Deep, Deep Bass DAP
Oct 7, 2010 at 7:51 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 13

Ince

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I am looking for a DAP that can produce very deep bass.  The bass that shakes my earphones and sounds likes echoes.  I have a Denon C751 earphones and a Sony S739 and I find Clear Bass to over power everything when turning it up. 
 
I am looking for a DAP where I can increase the deep bass without it over powering the treble.  
 
I have a setup on my PC with my amp.  I use ffdshow and I can just turn up the deep bass and turn down the overpowering bass. 
 
So can anyone recommend a DAP for me please?  
 
Oct 7, 2010 at 11:47 PM Post #2 of 13
Sony players have that deep mind shattering bass, the S, A,and X Series. Even the lower priced E Series, all pack a deep bass punch.
 
Oct 8, 2010 at 5:10 AM Post #3 of 13


Quote:
Sony players have that deep mind shattering bass, the S, A,and X Series. Even the lower priced E Series, all pack a deep bass punch.



I already own a Sony S739 and I find that Clear Bass to be to overpowering.  The EQ does not have much choices in the tunining the bass.
 
Oct 8, 2010 at 6:39 AM Post #4 of 13
I have a Sony S739. I actually found that when I got my new iPhone 4, surprisingly although the Sony is more mid-heavy the bass extension on the iPhone 4 was better. Bass just went much deeper, although not quite as much quantity, overall the sound is clearer and better. The new iPod touches will probably sound very similar.
 
To be honest though, I'm surprised you wouldn't just spend the money on bassier earphones rather than a new DAP, which really won't make as large a difference. For the money you could get the Radius DDM's, which won't leave you wanting for bass. (You won't even need to turn EQ on at all.) There are also many other good options for a decent price that have a lot of bass.
 
Oct 8, 2010 at 7:11 AM Post #5 of 13

I don't know about Apple.  From personal experience with Apple products I find that it lacks in the Bass department.  Also I find their products over priced. 
 
The only product that produces the Bass I want is Samsung.  The P3 has that 3D bass that is very deep, but I find the metallic noise in the Samsung MP3 players to be anoying.
 
Also I agree about the Sony Bass, I do find it overpowering.  I want heavy bass wihtout it overpowering the treble, almost like listening to music with a earthquake sound at the background.
Quote:
I have a Sony S739. I actually found that when I got my new iPhone 4, surprisingly although the Sony is more mid-heavy the bass extension on the iPhone 4 was better. Bass just went much deeper, although not quite as much quantity, overall the sound is clearer and better. The new iPod touches will probably sound very similar.
 
To be honest though, I'm surprised you wouldn't just spend the money on bassier earphones rather than a new DAP, which really won't make as large a difference. For the money you could get the Radius DDM's, which won't leave you wanting for bass. (You won't even need to turn EQ on at all.) There are also many other good options for a decent price that have a lot of bass.



 
Oct 8, 2010 at 12:07 PM Post #6 of 13
Try a Cowon dap (J3/S9/D2+) - but don't use the BBE, that actually takes bass and clarity away (IMO). The bass does have a slight roll-off, but it's still highly customizable, and can be adjusted to perfection.
 
I personally don't use the BBE, as I mentioned above - but you might love it, most do.
 
Oct 8, 2010 at 6:11 PM Post #7 of 13


Quote:
Try a Cowon dap (J3/S9/D2+) - but don't use the BBE, that actually takes bass and clarity away (IMO). The bass does have a slight roll-off, but it's still highly customizable, and can be adjusted to perfection.
 
I personally don't use the BBE, as I mentioned above - but you might love it, most do.

Not sure about S9 or J3, but I would not say that D2+ has good bass. Other than the poor amplifier (pronounced bass roll-off), its EQ is terrible especially if one is looking for the deepest bass; 80Hz (the frequency adjusted by the bass slider of the EQ) is not what I would call deep bass. Sure, the combination of BBE/MachBass may sound interesting with some tracks. But never deep. As a matter of fact, that is why I sold my Cowon D2 a couple of months after I bought it - bass performance was very poor.
 
Apple started using better DAC/amplifier chips in their iPods/iPhones since at least a couple of years or so ago. That means no more bass roll-off (bass roll-off was the reason I sold my Nano 2nd gen
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) and overall very good sound. Very recently they have also updated the EQ (at least in iPhone/iPod Touch) - no more distortions and decent sounding, however iPod EQs come only with presets so forget about fine tuning the sound and enhancing the very low frequencies.
Sony's are very good with bass - shaking the earth without sweating. It is also deep, but true not the deepest you could think of. I concur with a_recording, keeping your current player and looking for the right earphones would be a good solution for your quest.
 
Otherwise, rockboxed Sansa Clip/Fuze is also a very good alternative. The internal amplifier is very good and the EQ in Rockbox is all that you can dream of - you can adjust the frequency and the quality factor the way you want it. The deepest bass I've ever heard in a portable player came from my rockboxed Sansa Fuze. However, the impact is not the same as in my Sony's (A829/S729/S515) despite the numerous adjustments options in Sansa.
 
Oct 8, 2010 at 8:51 PM Post #8 of 13


Quote:
I don't know about Apple.  From personal experience with Apple products I find that it lacks in the Bass department.  Also I find their products over priced. 
 
