Playbutton audio quality!
 

so I have bought 4 playbuttons from amazon. when i started listen to it i was in shock! the audio quality is ridiculously crap i couldn't even keep listening to it!!! It's not me being picky or something. To be honest I cant really tell the difference between, say, 128K mp3 and 320K mp3, maybe only very slight differnce i can be able 2 tell but almost the same. but the playbutton really surprised me!! i feel like it doenst have the bass at all, the music is very thin, it just feels like its gonna split , its just awful!!

btw I'm using the monster beat tour earphone so its not because i have a crap earphone.

So I was then having discussions with other ppl on ayufans forum, and the conclusion I get is as follows:

The quality of the audio itself is good, the problem is the playbutton itself. it cant provide enough power to the earphone, especially if you have a nice pair of one. Normally the better the earphone is , the higher the impedance is, which means it requires more power from the player. So to prove this is correct, I used another pair of earphone, which is the apple earphone (the one comes in the box when u buy ipod), so its quite a standard earphone, and it has a lower impedance compared to my monster beat earphone. When i used it 2 listen to the playbutton, the music did sound a bit better, but there is still a very big obvious difference if i use it to play my ipod.
Then I used my speaker to play the playbutton, the music sounds perfect. I guess its because the speaker has its own power supply it doesnt really require power from the playbutton.

That is my conclusion. but im still very disappointed. so I suggest that if u want it just as a collection its fine, but if u want 2 actually play music then it's not a choice at all. If anyone else who has bought playbutton let me know if you have the same problem! thanks

^^I just posted about this is the news playbutton thread. Yeah, it's true. The audio quality is pretty crappy. But oh well, they look pretty, and since I won't be using them for anything but a display, I don't care too much. :)

And I was listening with my BOSE in-ear earphones.

Still sucks for people who plan to use them though...like wtf. lol

man... i was thinking about getting one, but it would of only been for show...
I have my ipod for the good stuff!

i wanted to actually wear it and play it tho! they look so cute and are very light! its good when ur going for a run or something... but well... still cant believe the sound quality is so crap!!!!

:tired:tired its a bit tooooo pricy if u cant really listen to it but only look at it hehe!!! but they look really cute tho!! im still jealous of u getting all 18 playbuttons!!! look stunning!!!

^^So buy one!!

its nice 2 have one tho, just too look at lol

I feel like the buttons were made solely as a collector's item. I wouldn't even take them out of the packaging. It's like the NEXT LEVEL USB, I wouldn't take it out and start inserting it everywhere. (who knows what viruses it might contract)

I SUPPOSE I could pin the buttons to my backpack and plug my headphones into whichever one I feel like listening to, for novelty's sake.

So the audio is bad? Then I'm not buying any lol

Too bad :(

too bad to hear this. but i still am tempted by the cute design >_<

haish too bad, just like what i expected, the sound quality won't be good.

I was going to buy some just for display purposes but at over €30 each it's too expensive for me. I'll just have to live without them :P

It sucks that the quality is bad on 'em, though. :/

ew gross. I actually wanted to buy them. :(

I mean, I wouldn't actively use them...but on the off chance I decide, "hey I want to use my ______ album today" I don't want the audio to be ****** :/

I never planned on buying one, but now I'm even more convinced that it would be a bad purchase. I don't have the money to buy things to not use and just "look at", so I would actually use it if I bought one. But, that's never happening now.

:D:D Leo is dead
:eviltongu well it's bad though
:rolleyes

I half-expected this, to be honest. Maybe because the last artist merch I bought (earphones from V6's Sexy Honey Bunny concert) were absolutely dreadful quality, broke after one use and with shipping they cost six times more than my usual brand. So I don't really trust things like this. But they do make cute collectors items. :)

So overall, it isn't worth it to buy one?
I kinda wanted to parade the streets with that Union Jack and black heart w/quaver...
But if the audio is unsavoury, then there's no point... :(

Oh man I was actually going to buy one...

its very cute design and nice 2 look at and maybe nice for collection purpose. but if u actually want 2 use it 2 listen 2 it its a disaster lol

^^Yeah, just for crazy collectors like me. I got them, love them, adore them, any ayu fan would love them, but I'm still trying to justify spending $700 lol

I see..
They do look very nice but I don't want to spend that much money on a pin.
Maybe if it were a lot cheaper and JUST a pin, then maybe.

^^I DO think they're quite overpriced, especially the older albums up until maybe Love songs. They should be 1500 yen :/

Aw really? That's kinda disappointing, I was thinking about getting one or two of my faves but if they don't sound good then forget it :/

Say what you will but I honestly can't STAND to listen to music if it sounds crappy. I mean, under the most extreme situations, like, if it was the only choice I had in a time with no other music I guess I would deal, but yeah, damn.

