So my Phillips CitiScape Uptowns, while purchased for a steal a few years ago, have finally given up the ghost. The sound was good, but it had some cons that I associated with the price: build quality was sub-par and sound quality was highly dependent on the seal (which was easily compromised...

Hey guys.   I've honestly loved the hell out of my FiiO stuff (barring some oddness with my E17) and will soon be adding an X5 to the lineup. I started to think about the DAP I prefer to listen to the most and honestly my little 6th gen iPod Nano takes the cake. It's small, light, has good...

Hey guys.   I'm currently sourcing new furniture to store my headphones and audio gear (currently at four full-sized phones, three IEMs, some 30-40 CDs and a few DVDs/BluRays). I expect this to grow, especially as I start buying DACs & amps. My original thought had been to use one of those...

Hey guys.   With my age-old Creative 5.1 set is showings its age and wearing out, I've decided to upgrade my desktop sound system from the ground up, starting with the DAC and amp.   I will be coming from a FiiO E17, which has worked faithfully and without complaint for over a year now. I'm...

The title says it all. Do I have any options for custom or semi-custom IEMs with mics that will work with Android phones? If so, how does their sound quality compare to other IEMs (namely their price-point peers)?

Has anyone played with a Raspberry Pi and USB audio out? I'm thinking about setting mine up as a Pandora streamer, so I'd like to get around the lower sound quality of the 3.5 jack and use USB audio to an external DAC/amp. It seems like some people have done this with Debian, but I don't know...

I've been wondering this for a while, but I can't find any description for how a DAC or amplifier can change the nature of the sound. I hear descriptions like "warm", "bright", "transparent", essentially the same things we use to describe sound coming from speakers and headphones, but for the...

In searching for a new phone for the last few weeks, I've finally started to hone in on what I want out of it. The problem is I'm not terribly familiar with the huge variety of phones. This is where more knowledgeable Head-Fiers come in.   The mandatory features are simple: Android...

In the Android and USB DAC thread, I brought up the possibility of a USB-to-SPDIF cable. The purpose of the cable is pretty simple - several nice Android phones have MHL support through their USB ports. MHL supports SPDIF output, aka, bit perfect digital output. Run that to an external DAC, and...

Right now, I've got a 6G Nano > L9 > E6 looking something like this:               It's almost awesome. Lets me use the Nano's clip, access all buttons, and see the E6's setting. The rubberband part could use some work, but it's a temp solution. The only thing keeping it...

Does anyone know the output impedance of the 6th Gen Nano? I suspect it's fairly low but I can't find any mention of it in the tech specs or on Google (I know, I know, Apple and Google aren't on the best of terms right now, but still...).

I'm trying to compile a list of available portable DAC+amp devices to see which of them would best suit me and my needs. Right now my only real criteria is < $300; I know there are some well-loved DAC+amps out there but I just can't spend $400+ on an Emmeline kit. Here's what I have right now...

Apparently, the Foo Fighters never released their acoustic performance of "Times Like These" in a convenient CD form and it exists only on a DVD set. This leads me to two questions.   1 - How do I go about snagging the audio part to get the song only, and   2 - What quality can I expect...

Although my budget prebuilt computer has had some hefty upgrades, it still uses the original Gigabyte M68MT-S2P motherboard. It's a good, reliable board, but is very limiting for ATX: one PCI-E x16, one PCI-E x1, and one PCI slot each. My GPU uses MSI's TFII cooling solution, which means two...

Hey all.   I'm starting to rip my CDs into FLAC files using both foobar2000 and Winamp. The final result starts to sound nice, but there are definite oscillations in pitch and volume in parts of songs. I have no idea why this would be. I'm positive I'm following the instructions correctly in...