The only product that produces the Bass I want is Samsung.  The P3 has that 3D bass that is very deep, but I find the metallic noise in the Samsung MP3 players to be anoying.
 
Also I agree about the Sony Bass, I do find it overpowering.  I want heavy bass wihtout it overpowering the treble, almost like listening to music with a earthquake sound at the background.

 

 
I'd agree with you in that I had an iPod shuffle I got for free, and an iPhone 3G with really poor bass roll-off. The iP4 does much better though, (apparently so does the 3Gs, iPad and the new ipod touches) so I think they've fixed that particular issue.
 
But again, as I said before, if you want that earthquake feeling - try the Radius DDM. It's a fantastic price and has the sound I think you are looking for.
 
 
Oct 8, 2010 at 10:37 PM Post #9 of 13
I have been reading comments about the Cowon players and many people are saying it is less bassy then the Sony.  Regarding geting a new IEM, I already own the Denon C751 and they are pretty good with my PC and Amp setup, and produce the bass that I need but I require something portable that can drive them the way I want.  At home I use my JVC RX700 with my setup. 
 
Question regarding Rockbox.  I use to own a IRiver H140 a while back and I had Rockboxed it, but I do not recall it having much options regarding adjusting bass to get it deep and turning down the overpowering bass without loosing details when using the EQ.
 
Oct 10, 2010 at 11:59 AM Post #10 of 13


Quote:
Question regarding Rockbox.  I use to own a IRiver H140 a while back and I had Rockboxed it, but I do not recall it having much options regarding adjusting bass to get it deep and turning down the overpowering bass without loosing details when using the EQ.


You have several ways to EQ the sound. The powerful one is the graphical EQ - you have a choice of low shelf/peak filters to address the low frequencies. And you can choose a center frequency as low as 20Hz if you wish + adjust the range of frequencies the EQ is effective (how precise/"sharp" is the effect of the EQ for the center frequency - i.e. the quality factor): http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansae200/rockbox-buildch6.html.
 
With Rockbox the only limiting factor is the hardware.
 
Oct 10, 2010 at 2:48 PM Post #11 of 13

One of my friends had iRiver H320 that he did not use I took it of him and Rockboxed it.  I had forgoten how much better sounding Iriver players are compared to Sony, it has so much bass like earthquake sounding and with Rockbox I have manged to play around with the EQ options and get to level that is ok for me.  It would of been better if it had 10 band equalizer.
 
The only problems I have it with is that when the bass is on max the it starts to distort when the volume is at high levels and also the thing is massive and heavy.  Is anything out their with the same power as the Iriver on the bass department, because compared to the sony it has like 3x the bass.  I have read that sony A729 has a secret menu where bass can be increased, is it worth it?
Quote:
You have several ways to EQ the sound. The powerful one is the graphical EQ - you have a choice of low shelf/peak filters to address the low frequencies. And you can choose a center frequency as low as 20Hz if you wish + adjust the range of frequencies the EQ is effective (how precise/"sharp" is the effect of the EQ for the center frequency - i.e. the quality factor): http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansae200/rockbox-buildch6.html.
 
With Rockbox the only limiting factor is the hardware.

 
Oct 10, 2010 at 5:22 PM Post #12 of 13
what earphones handle that x3 sony bass
smily_headphones1.gif

cx300ii can easily be distorted with some low bass tracks on Sony a726/e444
x3 bass is just too much
Sony A729/829 does have a secret menu to change dac settings.......but i myself keep   bass @ -3db. if bass is set to 0db it just sounds as a rumble rather than a punch. Most of the detail in bass is lost @ 0db
Sony bass is very model dependent. A726 goes deeper than E444 , while E444 has lot more impact/quantity
If you like true sub bass that has a timbre touch to it , A726 is the way to go. However dont expect very high impact
 
Oct 10, 2010 at 7:37 PM Post #13 of 13
I use the EQ on H320 tune down the distorting bass and try and keep the deep bass without overpowering the treble.  I am bass head so I like heavy bass but not overpowering like for example the song "Use Somebody" by Kings of leon has what I will call overpowering bass where a song like "Bad" by M.Jackson is more deep and not overpowering, I am trying to get that same deep bass for all music types.  The distortion I am experiences is got to with the player rather then the earphones as I use the same earphones on my home amp and it does not distort unless it is at crazy levels.  But I still find it fine for me as I don't really listen to it very loud, but size and weight of the player is main putoff.
 
The earphones I use is the Denon C751 it is very good earphone got for £50.  I use to own the cx300 but I found it sounding closed and too much bass and less treble where as the C751 is more wider and deeper bass and sparkling trebles.
 
Quote:
what earphones handle that x3 sony bass
smily_headphones1.gif

cx300ii can easily be distorted with some low bass tracks on Sony a726/e444
x3 bass is just too much
Sony A729/829 does have a secret menu to change dac settings.......but i myself keep   bass @ -3db. if bass is set to 0db it just sounds as a rumble rather than a punch. Most of the detail in bass is lost @ 0db
Sony bass is very model dependent. A726 goes deeper than E444 , while E444 has lot more impact/quantity
If you like true sub bass that has a timbre touch to it , A726 is the way to go. However dont expect very high impact

 

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