I read all contributions with great interest as they mirror some recent experience I had. for long I have been content with iPod outputs, albeit soon ditched the stock phones to be replaced with Sony MDR-EX81LP type phones. bose triports joined the fold and quiet comfort 3. Music whenever and wherever in crisp digital quility (of some sort). Quite a departure from Sony DD Quarz and some questionable mini earbuds, that was the lay of the land in the 80s, then MiniDisc in the 90s, now ipod/pad/phone it is.
Content up until about a week ago, where I wanted to finally upgrade to the greatness professed to in an earlier article (years ago) about Shure noise isolating headphones. the idea: get something good and the ipod ought to sound better. SE535s arrived and plugged in. i started using them with EQu on the iphone to tune the output to my liking (boost +6 dB at 20 and 20 k Hz, small Q).
I didnt know what to expect, just something better. I wasn't blown away, just taken on journey as I started to like the immersion, more dimensionality, where specific frequencies stand out and a sort of surgical precision I could more readily indulge in. straight from the iphone4 with EQu this was a winner. i then couldnt go back to junk for my workouts and got some UE triple.fi 10 for the gym. as they came in I did test this setup. i listen much to minimal techno and electronica. i had one track at 128 kb encoded (Phantom heart brother 2 - The Dark Side of the Moog 3) and took the CD, ripped it in Apple Lossless. listened to it on both IEMs: no difference. not between each IEMs nor the different codec based tracks. Then I used a dj tool (djay) syncing 128 kb and lossless version. with a crossfader going back and forth there was no discernible difference using either IEM: no nuance, sound or clarity missing or unresolved. No difference at all.
Still I started to hear a lot of new details in the music overall, more pronounced contrasts that really reconnected me to my collection. just no difference between bitrates and IEMs at all. I am waiting for a headroom total bithead DAC/amp to see if the good can get better (maybe a NuForce Icon, Ray Samuels Predator or Peachtree Nova if it does?). good that 128 kb will still do for me (for now?), but some dance tunes are rather flat due to production efforts being lo tech, I guess.
anyone have similar experiences?
is a headphone amp going to work, especially the higher end DAC in the Nova, in improving the quality of at least the higher quality 192&up VBR? Which amp would that be?
For now its just for mobile and office use and I like the sound already...