Hi-Fi Audio Ultra-Fi DIY Headphile Blog - Stereo-Untypical

Some great deals on the first-gen Microsoft Zune 30 MP3 players these days — I picked up a brown Zune 30 for $79 and a black one for $99 for my daughter, on the Woot.com daily deals. These were refurbished units with full warranty — both arrived mint, like new. I am pretty picky and honestly I couldn’t tell they were refurbs at all. 30 gigabytes of storage is great; these DAP’s also play video, and have a big bright 3″ LCD screen. Video frame rate is very smooth, both music and video playback have been flawless. Microsoft has just released the new Zunes and the new firmware and Zune software. Zune is now the best selling DAP after the iPod. Oh, they have FM tuners included as well.

They’ve been seen at similar prices since then on Buy.com and Amazon, but you may have to dig around to find them at that price. Check it out….very nice machine and makes a great Christmas gift!

Tags: Digital, Portable by admin
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What’s this gray plastic pod doing in the middle of my desktop hi-fi? Well, this comes as no news to many, but the Sony 1001 and 5501 (1st gen Playstations) appear to have some stellar sonic qualities when used as CD players! A friend whose Arcam CDP finally konked out mentioned this, and I gave it a try. I have to say, the thing sound pretty damn good. Decent resolution, no digital glare, and it’s actually ‘musical’. Wow…not bad. I doubt it’ll best any multi-kilobuck rigs, but I get a perverse sense of satisfaction listening to this piece. I gave mine some audiophile cred by putting a few Vibrapods under it.

Best of all, you can find these almost anywhere for under $10. In fact, you might just have one collecting dust in the basement somewhere. Give it a shot & post a comment! Always good to keep an open mind.

Tags: Digital by admin
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