Colorfly can rightly be considered a patriarch of "player-making". It was their C4 model that became one of the first portable devices using a serious DAC and amplifier. The design of this model is still, perhaps, the most unusual among all portable players. Relatively recently, Colorfly decided that we should try ourselves and in the mid-budget market, and we released the C200.
The novelty first of all pleases with an unusual appearance: the skewed parallelepiped of the case looks boldly and unusually, the combination of metal and an insert from a leatherette creates the effect of "high cost", but thus not so pathos, as at C4. The filling is not known very much, inside a chip from ESS, the exact model is not reported. Colorfly says that this is a special chip, developed by them together with ESS, but I strongly doubt this. However, the price for a novelty is exposed most that is not available, can be cheaper than 18 000 rubles.
Specifications
- DAC: from ESS Technologies
- Central Processing Unit : JZ4760
- Frequency range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz
- Total Harmonic Distortion: <0.0012% (at the headphone output)
- Signal to noise ratio: > 109 dB (at the headphone output)
- Output Power: ~ 80 mW @ 32Ω
- Supported formats: DSD, DFF, FLAC, APE, WAV, CUE, MP3
- Supported resolution: up to 192 kHz / 32 bit
- Memory: MicroSD up to 64 GB
- Screen: 2.6 ", 320 × 240
- Input: MicroUSB
- Outputs: 3.5mm TRS on headphones, 3.5mm TRS linear
- Battery: 3.7V, 3400 mAh
- Operating time from one charge: ~ 8 h
- Dimensions: 64 mm × 110 mm × 19 mm
- Weight: 160g
Packing and delivery kit
The manufacturer has tried to make the player from the packaging look more expensive than its real price, and he did it. A box of black cardboard with silver and white printing looks quite stylish, especially with a red strip-divider on its side. On the underside of the box traditionally placed the TTX player.
Inside the box, the player and everything that comes with it are carefully attached: the instruction (there is the Russian language), the protective film on the screen (I immediately pasted it with bubbles, however, as always) and the USB-string in a separate box.
Of course, I would like some more cover, but it would be too much for the price of the model.
Design and management
Here's the look of the Colorfly worked out uniquely, the player looks decent even against the backdrop of the top models of other manufacturers. The case of polished aluminum has an unusual parallelogram shape with slightly rounded corners. On the back and partly left panel there is an insert from the skin (I doubt that it is natural, but it looks good). Complement is the longitudinal texture of the metal, stored on the body of the player.
On the right side there are buttons for volume control, they are made very bulging out of the case, so they are easy to grope and press. Immediately made a latch for fastening the lace. Hardly anyone will wear a 160-gram player on a string, so this eyelet is more of a decorative character.
On the underside there is a memory card slot, a MicroUSB slot for charging, accessing data and connecting the player in USB-DAC mode, and a reset hole.
Above there are two outputs - linear and for headphones, and in Colorfly separately warn in the instruction that it is not necessary to confuse them and fans to include headphones in the "linear" can damage the player. About this warning, of course, I doubt, but did not check, because initially I do not see in such actions the meaning.
The main part of the interface is located on the front panel. By tradition, the top is the screen. Despite the normal resolution, the screen is very faded, and even on a moderately cloudy day on the street to discern something is problematic. The screen is color-coded, but the interface does not spoil color, it uses gray-blue gamma, in which almost the entire interface is executed. The playback screen does not show the covers, but there is a fun enough columnar level indicator. The rest of the UI is very simple, after turning on the player displays the contents of your memory card, you select the desired folder, file and listen. Simple and effective.
The control buttons are only five, so they are heavily overloaded with functions. In general, their purpose can be understood from the images. Buttons with arrows rewind tracks, they also serve for navigation. The button with a red dot on long press turns the player on and off, it also serves for selection in the menu and for playback and pause. The button with the letter "m" with a short press adds a track to the favorites, and at long - opens the settings menu. The last key is used to return back. In general, everything is trivial, but it frustrates the absence of some very familiar things like a media library or even just remembering the playback position when turning off.
The player has average survivability, from one charge of the battery, it played 8 hours 40 minutes (FLAC 44.1 / 16 for 50% of the volume with Mee P1 as a load), although the result depends on the format of the music and the selected headphones.
Sound
To listen to the device used the following headphones: ZMF Omni, Meze 99 Classics, Lear LHF-AE1d, Ambient Acoustics AM10, HiFiMan HE-400S, Audio Zenith PMx2, Noble Kaiser K10AU, Campfire Audio Jupiter, Dita Audio Brass.
If you evaluate the pitch of the player "in general" and take into account the price, then the sound of this model is quite successful. The C200 offers a slightly tasty sound with a slight emphasis on the lower part of the range (at the junction of LF and MF), the player is perceived as lively and musical, the resolution is not a record, but not bad.
