High Quality Transportables

[thestalkmore]

I am new around these parts and new to the audiophilic scene in general, so I apologize preemptively for any fledgling mistakes in this post. I recently lost my Grado-SR80s along with my Ipod and am, therefore, in the market for a new set of headphones. My Grados were very nice to me, but I'm looking to go a few steps up. I've read a ton about Sennheisers and what not, but as far as I understand, high quality headphones typically require amplifiers to realize the full potential of their sound. I listen to my headhpones exclusively through my Ipod when I'm on the go and the headphone amplifiers I have seen are huge and beastly and utterly unequipped to be carted around. Therefore: what is the general consensus on the highest quality set of cans that doesn't require an amplifier and/or is there such thing as a reasonably portable amplifier? I don't want to have to bring a shopping cart around with me for decent sound.

 

[Bradan]

do you use lossless codecs on your ipod? You can't get good sound out of lossy codecs.

Shure are amazingly small and great sounding from what I've read, but I think using the apple-lossless codecs instead of mp3/m4a may be the next step instead of new cans.

 

[thestalkmore]

So it's FLAC or nothing?

 

[mookowz13]

It depends who you talk to. Many here swear by FLAC and original source material. Personally I don't have an exacting ear and I hardly hear a difference between the original source and high quality VBR MP3s.

As for a reasonably portable amp, there are quite a few, The Fiio E3/E5 are budget favorites on this site and the IBasso T4 is quite small as well.

As for the headphones themselves, it's worth your while to dive through the sites old threads and dig up some information on the sound you want. Grados sound very different form Sennheisers in terms of sound signature.

 

[paaj]

look into the esw9/10, I use the esw10 and it's a great headphone. and does not need an amp. Or a little higher end grado, I used a SR125 with great pleasure, SR225 is a little up, and RS1/2 even more. All of these won't really need an amp, but will like one.

What is portable for an amp to you? A hornet is not that big, but it's not getting much smaller than that. Look at the RaySamuelsAudio.com site for measurements and choices

btw, using a good quality lossy file on the road is not that bad, (some say undistinguisable) but for your peace of mind, use lossless. also better for archiving purposes and not having keep two copies of each song.
too bad an IpodTouch does not play lossless files well...

 

[scytheavatar]

Are you looking for portable headphones or headphones that don't need an amp to drive? The Grados and AD series ATHs don't need an amplifier to sound good, but I wouldn't use them for portable use. If you are looking for a portable can you should look at either:

a) ATH offerings: ES7, ESW9, ESW10
b) Senn offerings: HD25 series
c) Ultrasone offerings: HFI-650, HFI-780 or even the Edition 9.

There's some portable amps, but generally portable amps will never perform as good as properly powered desktop amps, despite the claims by the iQube/RSA fanboys. And a lot of the high end portable amps comes off as being overpriced and somewhat a rip-off (actually the same could be said about some full size amps). So even if you get them I wouldn't recommend them for the HD650. You can read that "Leaving portable hifi - it's too silly" thread at the portable headphone amp forum, I generally agree that it's not worth it to spend on a portable setup.

 

[paaj]

ok. not as good as a desktop setup, no surprises there... but better than a portable media player and much more portable than a desktop one and if you take your stuff with you all the time and listen at quieter places outside your house, why not a portable amp. you can use it all the time.
an yes, the Hornet does make a HD650 sound much better than just out of an ipod.