[jamor]

  To paraphrase Nike...Just do it!!!!

 
That's not paraphrasing. That's literally quoting.

 

[Jackson 6]

Not so, Nike didn't use the exclamation marks.

 

[willyvlyminck]

all iRelated sounds bad

That is your opinion, what matters modt is the music source, and the iTunes downloads sound at least as good as the Flac ones from bandcamp, and if you stream Tidal hifi you have another exellent source.

 

[konseki]

 
the sony might be a little weak for an esw9. 0.4v should get you with peaks up to 109db, if you listen to mainly modern stuff with low dynamic it will be fine and you will enjoy it even pretty loudly without any downside on the sound fidelity. but if you're into some jazz or classical stuff or anything with wild dynamic changes, and like to listen a little loud, then the sony might not be enough. we usually aim for 115db and you can't get that with the sony and that headphone.
 
the FIIO X1 is clearly good enough to drive that headphone with ample headroom and all. from a money to sound point of view it would be a very nice choice. but if you find the functions of a sansa to be poor, you will cry with any fiio player DAP. they have a very minimalistic interface and are not super good at compatibility stuff. so you will probably need to work a little on tags names and stuff like that. so for sound only I would certainly go for the X1 as it is technically the best choice to pair with your headphone without wasting money for no reason. but you should check the forum, read lots of reviews(I made one for both sony A15 and X1 and they show my personal opinion and what I dislike pretty clearly I think ^_^). because you might be very disappointed depending on what you expect those players to be and do for you.
 
the X3 would have a lot more power than the X1, which would serve zero purpose if you're determined in using only something like the esw9. but if you plan on using some harder to drive headphones, like some non portable stuff, then the X3 would be the only reasonable choice. the user interface is even worst on the X3 than it is on the X1, fair warning.
 
about lasting 20years, firmwares and stuff are only really there to try correct a few bugs, unless you go for an android device, you don't even need to update anything ever. now 20years with a mp3 player... I have a very serious doubt about that. if only because of the battery that will never last that long. but I also suspect many modern devices to end up broken long before that.
some DAPs have a removable battery, but nothing to say those batteries will still be around in 10years.
 
just out of curiosity, the sansa you tried was rockboxed or not? because that does change a lot of things. more compatibility, all sorts of EQ including parametric, some crossfeed functions, and a lot of little useless stuff that you may or may not find cool. it will still have a crappy screen and non intuitive buttons, but it's far better than a fiio or a cowon.
 
anyway good luck with your research.

 
My sis's sansa(not rockbox) sounded too warm, inaccurate pitch and tone...and not as clear and colourful as the original CDs or even iphone. Maybe I'm expecting too much....hmmm....
And its already warm enough with my esw9...oops!
 
How about sennheisder mommentum...thinking of investing in the future. Can sony or fiio-x1 drive it nicely? I listen to rap, soft rock , pop songs...no classical or jazz haha,^^
And yeah I need to play AAC bought from Itunes.

 

[Jackson 6]

It drives my zx700 phones ok, they are 106db/mW sensitivity at 24 ohms at 1kHz, if that's any guide. Others report that it's ok power wise with the MDR 1-A as well, but I don't know the  figures. To paraphrase/quote Nike again, don't prevaricate and just do it.

 

[willyvlyminck]

My sis's sansa(not rockbox) sounded too warm, inaccurate pitch and tone...and not as clear and colourful as the original CDs or even iphone. Maybe I'm expecting too much....hmmm....
And its already warm enough with my esw9...oops!

How about sennheisder mommentum...thinking of investing in the future. Can sony or fiio-x1 drive it nicely? I listen to rap, soft rock , pop songs...no classical or jazz haha,^^


And yeah I need to play AAC bought from Itunes.

For taking on the road a closed headphone is a must, if however for use at home the half open Philips Fidelio L2 is by far the better headphone, and yes also easy to drive on whatever equipment

 

[castleofargh]

  My sis's sansa(not rockbox) sounded too warm, inaccurate pitch and tone...and not as clear and colourful as the original CDs or even iphone. Maybe I'm expecting too much....hmmm....
And its already warm enough with my esw9...oops!
 
