Brand New and a bit confused about portable amps ? - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hudson01 

Good idea, i noticed anyway that the full sized headphone amps have both Left and Right (line in ) connectors whereas my MD player has ONE line out connector.... whoops.

If you play with the idea to connect your MD player (the Line Out) to a headphone amp with RCA input as you described, you can do it..

yeah connections shouldn't matter, there's pretty much any and all types of adapters you can think of (mostly)..so that shouldn't really hinder your choices too much, especially with it being a home rig

Good luck :)

"been watching the Royal Wedding all day !"

Really???

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hudson01 

Yep.... well i must clarify... my wife was wathcing .... so i had to watch with her.

This is one reason I will never be married :) :)
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by nyjets28 

why don't you try some denon 2000's - they are closed phones (so they cover your ears) and don't really require an amp. i think that could be a good starting point for you. if you like them, then you're set. if not, you can always re-sell here and try other phones and/or amp setups out. i'd recommend trying to get one from the fs/ft forums here. 

I just had to second this sentiment, the preceding asshattery was simply too much to be left un-contested.

I've been in this game for a while now (it feels longer than three years), and I'm one of those using customs straight out of a Clip+

Chances are they will, but even if they don't, it's no big loss - you could always just buy an amp to go with it.  Not really sure how much power your MD player can output, nobody really uses MD anymore.  It's pretty much obsolete with the advent of digital PMPs, they're basically superseded them in every possible aspect.  But if you're happy with it, then by all means, go ahead and use it!

So I realize I'm kind of resurrecting this thread, but I'm probably even more of a noob than OP. I recently invested in a set of cans (Ultrasone HFI 580s) and a set of buds (Monster Turbines, original). When I'm out and about I use your run-of-the-mill iPod Touch to listen, and all files are mp3. When I'm at home I plug my headphones into my new Alienware m17x. My question is as follows: Would investing in an amp increase the sound quality in either instance? I should also ask if it would be worth it to look into a converter for MP3 to ALAC. Are these readily available? If not, where would one acquire ALAC files? Thanks, sorry for noobin' this place up so hard.

i'm not sure if you need an amp for either of those phones. so i'd forget about that. but i would invest in a dac/amp (i.e. fiio e7, udac, etc) for you laptop as the hp out of laptops are pretty terrible. 

to your second question, there's no such thing as mp3 to alac because mp3 has been compressed and alac is a type of lossless file format. in order to get alac, you need to rip cd's to alac

Most likely, no. Can you hear a sound difference between your iPod and computer.

ALAC is a lossless format, MP3 is a lossy one. What this means is that a ALAC file can be made into an MP3 by stripping away a lot of bits to make it smaller. When these bits are lost they can't be retrieved, so this conversion is essentially a one-way street.

ALAC files can be acquired by downloading a lossless file (WAV, FLAC and ALAC are most used) and convert it after need, or rip a CD to ALAC.

Awesome, thanks a lot guys. I'll take a look at possibly investing in a dac/amp for the computer, but we'll see. I think it's probably fine how it is, but if I find myself with a few extra bucks, who knows.

And I didn't know it was as simple as ripping from a CD, that's pretty nice. I knew about the lossless vs. lossy bit beforehand, but googled "mp3 to alac converter" or something to that effect and got some results, which confused me so I figured I may as well ask. Thanks for clearing things up once again :D

I found that the NuForce uDAC2 improved the sound from my computer when listening through the speakers and through the headphones.... and I know there are better DACs out there. the uDAC2 cost is around $100, so it should not break the bank. I am not necessary recommending the uDAC, but a DAC in general.

Be advice that this will probably happen to you also... as I started enjoying my new "head-fi approved" gear, I found out that 70% percent of my music was encoded in low bit rates (128)... so naturally, I am now in the process of re-encoding / buying everything again.... HAVE FUN!