headdict
100+ Head-Fier
Who of you owns a clip?
If you mean Sansa clip in all variations, I am proud owner of four zips.
But why are you posting this question here on this particular thread?
Who of you owns a clip?
All headphones can reproduce music, so if that's your only requirement then buy the cheapest ones you can find. Some of us are searching for maximum detail and natural sound, and EQ can help to achieve that goal.
But there should be an absolute minimum I guess? Not every $15 can be eqed to sound like $200, but I get your point. $50 could be eqed to $200+ if done well.
Just curious! Keep reading clip is a very cheap though good dap which may be the only one you need for ''audiophile'' listening.
If portability is not an issue, do you know of any DAP that is objectively better, also in terms of EQ capabilities?
When my wife says "Ohhhh yeah. BIG difference...." her eyes are usually rolling into the back of her head.
a good deal of DAPs are objectively better. I doubt it's obviously audible though unless impedance starts changing the signature. in fact an iphone is objectively better nowadays. I believe portable audio to have nicely improved in the last years, with more and more stuff sounding reasonably transparent.
now for EQ capabilities, sadly no. unless you can rockbox the DAP or have an android DAP, I doubt you can get even remotely close. in fact I chose to hardcode some EQ because I find most of my DAP really not good enough in the EQ department(like my sony with no way to lower anything below 400hz...)
I guess looking for what DAP can be rockboxed would be the best way to go at it. I didn't see a DX50 rockboxed so I don't know what functions are available, maybe the dx90 can be too (didn't really follow the thread but I believe I've seen that written somewhere). I think I remember a ihifi could be rockboxed too. but you'll have to look for more information.
else if you get a nice sounding android DAP, installing viper4android on it opens a very wild range of crazy cool DSPs(real cool, I'm not talking surround laser cats, but really advanced tweakable stuff). I hate android in a DAP, but I often think about getting one just because of viper.
I don't get what you say here though: "a good deal of DAPs are objectively better. I doubt it's obviously audible though unless impedance starts changing the signature. in fact an iphone is objectively better nowadays. I believe portable audio to have nicely improved in the last years, with more and more stuff sounding reasonably transparent."
A good DAP should sound the same as another? And since the 0.5 Ohm imp of the Clip I don't get why others are better, other for the relatively weak amp.
a good deal of DAPs are objectively better. I doubt it's obviously audible though unless impedance starts changing the signature. in fact an iphone is objectively better nowadays. I believe portable audio to have nicely improved in the last years, with more and more stuff sounding reasonably transparent.
now for EQ capabilities, sadly no. unless you can rockbox the DAP or have an android DAP, I doubt you can get even remotely close. in fact I chose to hardcode some EQ because I find most of my DAP really not good enough in the EQ department(like my sony with no way to lower anything below 400hz...)
I guess looking for what DAP can be rockboxed would be the best way to go at it. I didn't see a DX50 rockboxed so I don't know what functions are available, maybe the dx90 can be too (didn't really follow the thread but I believe I've seen that written somewhere). I think I remember a ihifi could be rockboxed too. but you'll have to look for more information.
else if you get a nice sounding android DAP, installing viper4android on it opens a very wild range of crazy cool DSPs(real cool, I'm not talking surround laser cats, but really advanced tweakable stuff). I hate android in a DAP, but I often think about getting one just because of viper.
Thanks for this exhaustive answer. I definitely owe you a cognac for that!
By "hardcoding EQ" you mean recoding audio files with an EQ profile targeted to a specific phone that you intend to use them with, I suppose. You must be très désespéré.
Now for the real options...
Rockbox'able DAP - yeah, thought about that. It would have to be able to drive full-size headphones like T1 or my old AKG K500 or my future planar phones. That would be DX90, I guess. I'm currently not ready to spend this kind of money on mere electronics, but it's certainly worth a closer look. I would like to get rid of stock Rockbox's rather limited Q-value range, though. (Too limited for some narrower treble peaks.) Maybe doable by editing and recompiling the source code. Something to be checked...
By "android DAP" you mean a real DAP rather than a smartphone? I never considered that. Since such stuff is not very wide spread compared to smartphones, I wonder if it would be easy to root, and if it would be supported by the Viper community. I suppose it would come with some nice stuff, like line out, but would lack network streaming capability on the other hand. Output impedance and power also to be checked...
I have a Note II lying around - no longer in use. Easy to root and run Viper on. Output power insufficient and no line out. Not a real option, but I have it available for experiments.
I'll have to think about it some more. For now clip zip does the job pretty good - with a little help from its friend, the FiiO E12.
What has been upto this point in time the DAP that has shown the best measurements under and without load?
I have seen the dscopeiii readings of the fiio x3 and it seems remarkably good. Any other ones?