GOOD hi-fi portable player for my akg q701's

Difficult as your headphones are fairly expensive. The usual suspects come to mind: HiFiman HM601, iPod Classic 5G (used), Colorfly CK4. The HM601 is supposed to have a warm analogue sound, the classic I have heard and has some colouration of the midrange and lacks bass. These players all have relatively short battery life. Alternatively if sound quality (with over the ear headphones) is not so important then look for something with strong battery life like Cowon X7 or iPod Classic 6G.

The Colorfly C4 is the very expensive model the CK4 is much cheaper and certainly not as good. Your headphones are Hi-Fi headphones intended for home listening. This means many portable media devices will sound reasonable through them but not make them shine. Cowon players often have long battery lifes, this means if you are going to put energy sapping high grade electronics inside you will need to have a very large battery (which they don't have). In order to make a relatively small battery last for 50hrs compromises must be made. So Cowon players (as well as others) are suited to IEMs and earbuds. Cowons are also noted for having a colourful midrange as well as vast arrays of EQ presets. For people listening at home with Hi-Fi headphones options are limited and often very expensive.

I have Colorfly CK4 and Hifiman HM-601 here, if used purely from their line outs which I gather you'll be doing with E7 CK4 is the better sounding player, it's a touch cool and has the most detail and clarity they're, $180 on ebay. I don't recommend CK4 straight from it's headphone I find it unbalanced, yet others seem to enjoy it. When you amp CK4 the steep bass roll off becomes a none issue the signal cleans right up.

Then you have Hifiman HM-601 which indeed sounds warm in comparison, still nicely detailed with slightly rolled of treble, the stage is narrower than CK4+ however HM-601 also performs rather well from it's headphone out, it is an acquired taste though and the warmth may not agree with everyone as it can give an illusion of lower sound quality.

Both are decent players but if you don't mind using a decent interconnect taking advantage of the line outs CK4+ is the better sounding player imo. If you're going to look at these two options forget about Cowon, you want something that supports line out, and to be honest I've been on the Cowon train before, these are the next step..
Edited by H20Fidelity - 1/19/13 at 2:47am

I was talking about Colorfly CK4 (not C4)

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/COLORFLY-CK4-24bit-192KHz-8GB-internal-AMP-HiFi-Music-Audio-Video-Player-/261126983548?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ccc618f7c

CK4 is not as good as C4, not the same. They use the same DAC chip but C4 much more advanced, but much more expensive.

CK4+ is a good player if you use line out function. I recommend this amp to go with it.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/644363/c-c-bh-portable-headphone-amp-80-hours-from-a-single-charge-buyer-review

Good Amp + CK4 = High fidelity sounding player.

Look here.

http://www.head-fi.org/content/type/61/id/764016/
Edited by H20Fidelity - 1/19/13 at 3:15pm

C4 has it's own internal amp built in, so you would not need one separate. I would consider FiiO a decent entry level brand but using something like E7 with big C4 would not be wise as sound quality would probably be degraded. A good male-male cable is worth looking into, there are many out there made of different materials such as copper, silver plated copper, pure silver. etc etc. The different materials give subtle varitations in sound, Copper tends to be warm / thicker. Silver, brighter, more detailed. I like silver plated copper because you have a mix of both. I think the amp I linked would be a step above E7 as it already surpasses E11 by a decent amount, depending which player you choose would determine whether an amp is necessary.
Edited by H20Fidelity - 1/20/13 at 4:25am

C4's internal amp is powerful enough for full size headphones there's no problem there, your AKG Q701 are 62ohms which is rather low impedance for full size . The problem here talking to me about C4 is I haven't heard that DAP, there's very little information about it on the English internet. Therefore if I was to prattle on and tell you go ahead and spend $700 US on this player it would be like the blind leading the blind. I am reluctant to even comment on what I've read about it because I have not heard the player. Most threads that pop up here about C4 go unattended. yet we all hear it's very very capable.

The problem with CK4+ is it suffers a steep low end roll-off starting at 200Hz you lose sub-bass, it is effected only by the headphone out and not the players line out option, that's where the amp comes in. Even CK4 headphone out will run your AKG Q701 fondly I am confident on that because CK4 also has a seperate intneral amp but where this DAP is worth the money is by taking advantage of line out with a good amp. If it was me? I would go for CK4 and see how it sounds with E7, if you're happy great if not upgrade to C&C BH which is my current full-time rig and blows most of everything I own away.

You can only buy these types of products on ebay and have them shipped internationally , these are not your average mainstream players. they're audiophile focused DAP's not everyone is interested in obtaining sound quality in this field so there is no point selling them retail because sales would be to low. If you want good sound you have to leave the mainstream, that's where we are now, guiding you to better sound quality.

Personally, if you want hi-fidelity sound you will never achieve such with a FiiO E7, you'd be better off putting up with the bass-roll off using CK4+ headphone out. Remember, some people love CK4 from it's headphone out, this is just my opinion on the player, I think it should be amped for best results.


You can read my take on Colorfly CK4 and C3 here.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/638415/colorfly-c3-vs-colorfly-ck4-comparison-true-portable-hifi-sound
Edited by H20Fidelity - 1/20/13 at 5:49am