Recommendation for Portable Device.

[therock003]

I'm thinking of getting a portable device for playing back my media,back of course i want something with a great internal dac that will output the best of sound to my earphones.

IS there any great commercial product,or will i have to go hardcore and look for something more obscure?

So far quality-wise i have no experience,but appealing to the eye to me,is the iphone-itouch and some sony portable devices i have seen.

What would you suggest to me,with emphasis to the output audio quality?

 

[HipHopScribe]

Some more info would be good, like budget, the kind of earphones you'll be using, the kind of music you listen to, how much memory you want, any special codec support, if you want good video playback, and anything else you can think to help narrow it down.

 

[therock003]

-I will be using shure se-530.

-Budget is something i wont consider if audio output is optimum.At least i didn't consider it when i bought my earphones.

-Well as for video,it's either going to be best of the best,or none at all.I don't care for 320x240 15 fps 3 inch video devices.It's either going to make it count or none at all.

-As for media types well mp3 mostly,and maybe other major audio filetypes,i don't have anything out of the ordinary i wish to playback.

-Music:Hip-Hop/R&B/Dance/Trance/House

 

[rei_yano]

I am curious about this too. I mean is there a dap with a really good dac out there? how awesome would it be if somebody built a great dap with an awesome dac and amp inside of it? like an audiophile dap? maybe even the unit would have some inputs and outputs for us to use the internal dac and amp with other units besides the dap.... dreams....

 

[Nuwidol]

Have a look at the Cowon A3

Huge codec support
Sounds great
800x480 4" screen
Comes in 30GB, 60GB or 80GB

 

[rei_yano]

cowon has the best codec support ever. I really want to buy a cowon soon. do you think the meizu's are any good?

 

[therock003]

Well i don't really care about codec support.I have mobiles supporting the formats i'm interested in,what i need is for someone to guarantee me that a portable device will output great sound,no questions asked.

Although it does look good,i also consider archos for video playing.

 

[EugeneK]

I'm using the sony NWZ-A729 with my SE530s.

It's extremely portable and thin, it even fits in the same pocket as my wallet.

Sounds really good too, beats out the sound quality on all ipods and creative players.

There is a slight hiss (only on really sensitive headphones like the SE530) when you aren't playing anything - might not be so good for some classical / jazz pieces.

 

[Jalo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rei_yano /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am curious about this too. I mean is there a dap with a really good dac out there? how awesome would it be if somebody built a great dap with an awesome dac and amp inside of it? like an audiophile dap? maybe even the unit would have some inputs and outputs for us to use the internal dac and amp with other units besides the dap.... dreams....

I am also in the search for a audiofile DAP recently and that lead me to the Sony Audio Digital Recorder PCM-D50. It is basically a digital recorder, but the spec for audio playback is just Amazing. It only plays Wav format and can play 22, 44, 48, 96 khz in 16 or 24 bit. It has digital (optical) line in and out as well as analog line in and out. I just ordered a d50 and hope it doesn't disappoint. But from everything I've read, it should be an awesome performer. There is a thread "Digital Recorder-Fi" in the Gear fi forum and talks about this.

 

[rei_yano]

huh.... that is interesting.... never thought to check out a recorder! lol

 

[ZarakiSan]

If you want to get a good output, then look for an iRiver H120/140 or 320/340, those are bound to be better than any recorder out there for playback, especially with Rockbox. I had a H120 and I did like the playback, but I got spoiled by huge colour screens. Try an H320/340, they're awesome.

 

[jordanross]

I don't know, the new iPhone 3G sounds pretty darn good. Much better than my iPod video. It doesn't have any worthwhile codec support besides Apple Lossless. But then again I haven't heard that many DAP's. Right now, I'm running my Triple.fi's straight from the headphone jacks, until my Tomahawk gets here.