Quote:   Which music app is this?  Looks nice.  My mobile setup is similar: amp + phone.  In my case the FiiO E11 + Samsung Galaxy Nexus.  My current headphones are not as portable though: Beyerdynamic DT770.

Quote:   Todd, do you have any references for this?  This seems like a tall order.  I'm certain that there have been studies show that your brain does this... references... not sure.  I'd be quite surprised if there is a widely accepted theory and implementation of this.   Some argue...

Ah great.  This makes a lot of sense.  I think the piece that was staring me in the face, but I didn't recognize, is the difference between the bit-stream and the analog audio signal.  Yes, I understood that they were different, but I was confusing which outputs were sources of which signal...

Thanks for all the advice.   Glad to hear that ``burn-in'' is psychological at best.   From what I've gathered about DACs is that they effectively become your source?  Therefore, the media files + DAC determine source quality?  This doesn't seem to make sense to me though.  Certainly my...

One more question:   ?4. Should I be taking advantage of the optical out on my Macbook?  If so, what's the best approach?

Well, I'm here.   I just ordered my "first set" of headphones---apart from the complementary pairs which accompany your everyday source.  Unfortunately, I'm so new that I'm not sure the appropriate questions to ask.  I've spent some time silently reading the forums and lurking in the...