vB Easy Archive - Pleasant surprise, Curve audio quality

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Pleasant surprise, Curve audio quality
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Posted by: naschbac

I've had my new BB Curve for a day and a half.

I snagged a 2 gig microSD card from CompUSA for $25 and decided to load some music from my iTunes library on it.

The interface for interacting with the music is pretty typical, though it's pleasantly designed. I wish I could scrub through songs in realtime, but other than that it picks up album art and tag data perfectly on all the AAC tracks I loaded onto it.

The real kicker is...

The sound quality is INCREDIBLE. It's much better than any other handheld or portable device I've used so far. This includes every generation of the iPod except the latest nano & iPhone, and also a SonyEricsson w810i.

It's a tad bit thick in the midrange, but it gives it a sound I equate with an old tube integrated-amp I used to have in my stereo setup. Stereo separation is definitely a cut above my iPod nano.

I'll have to load some WAV files onto it and hook it to my ONIX Reference 3 setup to see how it holds up. Crosstalk on every other portable device I've ever hooked up has completely killed any semblance of sound-stage. I'll have to see how the Curve holds up.

Anyone know what DAC solution RIM decided to go with in this thing?

Posted by: Magik

I'm expecting my curve in a couple of days - can't wait. One of the reasons I'm leaving my MDA is because I heard of how good the BB OS is. Good to know the BB music player sounds good too. I like the fact that the BB has a 3.5 earphone jack also. Can you give me some insight on how you feel the video player is.

Thanks,
Magik

Posted by: Aurora-Project

The first generation Shuffles kick the crap out of any phone, sound quality wise. Not that I think the Curve isn't good sounding, but it's certainly not better than a first gen Shuffle.

Posted by: naschbac

It's been way too long since I last had a 1st gen shuffle to be able to say one way or the other. The Curve definitely sounds better than my current gen shuffle.

One funny thing about the Curve is that it swaps the stereo channels. I'm almost embarrassed to say I noticed that.

I filed a bug with RIM about it, so hopefully it's fixed in a future software upgrade.

I haven't had a chance to use the video player yet. I was trying to convert some episodes of "The Office" from the iTMS, but the FairPlay DRM has been getting in my way.