Cowon A2

Well, I do not own an a2, however if you will not be using it for video, it will be an overkill for 30GB with a price of over $300. a2 is a media player, using it only for music won't do it justice IMHO.

I did not get, what you meant by that.

Well, I did not hear the bass roll-off people are talking about with standard dock + rnb diamond mini-to mini or with cryo dock from ALO and both cables combined with Hornet amp. Maybe it is because of a newer firmware, maybe because of the quality of the cables or maybe because of Hornet, I do not know (headfiers with similar experiences, please comment on that). Did you own an x5 and suffered from bass roll-off or do your comments based on what people are saying?

Another option will be an imod (no, I do not have it), people only say good things about it. Buy a refurbished ipod 4th gen 60gb and send it to be converted to imod. Or: Buy an iriver ihp-140 (h140) from ebay and a Micro Dac from Headroom with a mini-to-mini optical cable from sysconcept (can be ordered with different lengths and their cables are nice) and a good mini-to-mini cable (this combination will be the most expensive option and a very good one, will give you a better sound quality compared to x5 + quality cables + amp) and install Rockbox. The latter combination is not portable (you will need at least a small video camera bag for those), the imod+amp won't require such a big bag. Of course the least expensive option is x5 + ALO cryo dock (considering that you will buy quality cables with other options too). There is no bass roll-off I hear with this set-up, you can have 60GB of space, a very small screen for not so important video feature and again flac support.

Before anyone jumps on me because of making comments about things that I do not own, please consider that I specified the items that I do not have (a2 & imodded ipod) and did not say anything about their sound.

I do not own a2 so I do not know anything about its line-out, but a cable has nothing to do with the internal circuitry, that's why I did not understand what you meant by that.

I do have a x5 and as I said, with the combinations I am using it, I cannot hear that bass roll-off. So, even there is such a thing, to me it is way in"significant". As I said, it is maybe because of a newer firmware or because of the cables I am using, I do not know. However, I strongly suggest that you do a listening session with different dap's before buying an a2 or any other dap, if those are easily available (in that case, I am not talking about an imod ipod or iriver h1xx+Micro Dac combination, since they are very rare). a2 is a media player, if you do not want to (or better said, are not going to) use it for videos, you are paying too much for it.

I guess you're LittleGhost on the iAudiophile forum?

As I stated in that post, the line out definitely bypasses the internal amp, though the volume level is still software controlled (0-40). I think you need to set the volume to at or near 40 to make it work effectively as a line output. I can't really comment on the quality from the line out into a headphone amp since I don't have a headphone amp yet.

Hey, if you speak Korean, be my guest!

While you're at it, get them to fix the shuffle function. *grumble*

I have an A2. Someone correct me if I'm wrong (because that would mean it's just my unit, and I could fix that), but the line-out is garbage.

First off, it's not a line-out per se, it's one of those 4-ringed A/V outputs.

Second, the volume control still effects it, with the volume out of it being roughly equal to the headphone jack, leading me to believe that there's still amp-action to it.

Third, the sound is, for lack of a better word, whacked. The soundstage is gone, it's literally half-way to mono output. I find the headphone out superior. Blatantly superior. At least on my A2, the line out is NOT a line out.

I'm hoping someone with an A2 and an amp can chime in here, to reassure me that it's not just my unit in particular.

A note about the A2... I've mentioned this elsewhere, but it doesn't support any sort of playlists other than the one dynamic play list per media type. You have to build the playlist manually on the device, and you only get one to use for music, one for movies, etc. If you have any inclination for using playlists, it's a big hinderance. It's limited mine to being used exclusively for watching videos, as my iPod and X5 simply do better jobs in smaller packages concerning audio.

OP: if the X5 just isn't you, I would personally consider an refurb 5G iPod. Rockbox does work on it, and dual-boots between the the two firmwares. The brighter screen really isn't THAT big of a deal, and the battery life is a bit less with Rockbox, but in exchange you'd get wonderful codec support n' junk n' stuff.