My Pico w/DAC will arrive tomorrow morning. I was just curious to know, would the sound quality be higher-fidelity coming out of my Cowon D2 using FLAC, or out of my thinkpad X200 using the USB DAC of the Pico for the laptop, also using FLAC ? Is the difference here the quality of the DAC...

There is this girl I really like and I want to get her some portable headphones to run out of her ipod for her birthday. I am wanting to spend up to about £40 (~$70). The portables have to be headphones, not in-ear. I want them to be simple and lean aesthetically, and not too big. Preferably...

what is stopping other headphone manufacturers from taking apart an R-10 and just practically re-creating what it does? Seeing as it's pretty much the Holy Grail of headphones.

I'll be receiving my first headphone-amp in the next few weeks I assume. I was just wondering, if using a cd-player as the source, is it ok to connect the headphone amp via RCA directly to the cd player, or is it better to connect to say the tape-outs on the back of an integrated amp if both...

on my new non-DAB D2, I am having an issue, where the tagging and album art sometimes don't show up for anything, so it just says unknown for all the albums and files. Then sometimes it shows up if I turn off the player and turn it back on again. Any ideas?

Hi guys, I'll be receiving a Pico probably in a few weeks time. It will be my first headphone amp. I wanted to ask about the uses and differences of low and high gain settings. Do you base the decision on which gain setting to use on the impedance of the headphone in use? I am assuming...

I found a UK based hi-fi shop that was selling a mint condition second-hand Meridian G80 for about £1600 (~$3000) I had to go for it, I am part exchanging my Naim CD5i for it so am getting the G80 for £1200 (~$2300) Cannot wait!

I keep reading on the threads about the D2 having a roll-off. Then that using a headphone-amp recitifies this. How is this exactly? Is the headphone-amp 'artificially' increasing those frequencies to achieve this, or is just restoring what is originally there somehow? I thought that if the...

Where do people get their album cover artwork from to put on their portable players? I have always just stuck the music on, and never any artwork. How do you correspond your artwork to the albums prior to transferring to their players? Also while I am at it, I'd like to ask, now that I...

does anyone have information on when the ESW10 is coming to the market. I am checking audiocubes every day at the moment. Very interested in trying these out.

what is the reason for Sony not to continue making what many consider to be the best headphone you can get?

using the Xonar D2X for watching movies with headphones, do you guys switch to movie mode with all that dolby setting stuff, or do you keep it in hi-fi mode? I keep my Xonar on 44.1 KHz sample rate most of the time, but for movies is appropriate to increase it to 48 or 96 KHz? I am not sure...

I did a search before you suggest it. The information was so scattered that I thought I would start a fresh thread. I have RS-1s with bowls. I would like to know what the main trade-offs that come with using flat pads instead are. Do they really lose a lot of detail when using flats, and...

...music lovers or just addicts who get caught up in the hobby and lose sight of the initial goal to enjoy the music. I just think it's weird that some people can spend so much time concentrating on the equipment as opposed to the music. Surely when you find a set up you really enjoy, that...

I just got EAC yesterday and configured it manually using the guide to get the most accurate copy of cd to FLAC. The final action command...test and copy. Becuase of the test phase of this where it reads each track twice before the actual rip, on average this is taking between 90-120mins to...

the curved underside of the S9 will make it awkward to bundle with a portable amp. What do you think will be the best compromise to neatly bundle them together for transport?

I just went for the ALO super cotton mini to mini from TTVJ, placed order yesterday. But I have since been reading on the ALO website that the silver super cotton cables don't like to be bent hard. I don't intend to bend them HARD, I just intend for the conventional use of a U shaped bend to...

...does an averaged sized album take up when ripped in lossless format? I have up until now used 320kb/s mp3 on my portable players, and my Sony A828 doesn't do lossless. I am probably going to go for the Cowon S9 when it is released though, and presuming that it supports lossless I am trying...

I own the ESW9 woodie and it is my main portable headphone. I love them for this use and was wondering how the D1001 compare to them, as these are considered portable too right? What are your thoughts?

Xonar-->Linn Classik-->D5000? I have a second hand Linn Classik music arriving with me next week, also a brand new set of Denon D5000's. My question is, is it worth connecting from my the headphone/lineout of my Xonar D2X to the Classik, and plugging my D5000s into the headphone jack on...

howdy, I have a second hand Linn Classik music arriving with me next week, also a brand new set of Denon D5000's. My question is, is it worth connecting from my the headphone/lineout of my Xonar D2X to the Classik, and plugging my D5000s into the headphone jack on the front of the Classik...

I have a Xonar D2X. On the D2X Audio Center panel, there is a setting for sample rate. The default is PCM 96KHz, the maximum is PCM 192KHz. What affect does this sample rate have on sound, and is it worth setting it to maximum? Why is it not just defaulted to the maximum value?

I have a pending order from audiocubes atm for some D5000's, and it says it usually shipd in 3-5 days. I have been waiting longer than that, and it still hasn't shipped. Is this normal with that site? should I be worried?

I have a Xonar D2X. How would the DAC in that compare to a good portable DAP like a Sony A828 or a D2 for example? Would the sound quality through the same set of headphones be expectedly better or worse on one or the other? I would like to hear opinions both with dealing with headphones...

like the title, what are the contenders for the best sounding portable music player ever made? Has to be flash/HD based this is purely based on the audio quality of the player, nothing else.