If you compare the player with the more expensive models, you get this situation.
The bass is average in speed, it is not prohibitively fast, but overall it is very good. An attempt is made to accent low frequencies, and the upper part of their range, at the junction with the middle frequencies. Due to the speed of the bass, this accent is not perceived as an extra biting or resilience, but rather as an increase in massiveness. In general, for the vast majority of tracks detailing LF in this player is enough, the texture of the bass is transmitted at a normal level.
Medium frequencies are fast and clean, occasionally there is even a feeling that the player slightly "clean" them out of the norm, taking away the smallest details (most often this is of varying degrees of writing flaws). In general, this is in favor of badly recorded tracks, although the "audiophile" records suffer from this. However, for the latter you obviously need a player with a price many times higher. The emotions embedded in the recording are transmitted by the player normally, the imaginary scene is more than the average in width and the average in depth. The nature of the instruments is transmitted reliably, although on live recordings there is a tendency to reduce the imaginary distance between performers.
On the upper frequencies to the player there are no complaints at all. Of course, to the level of expensive tops, they do not hold out, but due to thoroughness and the overall balance, the C200 is quite capable of competing with players in the middle price segment. The upper frequencies balance well the emphasis on the lower midrange, which in part adds to the player's feel of the very "lightness" and "airiness".
By tradition, there are few comparisons
Fiio X3-2. If we put a giant gap in usability and firmware quality beyond the brackets, and compare pure sound, then Fiio sounds a little "boring", this is due to the lack of accents and the worst study of high-frequency, although the mid-range Fiio sounds clearly better. Well, do not forget about the fact that the price of the X3-2 has recently become noticeably smaller.
Fiio X5-2. Comparable in price model, in addition to better control and two memory cards, offers a more energetic sound, with a light touch of "anger". In some genres, this is good, in some cases it hinders. In general, the difference between these players is close to the taste, although microdynamics is slightly better for Fiio.
Shanling M2. In M2, the Shanling developers tried to achieve a "vintage" feed, so it sounds more relaxed than the C200, without the emphasis on LF and with a little less detail. At the same time, the M2 M2 is intentionally made so that it can not be annoyed under any circumstances, which resulted in unnatural feeding in their places.
Lotoo Paw 5000. The player, undeservedly circumvented by attention. In addition to the pleasant interface and general positive impressions from UI / UX, it offers a good sound, although to the "level" the C200 is a bit short. Lotoo sounds more neutral and works out the depth of the scene.
Aune M2. A player that takes one more step towards "vintage" - more massive LF, less HF, less detailed MF, in general - a sound for fans of such a presentation, but only for them.
HiFiMan 603. If you immediately try to summarize, then the conclusions will roughly coincide with the previous paragraph: for connoisseurs of the specific filing of this player. If to compare "on frequencies", at 603 more biting bass, more emotionally average frequencies and perceptibly worse than HF development.
Compatibility
Even the power figure hints at the fact that the player is designed for IEM and sensitive full-size. Something more tight and high-resistance player does not shake, and it was not planned for this. To the choice of headphones, it is not picky, so you can choose according to your own preferences. I especially liked Oriveti Primacy, HiFiMan Re600 and Meze.
The genre player is quite universal, although, for my taste, it is best suited for rock, jazz, chamber music. It is also good on modern styles such as pop and simple electronics. The player is tolerant to the quality of records, on a 10-point scale, I would rate it at 5.
As usual, several sample tracks
Slayer - Human Strain. Some of the world leaders of the genre of trash metal very well fit this player. Forced low frequencies give melodies weight and pressure, and a good study of HF allows better transfer work Lombardo. It's even a pity that this album was the last one with Dave's participation.
Joey Belladonna - Strangers in the Night. Of course, to collect a variety of popular metal vocalists and get them to sing songs of Sinatra - an idea hooligan, but it's very funny. And Joseph is here - one of the best in terms of "success in solving problems" (compared with the same Tim Owens). On the one hand, he gave the classical song his character, on the other - it remained recognizable. C200, in turn, does a good job of transferring all this disgrace.
Arne Domnerus - Things Is not What They Used To Be. One of the best atmospheric jazz records for many years is for me a "benchmark" for assessing the source and the first in the list of recommendations "what to listen to from jazz to enjoy." Of course, the C200 on this track is not as good as its three times more expensive counterparts, but it does a very good job of transferring the atmosphere of this concert, plunging you into that atmosphere.
conclusions
In general, Colorfly made an interesting model that looks stylish and has its own, quite good sound, which will find connoisseurs. Unfortunately, there were some flaws, in the role of which there are flaws in the firmware and a bad screen, but they are designed to compensate for a pleasant price.
The article is based on materials .
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