Sound Quality

[Unagi]

WARNING: My idea of what is desirable in an MP3 player is my opinion, I understand that some people do want other things in an MP3 player.


Alright, I've taken the time to select a decent pair of headphones (or two), now I need a portable to further justify the purchase. I've done a little homework on MP3 players, and haven't learned anything new from what I had known previously.

As far as I can tell, all that truly matters in one is the memory, how the screen/interface is, and whether it will play the formats you want. Size is a personal preference, and further functionalities are nice, but not necessary in my opinion.


One thing that has been nagging me however: If memory is all that is important (at least to me), why not just by the cheapest one that will work for you? (256-512 MB Flash Memory is sufficient for me.)

The one question that I have been searching for an answer for, still remains unanswered: Is there a difference in sound quality between MP3 players? Obviously there is one between different models of headphones and speakers; but MP3 players? Aren't they just glorified "USB sticks/Jump Drives/Flash Drives" that are able to pump music through a headphone jack?

When I say sound quality, I mean just that; I don't factor in equalizers or other "sound boosting" methods. I'm speaking of the raw sound output. Isn't this solely reliant on the MP3 file/whatever itself? Not the player? Or do some players automatically further compress or otherwise tool around with your files?


Now I do know that some players may not be able to drive some headphones to a decent volume, or there may be some hiss, however, I am most interested in sound quality itself (although I wouldn't mind knowing a little about the other issues).

As you can tell, I'm somewhat clueless about this- yet not entirely. I do suspect I'm missing an important point somewhere here. Care to help a guy out?

(In case you are wondering, the headphones I am purchasing are the Sennheiser "PX 100" and "HD 280 Pro" models).

 

[stevesurf]

I can comment on on the many Apple-related threads. I have both 2G Mini and 3G iPod as well as HD280 and HD595. I enjoy the SQ of both sources with HD280 unamped and HD595 amped with SR-71, however, many have stated here that the SQ of both Shuffle and Nano are superior to the 4G color iPod. In fact, there's a significant sound distortion issue that has been discussed as well.

If you can work with smaller capacity, go with the Nano now or wait until the 5G iPod (november?). Good luck!

 

[K2Grey]

There is a big difference between different sources (i.e. CD players, sound cards, etc.) - however, the difference between different mp3 players is not as great. The difference is, I believe, due to the fact that not all digital to analog converters are equal, although I myself do not know exactly why one would be superior to another. Presumably conversion from digital to analog is a tricky process.

 

[donunus]

If basing on what I read on headfi that most people prefer the sound of creatives zen micro over the ipods and ipods having a bass rolloff issue. I would forget consumer daps totally if you want sound quality because i have the zen and it can't even come close to a 90s sony es cd player in sound. try looking at the professional market. Ive also seen marantz having a portable cd/hard drive recorder for field recording. Maybe that one will sound good. I'm in the same boat looking for a good sounding DAP. Or maybe we should wait for that neuros player thats being worked on right now