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This is a suprisingly good mp3 player from China.  The Oppo V9 plays FLAC, APE, and of course mp3 and wma.  The output hisses less than the iAudio Cowon D2, Samsung T9, and the Meizu M6, with a sound signature that is close to iAudio - bright.  It even comes with the Sennheiser MX400, like some iAudio players do.  Its FM reception is as good as it gets in a mp3 player.  My only gripe is about the laggy interface, especially when browsing through the files….

**Update**
Just an update about the laggy interface:  The newest official firmware fixes this problem.

It’s everything I wanted: little hiss, flat but clear sound, great FM reception.  Just a bit too bulky though.

It must have been years since I bought any blank CD-Rs (yeah you heard me, CD-Rs), but thanks to a friend of mine, I just realized that we ran out of them. Since I just bought a home CD player setup and I download Audio CD images, I figure I should buy a pack (and not worry about it for the next 10 years or something).

So I went to a local BestBuy and saw the Fujifilm 30-pack was on sale, but there were two different kinds of packaging for the same item (with the same barcode). One of them is yellow in color and it’s made in Taiwan. Fair enough, I thought. Then I took a look at the blue pack and it’s MADE IN JAPAN! Needless to say I happily bought the blue pack.

So, any physical difference between these and cheaper ones?

This is a no-name brand.

This is the one I just bought.

They are shot within a 5-minute span: same light conditions and same phone camera. Forgive my phone camera for failing to focus on the light rays, but clearly there are a lot less irregular reflections on the Fujifilm ones.

Does it matter for computer use? I wouldn’t care much, since computer can attempt to read trouble spots over and over again until it gets the bits right (though while in the process it would hang up your computer).

I think where it matters is when used with CD players, since CD players usually make a lot less attempts at reading the disc (maybe even just one).

Bottom line:
While I don’t feel like paying $10 for a mastering-quality CDR, I would definitely avoid no-name ones for audio use.

(Yeah, I know, I guess no one burns Audio CDs anymore.)

My dream headphone - AKG K701！

舊年其實都試過用full size headphone，不過果對太大，總係跌，放棄，以為呢世人都唔會再試… 結果今次又忍唔住手… 今次呢對竟然唔覺得大到跌… 音質嘛… 呢對 headphone 特質係音場闊、人聲突出，加上有現場感… 而 sound signature 同 Etymotic 差唔多，都係著重高、中音，低音唔係冇，不過唔好旨意佢播 rock music… 。

之前因為想送個細o既 mp3 player 俾細妹，所以忽然上網搵o左好多資料… 佢要o既功能比較多，一定要有 bookmark、A-B repeat等，以前係得 iAudio 先有齊呢類功能，但加拿大難買得到 (我有部舊的 iAudio5，但係以一個絕對唔抵o既價錢買的)… 依家 Samsung 都有型號有齊呢類功能了 — Samsung T9！ 音色方面比起 iAudio 系列係少o左o的細節同高頻，但換來一個比較空曠的音場，對於出街用o黎講，可以話係正… 結果買一部送俾細妹之外，我都買o左一部俾自己。