How about sennheisder mommentum...thinking of investing in the future. Can sony or fiio-x1 drive it nicely? I listen to rap, soft rock , pop songs...no classical or jazz haha,^^
And yeah I need to play AAC bought from Itunes.

well rockbox does make it a much better DAP, not really changing the sound that much, but opening compatibility and EQ to another level for a start. silly question but did you make sure no EQ was ON? while I wouldn't call the sound of a sansa hifi, it's still very close to transparency with most IEM/headphones.
 
almost anything nowadays will play AAC, that's not a problem.
 
the momentum, the first one would be fine going with peaks at about 115db so just what it needs to get a general pass for pretty much anybody on any music. there are different momentum, the on ear would be about the same as the esw9 when it comes to driving needs. did you listen to the momentum in a store yet? I do like it as I favor smooth sound, but it's kind of warm too.
 
anyway, what jackson 6 says isn't wrong, take note that as I don't know you so I recommend something able to reach the 115db peaks. but it's an extreme value to make sure it will indeed work best for everybody. I myself would be fine with the esw9 and the sony A10, but I also know that when I went to meetings, almost everybody listened much louder than I did and I always had to turn any DAP or amp I came across, down.  the way we estimate if a headphone will be well driven is just a max target, if you listen to music at 60db, pretty much any source will in fact drive almost any headphone perfectly(as far as power is concerned). it's how loud you plan to go that determines your own needs.
so if you don't have a clue, stick with my estimations @115db, if you know for a fact you never listen to music loudly, then don't worry too much and go for something that has the functions you will want to use. 
I don't think I can give a better advice than this. the sony is small lasts super long and is overall nicer to use than most DAPs. that's what I belive and why I use it all the time when I also think the X1 is better when it comes to clean transparent signal. I have both and do use the sony a lot more because I value convenience that much.

 

[tusharthegamer]

i got a chance to test this device at sony center here. Doesn't feel like anything close to x1. But its just my personal opinion. 

 

[jamor]

  i got a chance to test this device at sony center here. Doesn't feel like anything close to x1. But its just my personal opinion. 

 
cmon thats all you got?

 

[god-bluff]

  i got a chance to test this device at sony center here. Doesn't feel like anything close to x1. But its just my personal opinion. 

What not heavy enough for you ?

 

[konseki]

  well rockbox does make it a much better DAP, not really changing the sound that much, but opening compatibility and EQ to another level for a start. silly question but did you make sure no EQ was ON? while I wouldn't call the sound of a sansa hifi, it's still very close to transparency with most IEM/headphones.
 
almost anything nowadays will play AAC, that's not a problem.
 
the momentum, the first one would be fine going with peaks at about 115db so just what it needs to get a general pass for pretty much anybody on any music. there are different momentum, the on ear would be about the same as the esw9 when it comes to driving needs. did you listen to the momentum in a store yet? I do like it as I favor smooth sound, but it's kind of warm too.
 
anyway, what jackson 6 says isn't wrong, take note that as I don't know you so I recommend something able to reach the 115db peaks. but it's an extreme value to make sure it will indeed work best for everybody. I myself would be fine with the esw9 and the sony A10, but I also know that when I went to meetings, almost everybody listened much louder than I did and I always had to turn any DAP or amp I came across, down.  the way we estimate if a headphone will be well driven is just a max target, if you listen to music at 60db, pretty much any source will in fact drive almost any headphone perfectly(as far as power is concerned). it's how loud you plan to go that determines your own needs.
so if you don't have a clue, stick with my estimations @115db, if you know for a fact you never listen to music loudly, then don't worry too much and go for something that has the functions you will want to use. 
I don't think I can give a better advice than this. the sony is small lasts super long and is overall nicer to use than most DAPs. that's what I belive and why I use it all the time when I also think the X1 is better when it comes to clean transparent signal. I have both and do use the sony a lot more because I value convenience that much.