^^I agree. I'm hearing though, that if you play them through speakers or something, that they sound MUCH better...something to do with the power supply? Idk...but like I said, I used BOSE earphones to listen, and I mean...they're BOSE, they're known for fantastic audio quality, and they sounded like **** with those, so... :/

^ Even with quality headphones the audio quality is horrible? Who's wonderful idea was it to release something of such quality? Yuck...
If I spend 33ish Canadian dollars on something, I expect some quality stuff. I'm extremely picky about buying things.
Like, I won't buy CDs with even a scratch on the case or I will ONLY buy the Japanese press of Ayu CDs/DVDs. Im even worse with the quality, my ears are so sensitive that I pick everything up.

^^I'm with you. I only buy Japanese press and like everything in perfect condition.

For about ~$30 each, why the hell couldn't the quality be 320kbps? I don't get it.

I can see that, but I imagine the appeal of them is being portable and an easy listen, just pop in the headphones and bam.

Maybe future releases will be improved.

^ maybe if it was 320kbps, they would have cost a lot more?
The play buttons did seem kind of rushed to me, they just popped out of nowhere one day while I was browsing some forum. Seems as though they had to shove 18 ayu albums on a pin as soon as possible to coincide with Party Queen's release..

^^I don't see why it would have cost more. The quality should have been a given.

^ It's the only reason I can think of. That or putting music technology inside a pin is not full proof yet...

^Or they were just ****ing lazy. I'm sure space wasn't an issue, I'm sure there was plenty of it on the drive in the button.

Man, I wish electronics in general weren't so damn expensive in Japan. It's such a rip off.

Surprise, surprise? :shrug

^^^If only electronics weren't expensive, then importing them wouldn't be a complete nightmare. Since you got all 18 play buttons, it must have been a nightmare. thats 2800 yen times 17 plus 3000 yen. Thats 50,600 yen, then converting the money and shipping... Oh dear...
Also, I agree with the laziness. That seems like the most reasonable reason (lol)

^^Yup, that's about how much I spent. ****ing ridiculous. LOL

^ But they must look really nice, no?

^^Definitely, they're adorable. Even tinier than I expected. I posted pics if you're curious.

^ I already saw them lol
They're so TINY XD
I'd get the RnRC one over any of them cuz that Union Jack would look so cool on my bag :)

I'm glad they used the GOOD covers for certain albums (like Rock 'n' Roll Circus, (miss) understood, Party Queen), rather than the ones I really don't care for.

To be honest, I think playbutton is another failure product.

^^Why don't you like them?

hahaha yeah exactly!! when u use a speaker to play it the sound quality is just like CD! i guess its because the speaker doesnt really use the power from the playbutton!! but when it comes 2 headphone, its a disaster...

The audio format in the playbutton is ogg, and I think the audio itself is a very good quality ( I would say probably at least the same quality as 320K mp3), and u can tell that if u use speaker 2 listen 2 it. but i mean the problem is the playbutton itself, it doesnt have enough power to support the headphones 2 play the audio :S I really do think playbutton is a failure!! >,<

my ears arent that sensitive but i can still tells the huge difference. I mean its not even the question of the difference between quality of 128K mp3 and 320mp3, its just that there is just a big designning problem with the playbutton itself!!! no matter how good the audio quality it is inside the playbutton, if the playbutton itself cannot provide enough power to deliver the audio wots the point?

they are cute :) If you wanna sell your playbuttons cheaper here I am :D

that is really unfortunate. I mean, ogg is fine. It makes sense to use another format other than mp3 because mp3 really isnt that efficient. So people need to know that's not the issue...

but anyways, maybe they thought it wouldnt matter since most people wouldn't use them as their default players? :/ Either way, it's not cool, and personally, I'd complain to the manufacturers.

I have sent an email to the playbutton official contact address and got a reply, it says they didn't have any problems when they tested their playbuttons and it sounds perfectly fine. It even says that its tested by lots of artist include lady gaga and everyone agrees that the quality is good, at the standards of how music is reproduced today in portable devices played through headphones of diverse quality.

I was very surprised by that reply because my playbuttons are no where near "normal quality', they are just unlistenable. So I think there is only two possibility, one is that they know the problem but just don't admit it, the other possibility is that maybe ayumi's playbuttons are not the same quality as the one they are selling on their playbutton official website, maybe not manufactured by the same company or things like that. I have sent another email and now waiting for a reply.

I just ordered the Memorial address playbutton, I just love that mini album and the design look really cool.

^^I think you'll be happy with it, just don't expect superb sound quality.