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DAP 'sound quality' as opposed to 'amp quality' (warning - soliciting advice)

post #1 of 5
4/1/10 at 7:45pm
Thread Starter 
About a million pages of great advice on this forum lead me to buy TripleFi 10s and Sansa Clip+. The sound is incredibly clear and full, but (trying not to get too poetic) seems to lack a low-frequency 'foundation'.

The Clip+ is widely regarded to have extraordinary "sound quality", but is almost always described paired with an external amplifier. I don't know much about electronics, but I'm guessing I'm hearing a great signal, under-amplified.

Does enough 'ohms' not necessarily mean enough 'power'? Is there another DAP with extraordinary sound quality that also has an extraordinary amp? I'm considering an S9 or P3, but again I usually see them paired with amps.

Thoughts? Facepalms?
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post #2 of 5
4/1/10 at 8:00pm
Clip=thin

I have no idea why people rave about it here.
My 5.5g ****s over it for completeness of sound...
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post #3 of 5
4/1/10 at 8:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sn4chm0 View Post
Does enough 'ohms' not necessarily mean enough 'power'? Is there another DAP with extraordinary sound quality that also has an extraordinary amp?
This is what wikipedia has to say about electrical resitance and it's unit ohm:

Quote:
The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the passage of a steady electric current.
As you can see Ohm really don't have much to do with "power" or "sound quality". It just means that Headphones with a lot of Ohm have a bigger electrical resistance meaning more current is needed to drive them properly (in layman's terms). That being said IEMs like the Triple.Fi 10 usually have a very small electrical resistance, hence they need "less current to be driven effectively". All common DAPs should be able to drive IEM's.

As to the question why people purchase a portable amp: It is either because they want to drive high resistance headphones with their DAP or because they believe that the headphone amplifier that is built inside a portable amp has a better sound signature then the one built inside a DAP.
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post #4 of 5
4/1/10 at 8:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sn4chm0 View Post
About a million pages of great advice on this forum lead me to buy TripleFi 10s and Sansa Clip+. The sound is incredibly clear and full, but (trying not to get too poetic) seems to lack a low-frequency 'foundation'.

The Clip+ is widely regarded to have extraordinary "sound quality", but is almost always described paired with an external amplifier. I don't know much about electronics, but I'm guessing I'm hearing a great signal, under-amplified.

Does enough 'ohms' not necessarily mean enough 'power'? Is there another DAP with extraordinary sound quality that also has an extraordinary amp? I'm considering an S9 or P3, but again I usually see them paired with amps.

Thoughts? Facepalms?
Ohms = passive property of electrical devices. An amp puts out, well, amperes. The stronger it is, the more amps it puts out. Square that and multiply by the impedance of the headphones (different for different frequencies but usually measured at 1Khz) and you get the power of the signal (in watts). I would expect for the Clip's signal to be a bit on the weak side; it is a very small portable player with an equally small battery. So yes, you may not be feeding your phones enough juice to hear the sound at full quality. Most larger mp3 players have stronger amps; the Cowon D2's supposedly is very strong, and I'm sure the S:flo2 is nothing to laugh at.
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post #5 of 5
4/1/10 at 9:11pm
Sounds like you need a sflo:2/T51
The sound on that blows everything out of the water.
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