[JoshK]

Hi,

I just ordered a Creative NJB3 as my portable for commuting tunes. I ride the subway to work, which is horrible noisy so I opted to get Ety 4Ps, which I understand provide quite good isolation. I also am aware that they can be difficult to drive. Will the NJB3 completely fail to drive the Ety's satisfactorily? Will I absolutely need an external amp?

Just curious. I do intend to get an amp (or likely build one myself) down the road but I was wondering if I can get away with not having one for now. However, I do have high standards for audio performance.

TIA,
Josh

 

[Nqstv]

I owned a JB3 and ETY4S's. Believe it or not, the JB3 drove the 4S's well. Granted, the volume was maxed out and the sound was at about normal listening range (Not quite as full as they could have been).

With the 4P's you should be fine considering the isolation is almost complete. With that much isolation, you can listen at much lower levels.

Just to be clear, I did get a JMT MAX META42 as soon as I could though. Made a world of difference.

 

[JoshK]

thanks, that answers my question.

 

[Nqstv]

You're gonna love the JB3. The only problem I had was I ran out of space. Ended up buying a 40Gig Zen XTRA.

A quick tip I can provide for the JB3 is that you can fit it well into a nice leather CDP carrying case. I was able to find a great one that would typically fit the CDP and 4 CDs, but I used the CD pouch to carry my ETY's and the AMP.

I still think the JB3 has the best HD sound on the market.

Have fun!!

 

[JoshK]

The reason why I got the JB3 over others was primarily for swapping out the 20 gig drive with a larger, as my MP3 collection is enormous and I am a tweaker so this doesn't scare me. I also like the fact that I can use an extra battery which I already ordered.

 

[Nqstv]

It's not too bad a process to swap out the drive. Unfortunately, I'm not quite the tweaker. And I will admit that after carrying the JB3 around for a year, the smaller size of the Zen was appealing.

Let us know how the drive swap goes.

 

[JoshK]

I admit I have to read up on the details of the drive swap, but a quick read made it seem doable enough. I thought long and hard about the Zen Xtra but ultimately the size wasn't really a factor as I will carry it in my work bag anyway. I have an Ipaq that I use for working out or when I want something small.

Thanks again for answering my Q.