I love DSD. It simply sounds more analog than any other digital sound format to me. Not that 24 bit PCM can’t sound good. But DSD is great to my ears. Hey Mobile Fidelity has used it for creating vinyl for years and we know they care about audio quality. But somehow DSD over DOP remains...

Dongles, or USB DAC-AMPS for phones, are becoming a viable way to listen to high quality music. There is a great thread for discussing that. What is missing is finding a great app to manage the music on the iphone. Apple Music is great for their closed ecosystem. Same with the Amazon...

I know of one DAP unit that is around $750 from FIIO that is Android Auto certified. However, it appears to be a fairly large unit. What other units are out there than can handle Android auto and work well with Amazon HD? By working well I mean relatively bug free in operation and provide hi...

There are a number of Android based DAP units on the market today that can run Amazon Music HD. The app can be sideloaded or downloaded from the Google Play Store. Many units can not only stream music from Amazon Music HD but can also store the files to a SD card. This thread is to...

Hi all. I have a BMW 2018 5 series (USA), which has Apple Car Play (not idrive 7.0 but the release before that). I am interested in getting the maximum fidelity available in the car for audio. I do have larger USB stick inserted in the USB jack; which does seem to play back hi res files...

So we leased a new car, and discovered that it has zillions of electronic doo dads but not auxiliary input. It works great with iphones and the like, but it appears that my DAP units will be playable as either glorified USB sitcks or via bluetooth. Is there a way to feed analog audio into...

The New X3 Gen II and the X5 currently support OTG connections.  This feature is likely to remain in the X5 and X7 families.   OTG allows users to access storage devices for playback beyond built in microSD cards.  In the case of the X3 Gen 2 that would extend memory beyond the current microSD...

There are a number of apps that can play back FLAC files on the iphone.  Some can also pass hi res files to compatible DAC / amp units using the Camera Connecting Kit (CCK).   But where I run into an issue is with organizing the music.   There seems to be two ways to load the FLAC files (or...

Hey all,   After primarily working in a home office where I could output my sound card to a mini audiophile setup (NAD receiver and PSB alpha speakers), I am moving to regular old fashioned office.   In the office, I can't install a sound card as the PC is highly locked down.  I could...

Lets face it. Most people who post here want to talk about IEMs. A small percentage are interested in ear buds. Very few, the diehards, talk about over the head, behind the neck, etc. Every time I try to have a discussion about ear buds or "old school" over the ears phones....the...

I don't really understand this. I put Rockbox on my ipod 5.5 video (80gb). As you know, the unit can dual boot so one can do something of a comparison between stock sound and Rockbox sound. Somehow the Rockbox sound has way less hiss, and better definition. Now this does not make sense...

So I have my Audigy 2 soundcard hooked up to a NAD receiver. I started getting some speaker hum. By fiddling with the cables I can get the hum to go away. But fiddling is required more often than not. Some observations: The receiver is on a different power outlet than the PC. The hum...

So the iphone software stack 3.0 definitely provides the ability to stream audio form the iphone in stereo over bluetooth. I hooked it up to my Jabra headset today and went for a run. This was a frustrating experience. There was no hiss...that was good. The headphones are heavy....but I knew...

There is a good thread about headphones, iems, and earbuds for the gym. But if you are a runner, you know that what works in the gym does not work outdoors on the trail. IEM's (and earbuds) block out road noise, and often fall out on the road even though they stay on in the gym. So...this...

Currently I have a PCI sound card (creative audigy) with the front panel input bay. So among other things I have a coax spdif input. I am looking at going to a PCI-E based system. I will most likley need to get a PCI-E soundcard. I'd like to have coax spdif input capabilities, so that I can...

Perhaps we can share our experiences with using custom molds combined with off the shelf iems or earbuds. My experience with custom molds has been positive. I purchased a set of Listen Hear custom molds for around $70 about half a year ago. The company is owned by Starkey, a big local...

Thought we should have a dialog about software. I mainly use ipods, and sometimes itunes drives me crazy. And Windows Media Player is no piece of cake for managing my Sansa Clip. So I thought it might be fun to discuss our favorite software for ripping tunes, fixing mp3 data (such as...

Thread had basically no responses. Somebody has started a similar thread (iphones headphones under $160).

A while back there was a PC magazine that stated that the first generation shuffle was pretty much the cats pajamas when it came to sound quality. The theory was that it utilized "push-pull" circuit design. Do you all think this was in fact a great sounding unit? Was it due to the circuit...

Anybody else have problems with the earbuds (both apple and other brands) falling out of your ears? I think it is ear lobe shape issues. I could not find a good explanation of how ear shape impacts the use of earbuds in reading the forums.

Does anybody know why is it that sometimes I get hiss on my portable player (ipod 5.5 video 80 gb) with some headphones and not others? Is this related to the impedance (ohm) ratings of the headphones? I get the hiss more with in ear phones like my shure E2c than with over the ear...

Does anybody know if there exists an ipod accessory that hooks to the bottom connector as a "pass through" but has an audio out? Basically I'd like to have my car charger (the new USB type) go through a device like this and allow me to tap the line out for playing through the car stereo aux...

I know that the first shuffle was considerd a really nice unit. Something to do with push-pull circuitry. Do any other ipods have this design? Is there a list somewhere that ranks all of the ipods and iphones by audio quality? For what its worth; between my self and the family we have an ipod...

Does anybody know if there are any other brands of portable digital audio player that can link to itunes besides the ipod? (I removed my other questions from this thread!)