new digital amp's in md units: better sound than with external head amp?

[dougbrad81]

hi,
with the hype for the digital amps found in sony's and sharp's new md units, i was wondering if the sound would be better than my current setup of sony mz-n1 line out- fixup mini amp - ety 4p to 4s converter? can anyone who has a digital amp unit and portable amp comment on the sound diffrences and which one gives a more accurate sound reproduction?

 

[Flasken]

stick with what you've got - it's way better.

 

[Y-Z]

I agree, also I've read from the Japanese online forum that E10 ,wich has digital amp, generates hiss when the DSP is turned on. Even it is audible by non-audiophiles so it must be pretty big hiss. So those who are thinking about buying E10 beware!

If you can read Japanese here is the source:

http://www.kakaku.com/bbs/Main_kakak...ategoryCD=2060

 

[dougbrad81]

that's intresting info Y-Z. do you know if the same holds true to the sharp ds8?

 

[Y-Z]

From the forum none has complained about ds8's sound. In fact they rave about it sounding very very good. But since they are non-audiophiles, leon's opinion is far more valuable to us.
Hope this helps.

 

[dougbrad81]

thanks for the info Y-Z. i take it leon has a ds8? this is dissapointing news about the sony, as i remebered reading the translated japanese press releases that the e10 has unparreled sound reproduction. but then again we should always take sony's word with a grain of salt.

 

[leon]

Yes I have a ds8...

The current use of digital amps is probably meant to extend battery life (without significantly crapping the sound) and not so much to give you more juice than you could swallow. In Sharp's application, digital amp offers double the output of analog amp. Assuming no other tricks are taking place, the ds8 might be consuming 2.5+2.5mW to put out its 5+5mW, but without certain degradations you'd see from cutting an analog amp to 2.5+2.5mW.

The sound - probably reflecting that - is a lot of pleasure to listen to, but the temperament's different from what we're used to. It great, but it's just not "thick"/"bold"/"full-body" in the way you get from a high-output analog amp.

(my language skills are dying, waaaaaa... )

IIRC, digital amp means that you don't need a separate DAC, so if the company's been using not-so-good DACs in their portables, you may notice an improvement. On that Japanese thread, note the N1 versus E10 comments... very similar to my own opinion of the ds8 against the mt770, despite the reviewer using Sony 238 earbuds

Someone could make an external headphone amp using a digital amp part, but there are issues (digital input to begin with, and oodles more later on).