[ted_b]

Hi, this is my first post, although I've been reading this forum for a very long time (and purchased a number of things in part due to the expertise and info here). Anyway, one of my kids used some of his birthday money to buy a Philips AX5211 pcdp at the local Wal-Mart. He used one of my older Porta-pros until they broke (hinge broke on one side). He bought a pair of Koss KSC-50's and enjoys them, but has been complaining about the lack of output from the headphone jack (5mW per channel according to Philips) since early on, regardless of cans. After listening I would have to agree. And although he'll be getting a pair of Senn PX-200's in his Xmas stocking (he tried my pair and liked it...a bit more volume and less outside noise) he's asking for a better "louder" cd player for Christmas. I did a number of searches, but most posts are about the dismal state of modern pcdp's and the fact that most vintage (D-50, etc.) walkman's are a lot better. I'm not going to buy him a vintage player, nor is he going to use a headphone amp (although he'll probably inherit my older Total Airhead somedaywhen I buy a superMicro for the only gift on my Xmas list...a 40gb iPod.)...:>)
Sooo...it looks like the iRiver imp-350 is a candidate (high end of my budget for this gift). An advantage with that machine is that he may one day be able to take advantage of the 224AAC stuff I'm readying for my iPod; in any event, it'll handle most cans, be MP3 capable, and seems to have a good review record here. Any others that are readily available (i.e no vintage Ebay purchases or audiogon candidates please)? Thanks,
Ted_B

 

[Musicfan123]

For teenagers, a lack of output power might be a good thing. Since teenagers in general tend to listen to music at ear blasting levels.

Your child maybe different though.

 

[ted_b]

Agree. However, the output is quite lacking, in this case, even for us old audiophiles. I will make sure that I listen to the new one, whatever it is, and set a maximum I'm comfortable with. He's pretty responsible.........but a teen nonetheless.
Ted_B

 

[soundboy]

Ted, see this thread.

I will update my thread further, but the Aiwa is surprisingly good. I was working out on my theadmill last night and the headphone out of the Aiwa was able to mask the sound from me exercising. Music used was "Genesis - Turn It On Again - The Hits" and headphones was the Sennheiser PX100. The Aiwa is definitely better, in terms of its volume output, than the current Sony or Panasonic PCDP of similar price. Even has a remote.

Check it out.

 

[Musicfan123]

It's never a good thing to mask the background noise by turning up the volume. You run into the danger of not being aware of turning up the volume too high, and suffer hearing damage.

 

[soundboy]

Going by the levels displayed on the Aiwa, I was actually using about the same volume level as when I am listening while not doing anything. I did tried using the Aiwa with the Sennheiser PX100 when I was commuting to work on the commuter train that I take....too much incoming noise. One reason I'm thinking of picking up the PX200.

 

[akio]

"theadmill"

haha sounds like threadmill ... you just sit there and pump out answers all night huh?

b

 

[terrymx]

i've use the iriver imp350 with the px200 and imp350, i say its loud enough to make my ears hurt with those headphone. still not as loud as a few other cd players, but should be good enough. you dont want anything louder so it can damage his hearing anyway. in addition, the slimx have many nice little features, but you might have to read the manual to figure them out.

long as the headphones impedences are bellow 80ohm, the iriver should be able to drive it. if he like the koss sound, you should get the px100, they're open but have more bass than the px200. the px200 on the other hand can block out noises so he wont need too much volume. also the px series are some very durable little headphones.

 

[soundboy]

my bad

....should be treadmill.