[GrooveTropics]

Is one CD player better then the next if all youre using are Headphones?

Also Is there any difference from listening to a CD player then say if you were listening to MP3's on your computer through a speaker mini(1/8) jack?

Im in the process of receiving some Grado SR80's so Ive been researching alot on what would add better clarity and sound to the headphones, including a portable amp.

Any suggestions would be greatly apprecated.

 

[K2Grey]

Well, the two main things in an audio system other than the headphones are the digital to analog converter (DAC) and the amplifier. The quality of those have a big effect on sound quality, and diff. CD players and sound cards have different quality DACs (and often integrated amps), so a CD player may very well sound better than a computer's integrated sound. In fact it usually does.

But, you can also upgrade a computer's sound card, or connect an external DAC to it, so you need not move to a CD player in order to get good sound quality. When comparing the prices of sound cards to CD players, you should remember that the sound card's price does not factor in the cost of the CD drive, the hard drive to which the music is pre-ripped, the computer's power supply, etc.; that a sound card manufacturer can generally make their products more efficiently and with less overhead than CD player makers; and that someone saying that there is much EMI inside a computer does not make it so.

 

[GrooveTropics]

Could you suggest any external DAC's that would suit these headphones?

Also what is digital and analog, I get the overall picture of what youre explaining im just a little rusty on my Head-Fi Vocab.

Other then that thank you for explaining the differences.

 

[Garbz]

Digital is the binary format computers use to store information expressed in 0s and 1s. The 16 0s and 1s in a row on a cd give it 65536 different possible loudness levels at any given time. These are then converted to analogue the smooth wave that goes through your amplifier and to your speakers.

The thing which does this is a DAC. THere's one in the computer, there's one in the CD player and you can buy external ones for a quick upgrade.

However having external DACs adds complications (I won't go into technical details right now) just that the process of using a DAC externally via a connection to the CDplayer or computer affects the sound.

For you're music enjoyment I'd consider droping a few hundred on a cheap quality cdplayer like NAD 542 or something similar. This will give a great improvment over the computer, and will also even give an improvment of burning mp3s to CDs and playing them through it.

If however you have a massive collection on your computer and you want better sound of that an external DAC is better for computers then a new soundcard.

/EDIT: NAD model number corrected

 

[jpr703]

Your source definitely makes a difference when listening with good heaphones. I don't have a lot of experience with external DACs but my NAD c542 is a big step up from a computer source, a portable Discman, and an iPod that I have.

 

[GrooveTropics]

So the NAD c542 is a DAC device, can u play MP3's through it?

Is it worth getting it if youre a headphones only guy?

 

[Garbz]

No the NAD is a CDplayer. NAD don't sell any external DACs, so if you want to play mp3s you'll need to burn them to CD first.

Headphones are just like speakers. A good cdplayer will yield just as many benefits for headphones, probably more since there's no room resonance and other nasties to worry about.

 

[Tech2]

Keep in mind, though, that if you were to get a NAD CD player, you would also need a heaphone amp, or at least a receiver. The NAD doesn't have a headphone jack. In fact, many CD players do not have a jack.

 

[jpr703]

As it's burning, Nero automatically converts MP3s to a format compatible with every CD player I've tried.

PS--I just bought a NAD c542 and wrote a review of it. I'm sure you can find it with the search function but to summarize briefly, I'm pretty darn happy with it.