[NimbleTurtle]

Are portable devices supposed to sound better than most laptops, assuming same quality of music is used? Portable devices use their own DACs right? Would a Cowon D2 likely sound better than my laptop (default soundcard). It's a Toshiba laptop if that helps. 

 

[Inso]

"old" post, however - yes, even my Sansa Clip sounds better then on-board when connecting the right headphones. My Xonar Essence STX is worlds better then the onboard sound (also much better then my clip), next days my Cowon Z2 will arrive, then I can tell you if it can compare to the STX, but it will surely beat the onboard sound.

 

[NimbleTurtle]

Quote:

"old" post, however - yes, even my Sansa Clip sounds better then on-board when connecting the right headphones. My Xonar Essence STX is worlds better then the onboard sound (also much better then my clip), next days my Cowon Z2 will arrive, then I can tell you if it can compare to the STX, but it will surely beat the onboard sound.

Aah I see. How would you say an Itouch/ Ipod compares with a standard onboard sound?

 

[planx]

The iPod Touch actually sounds pretty good, it's just I hate my iPhone as my portable player (even though the iPod layout is very good) because I only use FLAC ripped from my CDs. My Hifiman HM-602 sounds superb and with it's external DAC function, a good companion to my Asus eeepc.

 

[JK1]

Even the tiny Sandisk Clip+ sounds great. It is  just $35 for a 4GB one. It has a microSDHC card slot, so you can add a 32GB card.

 

[Inso]

PlQuote:

Aah I see. How would you say an Itouch/ Ipod compares with a standard onboard sound?

 
 
Hmm how to explain... onboard sound normally does not differ high and mid tone good, bass is much but also not precise, you can´t differ single tones, its overall mashy. Imo quality of an 20-30€ supermarket player. 
My good old Sansa Clip V2 (without Rockbox because theres a noise bug with the V2) has a nice setup, good bass, ok mid and high tones, 5 band equalizer.
An IPod Nano 2G (quiet old) has not that much bass, it´s not that rich, but also precise. Mid and high tones are a nuance more precise then on the clip, i can hear f.e. the audience on an live concert better differed then on the clip. But it does sound a little little bit unnatural for me (dunno why), and there´s no equalizer, only presets which I dislike. 
The Asus Xonar Essence STX internal sound card beats em all.
Cowon Z2 will arrive next days (hopefully^^)
 
Please note that all was tested with an AKG K701 (imo greatest headphones for natural, linear sound, but open system, you can´t use them in public)  and UE´s Triple.FI 10 (great for three way in-ears). 
With my old Sonys for around 60€ the difference is harder to hear, and the sound is not really natural. 
When your headphones / in-ears are "cheap", i´d always prefer to buy a combination of good headphones/in-ears and the Sansa Clip+ as an mp3-player for the start, 
then an 100€+ mp3-player and cheap headphones / in-ears or the ones of the player.
The Sansa Clip+ (+ Rockbox) is close to good mp3-players (even to apple or cowon), while headphones for the same price (around 50€) are more far away from the sound of 200€+ headphones
(in-ears the Triple-Fi 10 are very famous, problem is you can´t test in-ears in a shop or send em back to amazon if you dislike em; for headsets: try some and find the one matching your sound characteristic favor, makes a big difference). 
 
Sorry for my bad english^^