Topic author: Gauge
Subject: Neuros II, Myfi, and .ogg files
Posted on: 07/06/2004 4:07:35 PM
Message:

I declare this to be the official thread for .oggs and Myfi performance on the Neuros II from now and forevermore. Hear yee.

In summary, I got a Neuros II in the mail today and quickly loaded on the new firmware and 1 album of songs. The album was by Frost, this Norwegian downtempo electronic group with female vocals... the ultimate test for Myfi. On the Neuros 1 Myfi, the quiet parts of the songs were riddled with static and anytime she made an 's' sound, it came out more like a 'sh' sound... well NO MORE!

I went into my car and tried out some new frequencies in the low end of the spectrum. By the way, the Neuros now can transmit from 87.5 to 107.9 MHz. Living in the Washington D.C. area with a cluttered radio spectrum, this feature helps out a TON. I used to listen to on 101.7, but even on that frequency I could faintly pick up another station.

I searched in the low area of the spectrum and found that 87.9 (the lowest my car stereo can tune to) was pure static. I set the transmission to "stereo" (instead of mono), tuned both the Neuros and the stereo to 87.9 and put on a quiet Frost song.... I was amazed. I heard NO/very little CPU noise in the transmission. Just to further test things out, I set both the Neuros and my stereo to 101.7 MHz. Even on that frequency that I'd been using for almost a year, there was much improvement in the form of less static and noise in the quiet parts of songs. 87.9 MHz was still much better though.

And all of this was before I plugged in my really cheap external antenna to the RF port. I don't know the exact measurements, but it's basically a male-to-female adapter I plug into the RF port and it allows me to plug the Neuros headphones into the other side. So I use the Neuros headphones as an antenna. After hooking this in, the sound opened up.... that is, I realized it sounded a bit muffled before. This is good news for those of you out there who did the RF port and antenna mods to your Neuros; you'll see an even greater improvement.

As for whether or not the .ogg files still skip, only time will tell. I did notice that there is a slight skip at the beginning of some tracks when I was hitting the FF button to get to the next song, but I'm sure it's a minor problem and will be fixed in an upcoming firmware. If anybody else would like to post their findings on .ogg file performance over Myfi, please do so here. Right now, it looks like I finally got the player that I was hoping for when I ordered the first Neuros last year!


Gauge


EDIT: One thing I forgot to elaborate on: The problem with the harsh 's' sounds. It was initially still there when I tried out the Neuros II, so I turned down the Myfi gain all the way. Now that the CPU noise/intereference is no longer as prominent as it was with the Neuros 1, the harsh 's' sounds are gone AND the signal is clean!