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Written by ACE
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Tuesday, 20 November 2007 |
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 You may or may not know the new Zunes do not come with an EQ. None. Zip. Nada. Why is that when the Zune 30 does? Well Microsoft told Donald Bell in his latest article, in which he addresses issues he had with the new Zunes, the old Zunes' hardware will support an EQ, but the newer Zunes have different hardware which push 32 ohms to the headphones, which (i'm assuming) makes having an EQ unnessary. MS contends the new Zunes have superior sound. Read on...
 Microsoft's decision to remove the EQ was very deliberate. In fact, when I spoke with Microsoft about the EQ issue, I learned that the EQ removal goes down to the very roots of the hardware, where they optimized the audio signal path to maximize both audio quality and battery life. In other words, don't expect Microsoft to add EQ back into the Zune with a firmware upgrade--the new hardware simply doesn't support it.....Despite my whimpering about the removal of the EQ, Microsoft seems fairly confident that the latest crop of Zunes offer audio quality equal or better than the first-gen Zunes (which many considered better than the iPod's). In an e-mail conversation I had with Jason Reindorp, Zune's marketing director, he said, "we've gone to great lengths to ensure top quality throughout like with the signal path, delivering 32 ohms to the headsets, ensuring we compare very favorably to other devices like iPod in terms of signal to noise ratio."
From personal experience, I would have to agree with MS. My new Zune 80 sounds much deeper, more rich than my Zune 30 with the same earbuds. The processor is much faster (just watch the boot up screen for the Zune 80 - the Zune 30 moves uniformly, but the new Zunes power through as they start up the new firmware - skipping and booting much faster)
But what does Microsoft know? What do I know? What do you think? Head on into the forums where there's a poll for you to vote and give your own personal views.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 November 2007 )
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