[Sorrows End]

Hello there!

Im going to be making a purchase soon of a new portable audio player and would like some advice from people who know more than me (which would be just about everyone here).

I'm looking for audio capabilities only, video is just an extra feature I have no use for at all.

For size I could go as low as 2 gig but have no need for any huge amount of space (I do not own that much music)

My questions are as follows.

1. Which are the best players to power a set of HD555's unamped?

I do not and will not ever use ear buds, I despise the sound and they are cause discomfort for me after short periods of use. So I'm looking for a player with enough gusto to handle an unamped set of headphones. I do not have a portable amp at the moment and it is something I'd rather not use. I'm trying to keep the amount of "stuff" I have to lug around down to a minimum for when im biking. When just listening to music at work an amp would not be a problem.

2. Of the players that can handle the hd555's which support WMA Lossless? I like to rip all my music into lossless so I can easily burn good quality cd's as needed and frankly I just like the sound quality better than other methods ive used.

I was told the toshiba gigabeat would be a good player to look into but I would like to hear the opinions from this site. And yes my wallet is already crying in anticipation.

Thank you kindly for all opinons and feedback.

 

[jagorev]

I think the 5G ipod, Nano, and shuffle have powerful headphone jacks which should do well with the 555. Read: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1777890,00.asp

They don't support WMA lossless, but they do support ALAC.

I hope you're not going to use the 555 outdoors.

 

[Boognish]

My Rio karma powers the HD-555 fine. Might be abit hard to find but I think they are great players. I know you said that you dont want to use an amp, but It might not be a bad Idea to get the player that has all the features you want, then if you decide you need it get a small amp. But most of the players will handle the HD-555 fine.

 

[milkpowder]

The HD555 are fairly easy to drive (50ohm) and I don't think most modern hard-drive based MP3 players will have problems. The 5G iPod looks very nice, very thin, and also has improved sound quality compared to the 4G iPod. They will have absolutely no problem driving the HD555.

 

[Sorrows End]

I appreciate the feed back.

I'm going to be avoiding the ipod though due to being unable to use any WMA formats with the apple products.

All the cd's my family has stored in our computers are ripped into wma lossless. If apple ever decided to actually allow their products to work with current technology I might be more inclinded to help their domination of the portable market.

So im looking for options other than ipods. =)

 

[m_memmory]

I'm unaware of any DAP that supports WMA lossless. I'm not sure how easy it would be to encode from WMA lossless to Apple lossless or FLAC as this would be easier to find players for.

 

[Istasi]

You could always conver the WMA's into ALAC's in iTunes. May take a while, but it'll work.

 

[jagorev]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sorrows End I appreciate the feed back. I'm going to be avoiding the ipod though due to being unable to use any WMA formats with the apple products. All the cd's my family has stored in our computers are ripped into wma lossless. If apple ever decided to actually allow their products to work with current technology I might be more inclinded to help their domination of the portable market. So im looking for options other than ipods. =)

iTunes can convert from WMA to ALAC (not FLAC) quite easily, maintaining lossless quality. I don't know any player that supports WMA lossless...and I wouldn't exactly call WMA any more "current technology" than AAC/ALAC.

 

[K2Grey]

I don't think there is a single mp3 player on the face of the earth which supports WMA Lossless (although some suppoer WMA).

 

[milkpowder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jagorev iTunes can convert from WMA to ALAC (not FLAC) quite easily, maintaining lossless quality. I don't know any player that supports WMA lossless...and I wouldn't exactly call WMA any more "current technology" than AAC/ALAC.

I agree. iTunes has a very powerful ripper and can rip unprotected WMA into AAC (VBR, mono/stereo, 16-320kbps, 44/48kHz), MP3 (VBR, mono/stereo, 16-320kbps, 8-48kHz), Uncompressed AIFF (8-48kHz, mono/stereo, 8/16-bit), Apple Lossless (automatic settings, but usually around 400-700kbps) and uncompressed WAV (8-48kHz, mono/stereo, 8/16-bit).

 

[Sparky191]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sorrows End ...if apple ever decided to actually allow their products to work with current technology I might be more inclinded to help their domination of the portable market....

Thats slightly unreasonable. A player that supports all formats doesn't exist. WMA Lossless isn't exactly one of the popular formats either.