[eatmoreplant]

I am thinking of getting a nice portable gig... Has anyone compared the best sounding DAP (Ipod, Karma, iHP-120) with vintage PCDP? I am intending to get a UE-5/10 or Sensas as headphones. I do have a Grado RS-1. If budget allows, I may get a SR-71 too. I listen to pop, mostly Asian pop (Korean, Chinese, Japanese) and prefer a warm, bassy sound. My preference is Grado RS-1 over HD-600 due to its warm and bassy sound. I also love sweeettt sound, reminds me of my old Cary 300SEI. I have tried the Sony R10 but the tremble is too sharp and too revealing for pop music - recordings arent really good. I have had the NJB-100 (the first one, not creative ones) and the Mini Disc MZ-R50 I guess which both has rather good output but sold them already. How do the DAP compares to D-211. Even among the DAP, I am still undecided with the 3 players. I guess the Ipod too flat frequency may not suit me. Karma has no line out, so I am leaning towards the iRiver iHP-120. Thanks, happy listening!

 

[blessingx]

You may want to search for some of member Duncan's comments. As the local expert of vintage portable players and current iPod owner, he's commented a few times on the comparison.

 

[jjcha]

And I thought I was the only one who listened to Asian pop (all JPop though) through crazy equipment. No experience with vintage DAPs, but I definitely agree, love the R-10 (esp with the Cary 300SEI), but just not that great for JPop.

I'm very fond of my portable rig for my music. I've never really compared the iPod or iRiver head to head. The iRiver serves solely as a transport for my various DACs. Though one time my Overture's battery died, so I did the iRiver > SR-71 > Sensaphonics and was really happy with the performance. Dunno if it was better or even different from my iPod, but not bad at all. Of course, I got some 9v's as soon as I could and got the Overture back up and running though...

Best regards,

-Jason

 

[eatmoreplant]

Yeah I was crazy to get the better & better equipments, and found out they don't suit the music, and I enjoy the music lesser and lesser as I upgrade. I even tried the Stax Omega II and it sounds very fatigue after a few songs, the tremble squeak like rats. The Koss electrostatic headphones sound so much better with pop, techno, hip-hop and other ok recordings (not high quality ones). And it cost like 1/5 the price...

Your portable rigs seems to work well with pop music, I may got ahead and upgrade one by one. I just bought a laptop and fund is limited.