[dallasstar]

What about the iRiver players? The poll on this site showed that the majority of headfiers prefered its sound, and a lot of rightmark benchmarks claim that it's the best

. Also, which Wolfson DAC does the iPod 4G use?

 

[Head Creep]

If you're looking for an "audiophile" MP3 player, then the iRiver H/iHP series and Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 are very good choices. They don't have support for any lossless compression formats, but you can still carry around more WAV files on a 20GB hard drive than a CD can hold. If you don't need line-out, the Rio Karma is a very good choice as well, with its support for FLAC.

 

[chumley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallasstar What about the iRiver players? The poll on this site showed that the majority of headfiers prefered its sound, and a lot of rightmark benchmarks claim that it's the best . Also, which Wolfson DAC does the iPod 4G use?

The iRiver sounds good, no doubt. But if you're after a classic, audiophile 'neutral' signal, the iPod's Line Out and Headphone Out both provide two levels of quality that reflect that kind of sonic signature...

The 4G/Photo iPods use Wolfson's new chip, the WM8975.

 

[aeriyn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan I really like my ipod from just its headphone out...

Totally agreed. 90% of my iPod's usage is iPod -> E3cs, without the pocketdock to mini to mini to MINT to Ety P to S converter to E3cs... carrying all that stuff is a hassle. Now I do like taking it with me on trips, but I usually take the DT440s or the KSC-35s also.

I got the mini for its size. If I was going to always carry it around with an amp, I would've gotten a 4G iPod and use Apple Lossless, not AAC 224kbps.

 

[Seijang]

AFAIK (not personal experience) I've seen the Rio Karma praised the most for its sound.

That said, I own an iRiver H320, and it really makes my day each time I boot up the bugger.

great sound/dragndrop interface/video playback/recording/radio/pictures/moddable bootup and power down screens for 300 bucks..what more could I possibly want

 

[Buffalo Bill]

I'd go with these three:

iAudio M-series
iRiver H-series
Rio Karma

I personally think the iAudio is notably superior to the iRiver; same features in a smaller package and price. Not to mention support. But my main man austin would say the Rio is king; although I have a long-standing distaste for their build quality. Anyways, I'd for sure at least read up on these three, right here.

 

[enemigo]

I might be getting a Creative Zen Micro since the "new" hard drive on my laptop just crashed. I am returning it and plan on using the refunded money on an mp3 player, they only got Creative players.

But then I checked out iAudio. Never heard of them before, I'll be searching and reading a bit about them before I decide. If anyone got links or further info on iAudio, I'd appreciate it.

Knut

 

[LFF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoomForce I believe Creative's players have generally better sound than alot others on the market (including the ipod, from what i read). A line out though is rare in mp3 players, but i bet there are some models that include one.

A few months ago I would have agreed with you 100%. However, I believe that the new 4G and 5G iPods sound better than the creative players. I still own a creative zen 40GB mp3 player and the sound quality is the same as, if not worse than the new iPods. The difference was so immediate that I purchased a new 4G 40GB iPod.

However, creative is still a nice sounding player. The Karma also deserves a mention since it is considered by many to be THE audiophile player. However, I have not had the pleasure of listening to a Karma though.

 

[Emmanuel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thisp I don't know of any DAP with a *TRUE* line out excfept for the Creative Nomad Jukebox 3.

Sony's NW-HD3 has a proper Line-Out (selected through the menu). Just remember to put it back to headphone mode otherwise you'll blow your earphones.

At this moment in time the aforementioned player (and other of it's kind) is the closest you will get to audiophile (there is no such a thing as an "audiophile MP3 player") quality as it is can natively decode ATRAC; the minidisc codec. It also supports PCM.

 

[chumley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aeriyn Totally agreed. 90% of my iPod's usage is iPod -> E3cs, without the pocketdock to mini to mini to MINT to Ety P to S converter to E3cs... carrying all that stuff is a hassle. Now I do like taking it with me on trips, but I usually take the DT440s or the KSC-35s also. I got the mini for its size. If I was going to always carry it around with an amp, I would've gotten a 4G iPod and use Apple Lossless, not AAC 224kbps.

If you'd spent the extra $50.00 for a 4G 20GB iPod instead of an iPod Mini, you'd be enjoying Apple Lossless, instead of AAC 224kbps, from headphone out... you'd probably prefer the BIG sound quality boost over the size/weight savings, especially with just headphone out...

As for the others- I've listened to the iAudio M-series, iRiver H-series and the Rio Karma- forget the 4G (click wheel) iPod's Line Out; its Headphone Out and no amp is superior to these other three, with anything that can be driven by H/O alone!

 

[Oddball]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chumley If you'd spent the extra $50.00 for a 4G 20GB iPod instead of an iPod Mini, you'd be enjoying Apple Lossless, instead of AAC 224kbps, from headphone out... you'd probably prefer the BIG sound quality boost over the size/weight savings, especially with just headphone out...

Ah! Never get between that girl and her pink iPod Mini!

Sure, I don't think that mp3 players are audiophile when using the most rigorous definition of the word, but really, how audiophile does one need for portable applications? Critical listening for me, is done at home. Portable listening can sound really really good, but audiophile? Maybe not. I think that people can be satisfied with the SQ of any of the DAPs mentioned frequently here. But if you hold a DAP's SQ to the level of sources dedicated solely to audiophile listening, it's just not a fair comparison. All of this is imo.

 

[Spankypoo]

For thread clarity's sake, the iPod photo is still considered to be part of the 4G click-wheel series.

 

[philodox]

With no external amplification used I have yet to find a DAP that beats out the sound quality of my av320. Its also one of the only mp3 players that will drive my k271s well. Even so I am looking at using the AOS Flute [DAC/amp combo] as an upgrade to my portable setup because there are times when I wouldnt mind turning up the volume a bit more than it will go. I'm also hoping that the Flute will allow me to effectively carry around a hi-fi system on my shoulder.

 

[JaZZ]

The Archos Gmini 220 is the first and only DAP I've heard that I would call audiophile. It doesn't have a line out, but its headphone out sounds great with headphones (ER-4P) as well as through my Corda HA-2 MkII, not even much worse than CDs through the Bel Canto DAC2 (...believe it or not). The Gmini XS 200 and the Gmini 400 look interesting, too.

 

[ReasonablyLucid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milamber Sorry does that sound wierd to anyone? ipod and wma will never be in the same sentence . But afaik microsoft won't be allowing players to play wma lossless let alone let apple play wma.

You do know that microsoft owns about half of apple, right?