After getting home tonight, I’ve done some A/B testing with my PC (iTunes and Foobar2000) and the SanDisk. Does the SanDisk really have stereo sound over headphones?
This particular track (3 Inches of Blood - Fear on the Bridge) has a lot of guitar dropping in and out in and out, with the rest of the band in tacet. In all other sources I’ve ever heard, there is a section where the rhythm guitar is playing solo strongly in the right channel ~1:55.
On the SanDisk, it is dead center. My theory, since it is blending left and right into one channel, since right channel is feeding the audio in that part, there is a noticable audio drop (not to mention complete innaccuracy in playback).
I just tried it with a pair of decent headphones (Audio Technica ART A700) and there definitely is major issues with the stereo picture, this does not appear to be an EQ issue.
