[Blu-ray]

Recently lost my first gen Ipod Touch and am in the market for a new device. I have been hearing how Ipods are not as great when it comes to sound quality. I would like to seek something more than just Ipods.
 
I don't really care about any of the other features such as being able to play video, internet browsing, apps, or having a touch screen. I just want a player that plays music and does it well.
 
Currently, I bought myself Sony MDR-7506 headphones and they are amazing to my ears! Big step up from stock apple earbuds thats for sure. I like the clean and to an extent, unaltered sound. That's what I want from my music player also. I will not be using any EQ settings.
 
I have my music files in apple lossless as I currently use Itunes to manage my music. I would prefer to use itunes as my main music manager as I have grown accustomed to it. I am hoping it is compatible with other players. If not, I'm open to some suggestions but would strongly prefer using itunes. I will convert my music to any format using dbpoweramp as I have bought it, use it as my cd ripper as well.
 
Probably another thing to consider is I won't be looking into headphone amplifiers, I need to be mobile, so just straight headphone out performance is what I'm after.
 
Looking forward to your suggestions!

 

[4DThinker]

As far as I know, iTunes doesn't recognize anything but iPods.
Only a few of the competitors will play Apple Lossless. files.
 
Your best bet would be to wait a few weeks and check out the new iPods Apple will be announcing. All will meet your requirements and work fine with your new headphones.

 

[nycbone]

I converted my ALAC files to FLAC using dbpoweramp (free version) and it worked fine. Media Monkey is a nice alternative to iTunes and you can try it for free. It will also work with ALAC files and manage files on iPods/iPhones.

 

[Satellite_6]

If all you care about is music, encode to mp3 using LAME and buy something that sounds better than an ipod (pretty much anything). . . lossless on a DAP is a waste of memory IMO.
 

 

[Blu-ray]

 
Quote:

As far as I know, iTunes doesn't recognize anything but iPods.
Only a few of the competitors will play Apple Lossless. files.
 
Your best bet would be to wait a few weeks and check out the new iPods Apple will be announcing. All will meet your requirements and work fine with your new headphones.

Been reading about Ipod's and their LOD (Line out Dock?). Would that make the sound comparable to the sony x or cowon s9? Was looking at some information about portable amps and was very interested in the pico and headstage slim amps.
 
Quote:

I converted my ALAC files to FLAC using dbpoweramp (free version) and it worked fine. Media Monkey is a nice alternative to iTunes and you can try it for free. It will also work with ALAC files and manage files on iPods/iPhones.

Heard about media monkey and will give it a try. Good to know that it will work with ipods just in case I do get one.

 
Quote:

If all you care about is music, encode to mp3 using LAME and buy something that sounds better than an ipod (pretty much anything). . . lossless on a DAP is a waste of memory IMO.
 

I bought the paid version of dbpower amp as I needed a secure cd ripper for all of my cd's. I don't want to go into a debate about eac vs dbpoweramp, I see that it has the lame option and have read a little bit about it. Is -v0 a waste of space?

 

[paulypaul]

i would say 320kbs is a waste of space.
Lame V0 is peace of mind (even if you are unsure you can hear a difference to V2)
With the memory in DAPs nowadays V0 is not a space hog

 
As far as a music manager for my walkman.
I use iTunes on my mac platform (but the sony wont sync here).
I then use MediaMonkey in "parallels" and sync it to the iTunes folder.
The Walkman syncs to MediaMonkey.
When i listen on the mac i can listen to iTunes.

 

[Blu-ray]

Quote:

i would say 320kbs is a waste of space.
Lame V0 is peace of mind (even if you are unsure you can hear a difference to V2)
With the memory in DAPs nowadays V0 is not a space hog

 
As far as a music manager for my walkman.
I use iTunes on my mac platform (but the sony wont sync here).
I then use MediaMonkey in "parallels" and sync it to the iTunes folder.
The Walkman syncs to MediaMonkey.
When i listen on the mac i can listen to iTunes.

Sounds good, looking forward to trying v0 on portable. Would it be reasonable to have 2 media managers? Itunes for my lossless and mediamonkey for portable? I listen to music on my laptop at home and would like to keep it organized as opposed to having 1 library with both the lossless and lossy files.

 

[paulypaul]

Dont see why not.
Lossless and V0 in 2 different folders on your laptop and each media manager syncing to its own folder.

 

[Satellite_6]

 
Quote:

Sounds good, looking forward to trying v0 on portable. Would it be reasonable to have 2 media managers? Itunes for my lossless and mediamonkey for portable? I listen to music on my laptop at home and would like to keep it organized as opposed to having 1 library with both the lossless and lossy files.
 
 

What I do is I have 2 different tabs in foobar2000 so I have a tab for lossy and a tab for lossless. but there is nothing wrong with using more than one media player if you want to do it like that.
 
I actually use 320 CBR instead of v0 which is in fact a bit of a waste, but I can ABX v0 files that are ~220 kbps fairly easily in some cases, so I use it b/c I'm paranoid.
 
P.S. No one specifically answered your question, if you are looking for a cheap good sounding DAP the sansa clip + is supposed to be great, if your looking for something a bit nicer a Sony or a Cowon might be the way to go.
 

