Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
this is the Sony vs P99 with the Denon. Pics taken with my phone.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...D8379E14FD.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...B0CD8F1AA6.jpg
FWIW, I showed my wife the Sony and asked which she liked the look of more: the sony or the p99. She said "that one looks ugly" about the Sony.
Personally, I'm neutral. Like I said above, they both match the Denon meters in their own way. I wish Sony hadn't put all those inputs on the front of the headunit. They should have put them on the back with the other USB input... but I suppose they did this for ease of use. Still, I think it would look better with all of the ports on the back.
Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
It's almost a perfect match!
Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
what is the micro USB for?
Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
I love the idea of the sony.....but hate the fact that it has no internal processing. This seems to defeat the purpose of any actual improvement, be it theoretical or actual when judged by ear, of the high resolution capabilities that are the decks coup d'etat, seeing that the signal would be reprocessed yet again, at a lower resolution for signal manipulation.......this therefore rules this unit out as a high resolution source and simply makes it a very expensive preamp. Convenience features of the app aside, am I missing something here? Does the ability to convert dsd, only to downgrade the signal through processing offer any performance advantages related to source material? Or am I way off in my assumptions that available dsp units can't actually handle the signals the sony is able to pass in full resolution?
Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
chad
what is the micro USB for?
USB DAC. Basically what I can tell is it's for DSD source: phones that support DSD or actual computer sources.
Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
erinh
diggin the train pictures.
Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
claydo
I love the idea of the sony.....but hate the fact that it has no internal processing. This seems to defeat the purpose of any actual improvement, be it theoretical or actual when judged by ear, of the high resolution capabilities that are the decks coup d'etat, seeing that the signal would be reprocessed yet again, at a lower resolution for signal manipulation.......this therefore rules this unit out as a high resolution source and simply makes it a very expensive preamp. Convenience features of the app aside, am I missing something here? Does the ability to convert dsd, only to downgrade the signal through processing offer any performance advantages related to source material? Or am I way off in my assumptions that available dsp units can't actually handle the signals the sony is able to pass in full resolution?
I'll preface all the below by saying that this is all my opinion/gear buying choice making steps. I don't expect it is the same for others but that's why we all have our own build logs. lol
These are the things that determine how I buy a headunit:
a) looks
b) function (DSP)
c) GUI
d) sound quality
Ranking those, I'd probably say the order of importance is evenly distributed with a nod toward the looks and GUI. For me the sound quality and DSP aspects are typically less of a concern because most modern electronics today are good... and I'm not buying garbage... and I typically use an external DSP. Cost isn't there because if I really like the headunit I'm OK spending necessary money, at least within reason.
With that said, however, my initial purpose with this build was to rock the P99 as my DSP source so I'd have the 'cleanest possible signal' going to the Mc amps. But, some gear head friends of mine told me to give the Sony a spin (ha!, with no CD drive! ha!). Thus, here I am.
I'm with you in thinking that all the great benefits upstream are subject to what is downstream and in the case of the Sony there certainly would have to be a DSP downstream since it doesn't have DSP built in for active setup. The weakest link in the chain notion. This case is a bit different for me, though. The whole package should be considered... if using an external DSP I gain the ability of PEQ which is greater than GEQ. I lose at-will control of the P99 but that isn't an issue because I don't tweak for hours or fiddle with settings while driving. So the Sony+JL TwK88 combo isn't really 'losing' here.
However, two main things remain to be seen: 1) how I like the Sony on a day-to-day basis: does the app satisfy my needs or does it drive me batty and 2) is there a noticeable difference in SQ when comparing the P99 vs the Sony+JL DSP. #2 is also somewhat a bit tougher because I know for a fact that I can achieve a better in-car response with about 3-5 bands of PEQ than I can with the P99's GEQ but is that better FR overall better than the 'electronics' sound' of the raw P99? I'm not big on sound of electronics. So I'm more apt to be forgiving of that. Then, for me, the weight of the issue comes back to GUI. Of course, this is all without having tested the P99 vs the Sony head-to-head. I plan to do that this weekend. I'll report my findings if they're significant enough. Otherwise the decision between headunits will boil down to personal taste.
Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
erinh
USB DAC. Basically what I can tell is it's for DSD source: phones that support DSD or actual computer sources.
Strange as all of my OTG cables do not end in micro USB..... But I get it.
Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
some more info on how this things works...
As I said in my earlier post, when I first saw this headunit with the small display I thought it was incredibly stupid. Once I got a chance to use it, however, I realized what was going on. Sony intends for people to use their phones - which so many of us have - as the display. Or you can buy a cheap android tablet/iPad to act as the display. You download the app and you use that to navigate the song structure, menu, settings, etc. The app syncs wirelesslessly via Bluetooth so all you do is connect the app to the headunit and you're good to go. You can still use the physical headunit itself or you can control functions via the remote but the app is the real display.
I took some screenshots of my iPhone 6s using said app to give you guys an idea of what it looks like. Note you can rotate the display to view the app in portrait or landscape view. Also, the background color of the app changes with the music. The album art is pulled from Gracenote it seems but I'll need to check to see if it will show embedded art (I know it didn't in this particular case because the album art I have on iTunes is different than what is displayed below).
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...4B9E3AF5DF.png
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...892189E462.png
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...2B59DA8236.png
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...38D2D3B033.png
Radio as the source:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...4AEDF542FC.png
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...0ED93DE7F0.jpg
Song list:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...490F9ABBD0.png
Re: Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
erinh
I realized what was going on. Sony intends for people to use their phones - which so many of us have - as the display. Or you can buy a cheap android tablet/iPad to act as the display. You download the app and you use that to navigate the song structure, menu, settings, etc. The app syncs wirelesslessly via Bluetooth so all you do is connect the app to the headunit and you're good to go. You can still use the physical headunit itself or you can control functions via the remote but the app is the real display.
How is it to use the app while driving? I see that you can change source and volume, track etc. at the head unit itself, but how about changing songs? albums? Assuming you can scroll through with the head unit, but then does that end up limiting the app to something you use while stopped?
Paired with your Denon it looks gorgeous!