[ThePope3290]

All I know about headphone equipment is hooking my headphones directly into my iPod/laptop. Can someone briefly explain what a LOD is? DAC? How do these things work? Sorry for my inexperience...hopefully you guys can give me some knowledge.

 

[Uncle Erik]

A LOD is a line-out dock for an iPod. It lets you bypass the iPod's internal amp and run the output to an external amp, usually a portable one.

A DAC is a digital analog converter. When you have music stored digitally (e.g. on a CD or in a digital format on a hard drive) you need to convert that music from digital to analog, so your amp can amplify it and send it to your headphones or speakers.

And don't apologize - everyone starts at the beginning.

 

[mrarroyo]

Nothing to add on the explanations except welcome and I hope you find this forum interesting.

 

[Ash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePope3290 /img/forum/go_quote.gif All I know about headphone equipment is hooking my headphones directly into my iPod/laptop. Can someone briefly explain what a LOD is? DAC? How do these things work? Sorry for my inexperience...hopefully you guys can give me some knowledge.

I was where you are, about 2 years ago. Have learnt a lot and spent a lot of money. Have been rewarded with beautiful music on my desktop as well as on the road.
I started with a cheap portable amp... added a DAC soon after... bought a good portable HA.... 3 great cans, a few good buds and my last purchase was a decent Tube amp. The journey has been fun and for now I am stopping to enjoy the music. Sometimes there is a tendency to forget that very important aspect, while one is completely focussed on the gear.
So read up, research, something it seems as though u have already begun. Most folks here are pretty knowledgeable and friendly...
All the best!

 

[Sid-Fi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePope3290 /img/forum/go_quote.gif All I know about headphone equipment is hooking my headphones directly into my iPod/laptop. Can someone briefly explain what a LOD is? DAC? How do these things work? Sorry for my inexperience...hopefully you guys can give me some knowledge.

Welcome to Head-Fi. I just got my first DAC and headphone amplifier with my Ibasso D10. It cost $275 brand new and is a very good portable DAC and amp together in one. It sounds unbelievably good compared to my iPod's headphone out or my desktop's X-Fi sound card.

Since you are used to playing music through your laptop, this would work nicely as it connects to your laptop's USB and pulls the digital music feed from your computer before the laptop sound card can get to it and then amplifies it nicely.

I strongly recommend reading HeadphoneAddict's comprehensive review of portable DACs and ampfliers. A couple of months ago I was wondering your exact same questions and his overview and rundown REALLY helped. I'm happily getting into the hobby and really loving it. I'll drop the link to it below. Best wishes.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f105/u...ce-xm5-306883/