Finally bought an amp, what else do I need? - Page 2

What would be a good rechargeable 9V battery (I need a charger for it too) for the BSG cmoy? Throwing away 9V batteries after every 20 hours doesn't sound very economical, and I'm not always right next to an electrical outlet.

Thanks, but what would be a good charger for these? Would this be a good buy?

Sorry. It's just I keep saying my budget is limited, but people keep suggesting stuff that's way out of my budget, and their suggestions will only make a slight improvement in my system from what it is now.

The amp finally got here! That's Saturday morning to Wednesday afternoon from being parts to arriving in my mailbox. Not bad at all. So far, it was definitely worth the $57. The volume control is a massive improvement over what it was unamped. Sound quality is definitely cleaner and I don't have the hard drive feedback I would hear unamped, but nothing majorly improved. It's like the amp takes the Zune's signal, cleans it up some, and spits it back out, and that's pretty much what I wanted and expected. There's also less static, but there wasn't much to begin with.

I've only got two issues so far: listening fatigue and figuring out how to attach it to my Zune for better portability. For the listening fatigue, it's pretty slight, and hopefully I'll get used to it, but I haven't experienced this since I got my 30 GB Zune in November 2007 (with 128 MP3's, btw). This fatigue isn't nearly as bad as the first time, but I didn't expect it. For the attachment, I'll probably end up using some kind of hand strap and hooking it up to my Zune case. I'll probably post some pics later.

Thanks guys for all the help. Between the $35 earbuds, the $57 amp, and the free WMA lossless conversion, I've got a huge improvement for only $92. I've still got less than $400 invested in my portable rig, and it's worth every cent. Oh yeah, no Bose tax or Apple tax either .

Ha! Not yet for me. I'll eventually need to upgrade my home rig's speakers, but I'll stick with my portable setup for now. Maybe I can convert some of my lo-fi buddies next. One of those guys rides iPods like he's a rodeo cowboy, and I can't wait to see his reaction when he tries out my Zune now.

A cmoy off ebay made by biosciencegeek. It looked like the best one to suit my needs, and his build quality looked really good. I'm really happy with it so far, and it's going to be my Zune's best buddy for a while. I took an old camera bag strap and shortened it so it fits nicely on my Zune's case. Eventually, I'll probably get a Fiio E5, but it's not replacing my BSG cmoy.

How many times do I have to say I can't afford better headphones? I didn't mean that the SF5's would only be a tiny bit better than my UHP336's, but that I might not be able to tell much of a difference with my ears as they are right now. In any case, I won't have $250 just lying around for a while. There's that "law of diminishing return," and I'm sure it applies to audio as well. Sorry if I'm coming across the wrong way, but it's frustrating saying the same thing over and over again. If you think I could get as much sound improvement with a pair of sub $60 headphones as I could with my sub $60 amp, you must be smoking something. Right away, I noticed a big improvement with the amp, and I had to have something to give me better volume control. A better set of headphones wouldn't do that for me. An analog volume control was something that I absolutely needed to get the most out of my current setup, and it was worth every cent.

Again, I apologize if I'm being rude, but some of us are poor, broke college kids. I'm just trying to do the best I can, and I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying my current setup. It could be much worse.

It's not just amping to have a new gadget. I kept getting stuck with a volume level that was either too loud or too soft with no middle ground, and I just couldn't enjoy my music or my earbuds like that. What's the point of listening to music that way? The amp fixed that problem and it even improved my sound. $250 headphones wouldn'tve done that unless they had an integrated attuenuator.

I found some on ebay, but I won't have enough money to buy them until a week or two from now. Until then, I've got a few regular 9V's around the house.

Sorry, again. I need to read things more carefully and think before acting. You did say that my money would be better spent elsewhere, and with the way you and other people have been talking, my mind went straight to "buy new headphones." With the whole SF5 thing, I wasn't thinking when I posted. Just because they look similar doesn't mean they sound anything alike. There's no real audio dealer where I live, so I can't try them out to hear the difference. It's hard to hear the difference when I don't have access to the equipment, wouldn't you agree? Like I said before, all we have is a Best Buy. If there's any audiophile dealers here, they sure don't advertise.

With my need for an amp, I never said I was going to get it to add resolution or get more bass out of my UHP336's. I said I needed an amp for better volume control, and that's what I got with it. The amp also improved the sound quality a decent amount. Not so much with the sound stage (which it did improve), but it cleaned up the signal coming out of the Zune extremely well. For my purposes, the amp was well worth the money, and it made improvements I didn't think I was going to get. It is an essential component in my portable rig, and I'm not going anywhere without it. One of the best purchases I've made in a long time.

Now it comes out .

I need to have IEMs for sound isolation and portability. The "inside your head" feeling I get from IEMs adds alot to my audio experience. The KCS75's would annoy the people around me too much, but I may pick some up eventually just to try them out. When I feel like I'm missing out on my system's full potential, I'll upgrade headphones (maybe Shures), and probably get a better amp (RSA has some cool stuff). Until then, I'll be happy with my modest system. It's still a huge improvement over the Sony MDR-EX55's I used to think sounded great.