Recommend a portable audio player

[sdamaged99]

I've just managed to grab some Grado SR125i headphones off Ebay for £80, got the extension cable too.

Now i need a portable audio device to play my FLAC files, anyone have any recommendations?

Also, do i need a headphone amplifier like a Fiio to drive these?

Many thanks

[nikavelli]

Originally Posted by sdamaged99

Also, do i need a headphone amplifier like a Fiio to drive these?

They're only rated at 32 Ohms.

[Agent-A01]

A zune..



jk lol

[sdamaged99]

Originally Posted by nikavelli

They're only rated at 32 Ohms.

I'm assuming that means yes then?

[nikavelli]

Originally Posted by sdamaged99

I'm assuming that means yes then?

The answer is no, you don't need a headphone amp to drive them.

[pokerapar88]

Originally Posted by sdamaged99

I've just managed to grab some Grado SR125i headphones off Ebay for £80, got the extension cable too.

Now i need a portable audio device to play my FLAC files, anyone have any recommendations?

Also, do i need a headphone amplifier like a Fiio to drive these?

Many thanks

WMA ftw

[proteo]

if you don't mind transcoding your files to other lossless format (apple lossless), I would suggest an iPod classic, the 160GB HDD would let you take a big selection of music with you, the battery last up to 36 hours, or you could install the Rockbox firmware on the iPod and use your FLAC files without transcoding.

If you want to squeeze every last drop of quality from the iPod you can use a line out adapter and a external headphone amplifier like the Fiio E7 or the E17.

I use an iPod classic because it's the only mp3 player with a hard drive I can find locally and there are lots of accessories almost everywhere.

[heymian]

Originally Posted by pokerapar88

WMA ftw

WMA is awful. Much better standards out there.

Originally Posted by proteo

If you want to squeeze every last drop of quality from the iPod you can use a line out adapter and a external headphone amplifier like the Fiio E7 or the E17.

Why would he need an amplifier for 32 ohm headphones..

32 ohm is like standard for headphones. It's meant to plug directly into your phone or ipods or front panels, etc.

I drive my 50-ohm HD595's without amplification, they sound remarkable.

Plug the Grado's directly into the iPod, that will give you the best sound quality. Don't bother running line out cables and passing the signal through external devices. It's not necessary in your situation and will most likely degrade sound quality.

[Agent-A01]

Any ipod needs to be amped. My headphones soun like junk compared to my
Pc on my iphone

[proteo]

Originally Posted by heymian

Why would he need an amplifier for 32 ohm headphones..

32 ohm is like standard for headphones. It's meant to plug directly into your phone or ipods or front panels, etc.

I drive my 50-ohm HD595's without amplification, they sound remarkable.

Plug the Grado's directly into the iPod, that will give you the best sound quality. Don't bother running line out cables and passing the signal through external devices. It's not necessary in your situation and will most likely degrade sound quality.

Sorry, I don't think I explained myself correctly, rather than the iPod needing an amplifier (it can drive those headphones without problem), I was talking about skipping the integrated headphone amplifier and using the line out to drive a higher quality amplifier to change the sound signature of the output. Just like some people may prefer to replace the opamps, capacitors or other parts from a soundcard, receiver, etc. to change the sound to their preferences.

I prefer the sound of my soundcard over the iPod when using the same headphones, which work without any problem at all on both, it's just that the quality of the DAC and amplifier is a lot better on the computer. I think that you could even skip the iPod's DAC if you wanted, at least that the way it works on my car, sending the audio through the USB port on the car's audio system.

You don't need to do that, just plugging better headphones to the iPod will work, but there is always something else you can try if you want to improve the quality of your music, it's your choice how far in to the rabbit hole you want to fall.

[heymian]

Well if he wants to carry around an amplifier everywhere he goes, that's his thing. Seems kind of impractical to me since he wants portability. Plus all headphones are different.

[Anarion]

Buy a phone that has good DAC and FLAC support. In my opinion portable players are useless nowadays.

[DirkHardpeck]

I would like to recommend Creative's line of "Xi-Fi" portable media players but uh...yeah, I can't do that in all good conscience.

For portable media, I absolutely hate to say that I stick with a couple of iPod Classics and encode everything to Apple lossless (ALAC), or *GASP* deal with my old 320kbps mp3 files from before they made ALAC open source. I keep one in my car and one connected to the hi-fi, and pull one or the other (usually my car) when I travel. It works well enough I suppose. Currently I leave everything on my computer as FLAC but it's getting old keeping 2 different sets of the same music.

With your headphones, of course you won't need an amp, but like proteo said, you may prefer one for a different/better flavor...although honestly, IMO, if the iPod can drive the headphones, and you're in a situation where portability is at least somewhat important and I dunno, you're on a train or plane or whatever and aren't using super noise-cancelling cans/buds, it's probably not worth it. I take a Fiio amp with me when I travel for listening in hotel rooms and such, where honestly, it's barely worth it (highest impedance cans I have are 50 ohms). I think I just do it because I am a snob. As far as getting superior overall sound, not just driving higher impedance headphones, I think your real improvements come from non-portable, real deal DAC's and amps anyway. I wouldn't sweat bringing an amp with you everywhere.