 
The momentum I tried covers the ears. Very natural sounding and crisp , superior to esw9 I would say...warm but not as warm as esw9. Didnt buy it cause the high ends are too piercing to my ears.
 
   How can I convert to loseless or FLAC? Or AAC or mp3 will suffice? I only know how to use Itunes. Any ripper thats free and better than Itunes to recommend? ^^
I tried my music on China Redmi note 4G lite and to my surprise, it sounded loud enough and pretty clear...its running on snapdragon and I prefer it compared to the Iphone.
Oh ya can Fiio x1 run mp3 VBR? I even did not filter the 10hz frequency. Sorry couldnt find any specs on that. -.-
 
I just found out EAC after reading the many reviews. Is EAC better than Itunes? Do I use vbr or constant bit rate? I tried 320 on min n max vbr to mp3. N I put joint instead of stereo. For FLAC how much sample rate should I put?^^

 

[gerelmx1986]

 
I just found out EAC after reading the many reviews. Is EAC better than Itunes? Do I use vbr or constant bit rate? I tried 320 on min n max vbr to mp3. N I put joint instead of stereo. For FLAC how much sample rate should I put?^^

There's dbPoweramp suite which includes a CD ripper, tough it costs but is nice.
 
for mp3 you cna use what ever you want, VBR or max 320 kbps CBR. for FLAC it is automatic much like VBR but withouth the target quality. FLAC does have "compression" levels from 1 to 8, 1 being the fastest almost uncompressed and 5 beinf the default, and 8 the slowest to encode but i didn't found any diff between 5 to 8.
 
the only it does is to try to find patterns to cpmpress, and at level 8 spends time finding more patterns, so let's say if your wave file has a big 101010101011010101110000101111000 flac will try to encode the 101010101 as let's say 11 , try to encode the 1110000 as 001. so it loads it dictionary and when playing back the files searches for those codes and reconverts back to the original

 

[konseki]

I use EAC and it sounds nice enough though softer for MP3. Can I assume there's no difference between vbr and cbr for mp3?how about joint n stereo difference? As for flac how much sample rate should I use?44,000hkz or 48,000 or 96000hkz? I do notice some hissing on the 96,000 hkz though...not sure if it is because my CD has so many scratches...sweat. Can I safely say flac rips like cd quality whereas MP3 is more enhanced? Weird MP3 sounds more like melody.

About converting to FLAC Im thinking of 48,000hkz as 96,000hkz seems too big and there's welll..some hissing..hmm. Any opinions? Well I'm planning to use it on smart phone or fiiox1. And like what is shared, CD quality backup.

I am confused about the zip and compression. Because mp3 sounds enhanced. Whereas FLAC sounds nearer to CD quality. Thanks Gerel! ))

 

[Silverprout]

  There's dbPoweramp suite which includes a CD ripper, tough it costs but is nice.
 
for mp3 you cna use what ever you want, VBR or max 320 kbps CBR. for FLAC it is automatic much like VBR but withouth the target quality. FLAC does have "compression" levels from 1 to 8, 1 being the fastest almost uncompressed and 5 beinf the default, and 8 the slowest to encode but i didn't found any diff between 5 to 8.
 
the only it does is to try to find patterns to cpmpress, and at level 8 spends time finding more patterns, so let's say if your wave file has a big 101010101011010101110000101111000 flac will try to encode the 101010101 as let's say 11 , try to encode the 1110000 as 001. so it loads it dictionary and when playing back the files searches for those codes and reconverts back to the original

You can find all information here :
http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=28124

 

[konseki]

 
You can find all information here :
http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=28124

Hi Silver I actually got very confused with the link. Cause I'm not a technical person.
 
But I tried ripping at 44 it didnt sound that identical and clear and loud as the CD as compared to 48 and 96. O.O
How is CBR and VBR different?
For Itunes , should I also put sample rate as 44 instead of 48?
 
I am basically ripping into EAC mp3 joint/stereo/flac and Itunes mp3.
And to back up into 2 hard disks for storage.