my neck for bathroom in the morning ..almost
forget its there ..I have dropped it in the sink full of water more than
once ...shook it energetically & left it some place warm to dry for 2 days &
its fine again.

Any ways the thing that puts me off using this is mainly Re: the sound
quality ..
(I also have a Iriver h320 ..lovely sound ..but Hard Drive based & 'Chunky'
..)
The Nano style thing sound is hash & tiring ...even with the preset
equalizer set there is little bass
& I am always using good over the ear headphone types ..likes of Sennheiser
PX200

So any way / tweak to improve this ?? My ears say its the quality rather
than bass that's the
main issue.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") mouse (WHO or What does make that every-Chinese-body-uses Chipset
?)

 

[kony]

A few months back I bought one of those super cheapy 'from the Far east'
1 Gig Mp3 & FM Tuner Ipod styled things from Ebay ...you must know
the sort of thing e.g. like this one ; Around £20 UK Pounds / $35 USD inc.
post.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-1Gb-1G-Bl...ryZ73839QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The spec, regardless of seller, is always the same other than memory size..
So my 1st question is
are these all using the same chipset ? ...who makes that chipset ...is there
some Net Page place
where some Bunny has opened one up & fiddled & analyzed its innards ???

You might as well just do a web/Google search for that, or
open yours (and then, make a web page about it?)

Generally speaking, the best candidates for modifications
are those which start out good and just have some minor
flaw. This player seems to be pretty low end and perhaps
not worth the time or parts to mod.

I chuck it vaguely around my neck for bathroom in the morning ..almost
forget its there ..I have dropped it in the sink full of water more than
once ...shook it energetically & left it some place warm to dry for 2 days &
its fine again.

Any ways the thing that puts me off using this is mainly Re: the sound
quality ..
(I also have a Iriver h320 ..lovely sound ..but Hard Drive based & 'Chunky'
.)
The Nano style thing sound is hash & tiring ...even with the preset
equalizer set there is little bass
& I am always using good over the ear headphone types ..likes of Sennheiser
PX200

So any way / tweak to improve this ?? My ears say its the quality rather
than bass that's the
main issue.

If it has some junky coupling caps in the audio path, you
might be able to desolder those and squeeze in some small
film caps (or you might not). Otherwise even if you knew
what chipset it uses, it probably won't do you much good as
it's not like you can just swap in a different chipset
(usually or at least reasonably) and the space constraints
would prevent most kinds of modifications as seen with
general audio gear tweaking.

Otherwise, due to the smallest-size-possible of these
devices, your best bet is just to take it or leave it,
though you might get better sound quality if it wasn't
directly driving headphones, instead having a headamp
inbetween it and the 'phones. The problem with that is it
starts becoming a lot less /conveniently/ portable and
you've a second set of batteries in the headamp to deal
with, as well as the addt'l cost of buying or building one.

 

[Conor]

A few months back I bought one of those super cheapy 'from the Far east'
1 Gig Mp3 & FM Tuner Ipod styled things from Ebay ...you must know
the sort of thing e.g. like this one ; Around £20 UK Pounds / $35 USD inc.
post.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-1Gb-1G-Bl...ryZ73839QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The spec, regardless of seller, is always the same other than memory size..
So my 1st question is
are these all using the same chipset ? ...who makes that chipset ...is there
some Net Page place
where some Bunny has opened one up & fiddled & analyzed its innards ???

I chuck it vaguely around my neck for bathroom in the morning ..almost
forget its there ..I have dropped it in the sink full of water more than
once ...shook it energetically & left it some place warm to dry for 2 days &
its fine again.

Any ways the thing that puts me off using this is mainly Re: the sound
quality ..
(I also have a Iriver h320 ..lovely sound ..but Hard Drive based & 'Chunky'
.)
The Nano style thing sound is hash & tiring ...even with the preset
equalizer set there is little bass
& I am always using good over the ear headphone types ..likes of Sennheiser
PX200

So any way / tweak to improve this ??

