[dooodstevenn]

I need a cheap audio player that can be used with an easily found LOD to an e7.  I was considering the apple 5.5 gen, but i'm using this for school and with all the crap i carry I don't really want to add a big ipod with e7 to it.  I was thinking nano? but then i read certain earlier nano's do not work with a LOD and have to be modded.  could someone help me out with this?
 
-cheap
-8gb or more
-plug and play LOD (that isn't a mini to mini)
-thin/light/small

 

[dooodstevenn]

I just realized...does it even matter what i get if i run it through the e7 with its own DAC? Or does the LOD only bypass the internal amp of the device?

 

[RingingEars]

Quote:

I just realized...does it even matter what i get if i run it through the e7 with its own DAC? Or does the LOD only bypass the internal amp of the device?

It bypasses the amp section only so the DAC in the E7 would be wasted if only using it with the ipod.
If you just need to amp the ipod go with an E11 if you want a Fiio product or there are dozens of other amps out there...
I've owned the E7, E17, and now the iBasso D-zero. They're all capable amps with the E17 having the better sounding DAC.

 

[dooodstevenn]

Quote:

It bypasses the amp section only so the DAC in the E7 would be wasted if only using it with the ipod.
If you just need to amp the ipod go with an E11 if you want a Fiio product or there are dozens of other amps out there...
I've owned the E7, E17, and now the iBasso D-zero. They're all capable amps with the E17 having the better sounding DAC.

oh okay, i got the e7 already because im mostly listening through my pc, and every once in a while on the go.  So far im thinking about an older ipod with a Wolfson chip, do LOD's work with all? I was going to get a 1st gen ipod nano but i read a LOD will not work? 

 

[RingingEars]

Quote:

oh okay, i got the e7 already because im mostly listening through my pc, and every once in a while on the go.  So far im thinking about an older ipod with a Wolfson chip, do LOD's work with all? I was going to get a 1st gen ipod nano but i read a LOD will not work? 

That I don't know. Hopefully someone will come along shortly to help you out.

 

[DuckSoup]

I am not sure what kind of headphones you will be using with this portable rig, but did you consider Sansa Clip+? It doesn't have any line out so connecting E7 is not possible, but if you want something super light and small I don't understand why would you want to carry E7 with you just to use half of it's functionality (amp only, which won't be a huge improvement), especially when on the go. Sansa is like 1/4 of E7 size, it's cheap, has 8GB out of the box + support for SD cards (so up to 40GB), sound quality is acceptable and it can be rockboxed to "unlock" extra features.

 

[dooodstevenn]

Quote:

I am not sure what kind of headphones you will be using with this portable rig, but did you consider Sansa Clip+? It doesn't have any line out so connecting E7 is not possible, but if you want something super light and small I don't understand why would you want to carry E7 with you just to use half of it's functionality (amp only, which won't be a huge improvement), especially when on the go. Sansa is like 1/4 of E7 size, it's cheap, has 8GB out of the box + support for SD cards (so up to 40GB), sound quality is acceptable and it can be rockboxed to "unlock" extra features.

you make a good point, hows the SQ compared to ipods with Wolfson since you could find both for the same price? and could you explain "rockboxed?"

 

[RingingEars]

Quote:

you make a good point, hows the SQ compared to ipods with Wolfson since you could find both for the same price? and could you explain "rockboxed?"

I realize it may not be possible for you, but you would probably need to listen to both to form that opinion.
A rockboxed Sansa Clip+, to me, is a great little player. Plenty of power for IEMs or sensitive cans...
All the info you need on rockbox can be found here: http://www.rockbox.org

 

[DuckSoup]

you make a good point, hows the SQ compared to ipods with Wolfson since you could find both for the same price? and could you explain "rockboxed?"

I never had chance to listen to iPod with Wolfson, so I can't compare it, however one advantage of Sansa over iPods is that Sansa supports FLAC (vs Apple's ALAC) and has a simple drag and drop interface. Rockbox is a 3rd party firmware, as mentioned by RingingEars.

 

[dooodstevenn]

Quote:

I never had chance to listen to iPod with Wolfson, so I can't compare it, however one advantage of Sansa over iPods is that Sansa supports FLAC (vs Apple's ALAC) and has a simple drag and drop interface. Rockbox is a 3rd party firmware, as mentioned by RingingEars.

I did notice that, but i read up that unless you have really good ears and really good equiptment you wont be able to tell the difference between 320kbps and FLAC.  

 

[dooodstevenn]

I think i might just get an ipod with wolfsen in it since it works with the stuff i have now.
 
and can anyone here answer which nano ipods that have wolfsen can use a LOD without any modification?

 

[Brooko]

Why are you hung up on the Wolfsen dac?  Have you compared the older ipods with Wolfsen vs the newer Cirrus chips?
 
Depends on what sort of sound you are looking for - but I personally found debate on the whole "Wolfsen vs Cirrus" chips baffling.  To me the iPhone4 with it's Cirrus chip sounds much superior to the 5.5 series iPods with their Wolfsens (YMMV).  The 5.5 sounded warm but rolled off.  To me the iPhone 4 was much more linear.
 
Also - what headphones/iems are you driving?  If it's an efficient IEM or portable can, you may not need to even worry about an amp.

 

[dooodstevenn]

Quote:

Why are you hung up on the Wolfsen dac?  Have you compared the older ipods with Wolfsen vs the newer Cirrus chips?
 
Depends on what sort of sound you are looking for - but I personally found debate on the whole "Wolfsen vs Cirrus" chips baffling.  To me the iPhone4 with it's Cirrus chip sounds much superior to the 5.5 series iPods with their Wolfsens (YMMV).  The 5.5 sounded warm but rolled off.  To me the iPhone 4 was much more linear.
 
Also - what headphones/iems are you driving?  If it's an efficient IEM or portable can, you may not need to even worry about an amp.

because I don't want a new player or to spend a few hundred on a iphone with the cirrus chip.  I wont be using it too often so just decided to get the best sound for the 50 dollar range and from what i have read the wolfsen stuff does well in the old ipods and you can get them very cheap used.  the cans and iems im using for this purpose are efficient and do not need to be amped, but i have the stuff anyways so i would like to be able to use it with the player i get if i ever would want to use it for whatever reason...its just nice to know i can use it if i want to. 

 

[Brooko]

Ok - fair enough.  4th, 5th and 6th Gen Nanos are all Cirrus chips.  Latest one more than likely will also be Cirrus (just going on past history).  Unsure about the earlier models.
 
Personally if it was me - I'd buy the best priced model with the features you want - and forget about the Wolfsen vs Cirrus issue.

 

[dooodstevenn]

Thanks for the info, I might just get a new-ish one so I wont have to deal with figuring out if a LOD is compatable or not since I;m having trouble finding a difinitive answer around on the forum or google for the earlier generation ipods.  And to be honest I don't have the most trained ears anyways so I probably won't notice the details anyways.