[Vinman]

A portable/personal audio newbie here. I have an iPhone and my wife has an older (3rd gen, I think) iPod. I use Sony MDR-EX90s with both common mods, and my wife uses EX71s and her stock iPod buds.

I am looking now for a decent >$150 portable (or transportable) amp that I will use with the line out from both devices. I'll also probably get another pair of buds (iems, probably) later this year.

Now, with all that, I'd like to know what file options will work and which will sound best with the two Apple devices. I've read a lot about the whole FLAC/LAME etc wars, but what will the Apples play besides mp3/AAC? I have burned all my music at 320kbps, but my wife has some older downloaded stuff at 128. Is there any point in exploring other formats with my particular setup?

I really enjoy a good, precise soundstage, but as a former "audiophile" with all the Krell, McCormack, VPI, Proceed, Counterpoint, Scientific Fidelity, etc gear, I have no desire to ever be that vested in audio gear again. One too close lightning strike basically wiped me out - only thing undamaged was my McCormack pre.

So, should I stick with high bit rate mp3? Should I delve into other formats? What's the general consensus here?

Thanks in advance for any advice in getting set up!

Vince

 

[c0mfortably_numb]

I personally use -V 0 --vbr-new (Lame 3.97) It gives you a target kbit of 245 and a bit range of 220 - 260, I personally don't hear a difference between my MP3 rips and my FLAC rips, but I have enough hard drive space on my computer and keep both formats, MP3 for the IPOD and FLAC for PC as source listening.

As for a budget portable amp, the Go-Vibe 6 is on sale for $60

 

[epaludo]

I use VBR -V2 lame for ripping my CD's into 8GB Nano. I wish i could use lossless format, but to much space per file. So choose more songs and VBR MP3 than a few lossless songs ...