 

[nycbone]

Yup, what I did for a while. I now use Media Monkey to manage everything - keeping ALAC for my SO's iPod, FLAC for my Clip+ and other files in separate playlists. Works pretty well once you get it organized. The smart playlist are like iTunes with lots of different configurations for sorting.
 
re: iPod LOD
I used one with a 4G nano and several different amps and it works pretty well, though I don't know how it compares to those other players alone or with an LOD. I've never been impressed with the headphone out of any iPod/iPhone that I've heard.
 
 
 
Quote:

Sounds good, looking forward to trying v0 on portable. Would it be reasonable to have 2 media managers? Itunes for my lossless and mediamonkey for portable? I listen to music on my laptop at home and would like to keep it organized as opposed to having 1 library with both the lossless and lossy files.

 

[paulypaul]

The DAP.
I love my A828 Walkman.
2x Custom 5 band EQs and "clearbass' rocks.
My walkman drives my 64 ohm RE0s easily, volume 12 / 30

 

[Blu-ray]

 Quote:

 
What I do is I have 2 different tabs in foobar2000 so I have a tab for lossy and a tab for lossless. but there is nothing wrong with using more than one media player if you want to do it like that.
 
I actually use 320 CBR instead of v0 which is in fact a bit of a waste, but I can ABX v0 files that are ~220 kbps fairly easily in some cases, so I use it b/c I'm paranoid.
 
P.S. No one specifically answered your question, if you are looking for a cheap good sounding DAP the sansa clip + is supposed to be great, if your looking for something a bit nicer a Sony or a Cowon might be the way to go.
 

Was looking at the sansa clip+, sansa fuze, Sony S Series, Sony X Series, Cowon Iaudio9, Cowon S9, Cowon J3, S:flo2 and Samsung P3. All look terrific but my aim for was sound quality as top priority. Then I read about portable amps and saw pico slim and headstage arrow slims. So many things to consider! Don't think I'll need one but just curious, will a headphone amp improve sound quality? I know that it amplifies the sound but then people talk about hiss and background noise, floor noise, and giving a more punchier bass but couldnt you do that with eq? Would a headphone amp benefit me considering I'm using the mdr 7506 headphones and a player like the ones mentioned above?
 
Been leaning towards the sony's as there are many sony stores around for me to try. Although, I don't mind looking into the others as well. Also, usually they release new models around this time, so I'll wait and see whats coming up.
 
Quote:

Yup, what I did for a while. I now use Media Monkey to manage everything - keeping ALAC for my SO's iPod, FLAC for my Clip+ and other files in separate playlists. Works pretty well once you get it organized. The smart playlist are like iTunes with lots of different configurations for sorting.
 
re: iPod LOD
I used one with a 4G nano and several different amps and it works pretty well, though I don't know how it compares to those other players alone or with an LOD. I've never been impressed with the headphone out of any iPod/iPhone that I've heard.
 
 
 

 

Yup, generally what I've been hearing. Although Ipods/iphones are convinient, I'm looking to venture outside them.

 

[Satellite_6]

 
Quote:

Was looking at the sansa clip+, sansa fuze, Sony S Series, Sony X Series, Cowon Iaudio9, Cowon S9, Cowon J3, S:flo2 and Samsung P3. All look terrific but my aim for was sound quality as top priority. Then I read about portable amps and saw pico slim and headstage arrow slims. So many things to consider! Don't think I'll need one but just curious, will a headphone amp improve sound quality? I know that it amplifies the sound but then people talk about hiss and background noise, floor noise, and giving a more punchier bass but couldnt you do that with eq? Would a headphone amp benefit me considering I'm using the mdr 7506 headphones and a player like the ones mentioned above?
 
Been leaning towards the sony's as there are many sony stores around for me to try. Although, I don't mind looking into the others as well. Also, usually they release new models around this time, so I'll wait and see whats coming up.

I looked up your headphones and they are 63 ohms. . . I don't have any experience with amps but FWIR an amp might make an improvement. 16 and 32 ohm headphones really don't need an amp but after that I'm not sure. One thing I do know though, you have to pay a decent amount of money to get an amp which doesn't add too much distortion. It's also important to note that some DAPs have more powerful output than others. In example, from what I've read Cowons are pretty powerful, so an amp might not make a very big difference with them and your headphones.
 
Happy hunting. . .

 

[Blu-ray]

Quote:

 
I looked up your headphones and they are 63 ohms. . . I don't have any experience with amps but FWIR an amp might make an improvement. 16 and 32 ohm headphones really don't need an amp but after that I'm not sure. One thing I do know though, you have to pay a decent amount of money to get an amp which doesn't add too much distortion. It's also important to note that some DAPs have more powerful output than others. In example, from what I've read Cowons are pretty powerful, so an amp might not make a very big difference with them and your headphones.
 
Happy hunting. . .

 
Ahh ok. I'm not going to get one right away, but something I'll look to into the future. What I need right now is the player, from what I read, any of the options that I said before will run my headphones well and sound great without an amp.
 

 

[Maxvla]

Would be worth your while to see what Apple has in store for us. Macrumors is hinting at a August 11-17 window for the iPod/Mac Air event, so next week, basically. If you just really can't stand another iPod there are many others to try. If you are spending some dough you should look at the Hifiman 602, which sells for about the same as a mid-tier iPod touch and will easily have the best SQ if you are looking at that price range. You won't need an amp either because it's all customized for head-fi style listening.
 
The Cowon S9 looks really tempting, also. Check that out. I'd be looking at one myself if I wasn't in need of a Wifi DAP.