Nope. It's down to the programming of the unit and the audio circuitry.

 

[DaveW]

I firmly believe:

"One gets what one pays for..."

 

[Trimble]

My impression is that its down to the final audio output stage...
The sound quality is the same for listening to mp3 / wma files & the FM
Tuner
Recordings made on the unit from the Tuner transferred & played on the PC
sound OK.

A couple of hints Re: these generic F/East Players ..
1) Always turn the unit of with the little slide switch at the top ...if it
is left in the software
turned of mode its in a sort of standby where the battery will go flat in 24
to 48 hours.

2) Charging from the PC USB connection does not seem to work very well
...charges very
slowly & seems to only charge to around 50% .
Use the mains charger unit.

3) The manuals for these things are incredibly bad
English...unintelligible.. you might miss some of the many features & the
adverts that sell these may state more or less that you get. ...
Dig around the menus ...if the player you have brought does not specify FM
Radio Recording
have a look in the settings ..it may in fact be there.

4) there are versions for sale claiming 8 Gig memory ...approach with great
caution as some / many
of these in reality have maybe 2 Gigs & use compression techniques to squash
in certain Video file
types to claim 8 Gig's.

There MUST be some Net place that has lots Info & Tech. details on these
Generic Cheapy things ..
Any Bunny found one (yes I have looked hard).

(\__/)
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste Bunny into your
(")_(") signature to help him gain world domination.

 

[Adrian C]

There MUST be some Net place that has lots Info & Tech. details on these
Generic Cheapy things ..
Any Bunny found one (yes I have looked hard).

I'm assuming you've found stuff abour s1mp3 and seen links from
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_MP4/MTV_Player>

Seven months ago, I bought a cheap LCD-less 256MB MP3 player from Tesco.
Branded Technika, the same is available from Argos as "Ministry of
Sound" and I think also branded "Disgo". Sound quality was lacking - I
was also wondering if a hack could make it better.

The chip inside is an STMP3510 made by sigmatel. I found plenty of sales
info hyping the high quality obtainable from the chip - but no technical
info useful for hacking. I phoned them, and basically got the "we can
give you the information - but you'll have to sign an non-disclosure
agreement". Rats to that...

Hmmm, I think I'll go on another search...

 

[kony]

My impression is that its down to the final audio output stage...
The sound quality is the same for listening to mp3 / wma files & the FM
Tuner
Recordings made on the unit from the Tuner transferred & played on the PC
sound OK.

OK, but, unlike a complex integrated amp, these are usually
using only one or two chips, so the "output stage", besides
the possibility of coupling capacitors, is probably straight
from the chip itself. If that chip can't drive low-z loads
(headphones) well, you either use higher impedance
headphones and (probably) suffer some volume loss, or need a
*buffer* stage, a passive voltage gain stage perhaps too if
volume isn't high enough.

 

[kony]

... a passive voltage gain stage perhaps too if
volume isn't high enough.

Oops, I meant a NON-passive, an active voltage gain stage
.... IOW, an amp.

 

[Trimble]

You are perhaps not understanding the type of players I am referring to.
Do have alook at the Ebay Link I gave in the Original Post. Or this one of
many say
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-8-TFT-2GB-M...ryZ73839QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

What I am on about are many , many models with exactly the same details
description & features....
(the memory size varies, & the case design)

I will try to connect it to a audio amp to see how the sound is at low
output into High impedance .
Mouse
@@@

 

[Adrian C]

What I am on about are many , many models with exactly the same details
description & features....
(the memory size varies, & the case design)

I will try to connect it to a audio amp to see how the sound is at low
output into High impedance .

Recipe for low S/N ratio I think. Generally low impedance 'headphone'
outputs don't have much voltage available to drive Hi-Fi 'line level'
audio circuits. You either end up turning up the volume on the player to
the point where the internal output amplifier clips, or you wind up the
sensitivity of the external amplifier - which then picks up high
frequency noise, or both...

Try a compromise. Who knows, you may be lucky.