[Dweebgal]

i'm kind of half thinking of getting a supermini amp for my ifp-390.

considering how small the ifp is to start with, does this seem stupid to anyone?

i absolutley love the ifp-390, good battery life, good sound, and it carries just enough songs for me, and i want to make it sound as good as possible.

so, i'm planning on a very slow upgrade to all my gear, in order to have an ultra-portable and a portable rig , now i've finally found a source i am really happy with.

(ultra-portable would probably be ifp + eggos, or e2c's if i get around to getting them, portbale would be ifp + supermini + ath-900s)

so...am i insane?


p.s. i've been listening to lots of oggs today, and i cant wait for iriver to bring out the ogg firmware for the ifp-300 series

[Edit: Spelling]

 

[Dweebgal]

in case anyone was wondering, i'm not really asking you to try and accurately assess my mental situation from one post on here!!

come on....someone must have an opinion...good or bad.

 

[Kirosia]

I think you're perfectly sane (for the most part). I'm currently building a cmoy for my IFP 190 because putting it past 25 on the vol. control causes too much of a treble increase IMO. I used to use sr-325s with the IFP ampless for portable use. THAT's a little insane. You're just a portaphile. Join the club.

 

[Fish Tank X]

Instead of buying a supermini, about 20 pounds will get you the parts necescescary to build a CMoy. That's in contrats to over 90 pounds (Shipping to England plus VAT). for a supermini.

Not worthit, in my opinion, to buy a supermini.

 

[lan]

Sanity is relative. It's not like you're using Omega IIs as portable setup. Yes there is somebody that actually does that.

Setting cost aside, supermini is nice size but with the small size of flash and small harddrive players, it really pushes the boundaries. I don't have the pocket space for all that. If you carry a purse around, maybe it's ok. I also can't justify the costs in an unideal noisy city environment and where I have to watch for cars, bikes, dog poop, etc. I can't take advantage of higher quality.

 

[Fish Tank X]

..Um.. I hate to ask this Dweebgal, partly because it's rude and partly because it's so insane, but


Why in the heck would you want to use the iFP-390 with an amp if you were only listening to 128K/s or 96K/s oggs/WMA's?

I find it incredilous that you would go to such lentghs to increase the soundquality of your player when clearly you're killing your sound quality by using low bitrate files in the first place.

If I were you, I would skip past the iFP-390 and sell it and get a 395 or a 595 before I went the amp route.

If you want a good amp, just build a CMoy.

 

[jasonwilldermood]

I am thinking about an amp for my iFP-395t and AKG 271s. I wonder how the super mini compares to the Porta Corda and the pimeta? The supermini would be cool to velcro to the iRiver.

 

[Dweebgal]

Quote:

Originally posted by Fish Tank X ..Um.. I hate to ask this Dweebgal, partly because it's rude and partly because it's so insane, but Why in the heck would you want to use the iFP-390 with an amp if you were only listening to 128K/s or 96K/s oggs/WMA's? I find it incredilous that you would go to such lentghs to increase the soundquality of your player when clearly you're killing your sound quality by using low bitrate files in the first place. If I were you, I would skip past the iFP-390 and sell it and get a 395 or a 595 before I went the amp route. If you want a good amp, just build a CMoy.

it's a fair question,

there's a few reasons.

1. if i decide to get some better cans, especially ones that have a higher impedence, i want to be able to drive them from the ifp if i feel like it.
2. like someone else said, i find that after 25 on the volume control, there is a distortion in the treble, and when listening on places like the bus, i need to have the volume up high unfortunately
3. i'm kind of eyeing up a creative muvo2 for some point in the future anyway...maybe.

and to those who said about building a cmoy instead of buying a supermini:

1. i am useless at audio diy, tried it before, failed spectacularly, and i dont have the time to learn
2. i would much rather use AAA (or AA) batteries than 9v ones, becuase i already have some AA and AAA rechargeables kicking about, and 9v's are damn expensive. if anyone can build me a cmoy in a small enclosure (i.e so i could piggyback it on my 390 with velcro) that ran on a few AAAs or AAs, i'd be happy

in general the reason i'm thinking of doing a bit of an upgrade is becuase i'm getting a student loan, and once i've paid off some debts with it, i should have a nice chunk of money left.

 

[Fish Tank X]

In that case i'd say go for it.

I would say you should normalize all of your MP3/OGG/WMA's before you put 'em over, though. Like, make the peak of everything 0DB because that way it creates higher volumes at the same place on the volume meter.

 

[Fish Tank X]

By the way: Why would you want to drive high end cans from the iFP, when you're most likely using, at at max, 160ish oggs and the high end headphone will expose all the flaws in the files your using? It sounds like a loose loose situation. Having to increase your bitrate to avoid artifacts or to just put up with the poorer files.

 

[Rizumu]

If you need more volume, the SuperMini will work for you, but just don't be expecting much of an improvement in sound.

Oh, sorry, forgot to add that I think it's incredibly dumb to use amps with MP3 players. You're using compressed music for one, and the whole point of MP3 players is having lots of music in an extremely small device...then you add the bulk of an amp. And there's not even a line out so you're using it from the headphone out. It's just totally dumb from my point of view.

And $100 for a volume booster isn't a worthwhile investment, IMO.

 

[Dweebgal]

all very good arguments.

ok....i think i will just limit my upgrade fervor to some shure e2s then

 

[Fish Tank X]

Excellent choice.

Be sure to Mod them.

They get better isolation/bass when used with some of the mod's floating around the headphone forum. Mainly brohken's first mod.

 

[Dweebgal]

cool beans.