[calvinhobs]

I'm looking at the Etymotic 4P's and Shure E4's as my primary choices...however, I don't want to get a high end earphone if it would be a waste of money with compressed MP3's...ie, they would sound the same as the IEM's listed below.

Would something like the Etymotic ER-6I or the Shure E3's be better suited?

I want the isolation and the high quality without having to buy these and a high end full size headphone. Just want the best bang for the buck with 1 set of headphones. Thanks!

Doug

 

[crazyfrenchman27]

Apparently the amp section of the Zen Micro's are pretty good, so I'd feel comfortable going with either one of those canal phones.

I would take the Shure E4 over the Etys for most music genres, but they're both great.

-Matt

 

[K2Grey]

Well, where are you getting the MP3s from? If it's from a good source (for example, CDs), then you can very easily rip lossless files, which are indistinguishable from CD, or good bitrate MP3s, which are for all practical purposes indistinguishable. So you shouldn't worry about poor file quality.

On the other hand, if your files come off the Internet and are of poor quality, then of course the difference between 6i/4p would be less.

 

[calvinhobs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K2Grey Well, where are you getting the MP3s from? If it's from a good source (for example, CDs), then you can very easily rip lossless files, which are indistinguishable from CD, or good bitrate MP3s, which are for all practical purposes indistinguishable. So you shouldn't worry about poor file quality. On the other hand, if your files come off the Internet and are of poor quality, then of course the difference between 6i/4p would be less.

Well...for some reason during my reading of reviews on this product I thought I might have seen that the Zen Micro doesn't play lossless files. Does this sound correct???

How well would the Sennheiser 600's or Beryy 880's be driven with this MP3 player by itself?

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calvinhobs Well...for some reason during my reading of reviews on this product I thought I might have seen that the Zen Micro doesn't play lossless files. Does this sound correct??? How well would the Sennheiser 600's or Beryy 880's be driven with this MP3 player by itself?

Well it does play WAV which is of course lossless, but it doesn't support flac or monkey's audio.

The HD600's won't be very well driven out of the Micro at all. It may not even have enough juice to power it to a good volume let alone any where near its potential.

FWIW, the E4 has very good synergy with the Zen Xtra.

 

[calvinhobs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jasper994 Well it does play WAV which is of course lossless, but it doesn't support flac or monkey's audio. The HD600's won't be very well driven out of the Micro at all. It may not even have enough juice to power it to a good volume let alone any where near its potential. FWIW, the E4 has very good synergy with the Zen Xtra.

Good, I wasn't sure...how does the Zen Xtra work for you? I was considering it but I've heard mixed reviews. Especially about the menu/controlls of it.

 

[calvinhobs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jasper994 Well it does play WAV which is of course lossless, but it doesn't support flac or monkey's audio. The HD600's won't be very well driven out of the Micro at all. It may not even have enough juice to power it to a good volume let alone any where near its potential. FWIW, the E4 has very good synergy with the Zen Xtra.

I did a little more researching and found a review on PCMAG.COM that mentioned it was the Zen Touch that had no lossless compression.

The Zen Touch sounds like it's supposed to be a good performer as well for the money...

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calvinhobs Good, I wasn't sure...how does the Zen Xtra work for you? I was considering it but I've heard mixed reviews. Especially about the menu/controlls of it.

Well, I really enjoy it a lot. The sound quality is very good. The only thing is though, it's away being serviced right now. The Solder points on the headphone jack were very crappy and they broke. It looks like the Touch was done better by design but as far as the Xtra goes, I'm rather disappointed in that regard. I've had PCDP's that I've been much harder on that lasted for a good many years (>6 yrs). The headphone jack on the Zen broke within a year.

 

[K2Grey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calvinhobs Well...for some reason during my reading of reviews on this product I thought I might have seen that the Zen Micro doesn't play lossless files. Does this sound correct???

OK, it doesn't seem to support lossless other than WAV which is huge. But that doesn't really matter, I don't think you'll notice any difference between like 320k LAME mp3 and WAV.