[vince32837]

I spent about a month absorbing the good posts on this site. I first set out to get the headphones. The path started at Koss ear-clip phones from Circuit City, which I sounded pretty damn good for $20.... then tried, Shure E2C, but I wanted more and I had more budget so based on the reviews at this site I stepped up to the Shure E4 (black). My generic player could only start to tap into these earphone's capabilties.

It was time to get a player that could do the Shure E4's justice! I set my boundary conditions on a 1GB flash player, since I had no need to load 500+songs. The X5 was not required for me....

To me it came down Iaudio vs. Iriver. Both vendors seem to put out sound quality that could have done the job, based on all the posts. Iaudio seems to have their act together and based on the S/N ratio of 95 dB, being a Radar Engineer, I know what 5 dB really means,.. whether I could hear it is another story............

If there is a higher level of sound quality than my combo it can't be more than 5% away. Either way

I will not pour the extra $$$ to reach it..That's for me, others may dump another $500-1K reaching that last 5% (ext amp etc.)

Just wanted to shell ouy my thoughts and say thanks for the posts,

Vince

 

[daba]

Yep, the iAudio 5 is definitely a great portable player. I also have iAudio 5 + Ety ER6.

 

[Otophonus]

I have the black E4 's with X5.
I love this combination . Way much better than ipod and E4.

 

[Imyourzero]

I wholeheartedly agree; I found the i5 + E4 to be an excellent combination. For pure enjoyment and musicality factor, I preferred listening to the E4s through the i5 over the E-MU 0404. The 0404 was of course technically better, but I could never achieve the same level of bass as I did with the i5.

 

[vince32837]

I was hoping a few others have this combo. In my local area you could not hear beyond the E2C's in the mall. I was convinced I wanted more. But I also did not want to jump to the E5's. If the E3's would be X% better than E2's but Y% less than E4's. There was definitely some uknown there??? The posts of others was key!

The sound tha comes out of that little Iaudio 5 is amazing!! Have any of you tweaked the EQ settings? I have not since the output sounds sweet already...I guess I better read the manual??

Vince

 

[utdeep]

It's not bad. I had an iaudio 5 for about 2 months before I got a shuffle. It's great, and if you purchase the optional armband, it's awesome for workouts.

The sound was less detailed than the shuffle, and the battery life (with backlight off) was less than 10 hours. The color changing LCD wasn't important to me. I got rid of it.

I have since returned the shuffle (lack of screen sucks) and gone through the iRiver ifp-799, ifp-999, Samsung YP-6, and I am now on the Creative Muvo TX FM.

I'm still not happy with any of them. I may repurchase the ifp-395 (great old player) and wait till another generation of players comes out.

Ideal player for me:
1. metal casing
2. great sound
3. AAA or AA battery
4. armband case

 

[Sparky191]

Quote:

Originally Posted by utdeep I... have since returned the shuffle (lack of screen sucks) and gone through the iRiver ifp-799, ifp-999, Samsung YP-6, and I am now on the Creative Muvo TX FM. I'm still not happy with any of them. I may repurchase the ifp-395 (great old player) and wait till another generation of players comes out. ....

What made you return to the shuffle?

 

[OlManRivah]

I run the portapros on my 2gb Iaudio 5. Sounds great. I seldom have to use the equalizer, but, do sometimes when the track needs some tweakin'.

 

[utdeep]

sound detail, better battery life, itunes.