[SomeGuyDude]

Everything but the quiet parts in classical music? I listen even quieter for pop music unless I'm in a really loud environment.

I'm 22 years old and trying to preserve my hearing in the long run, so I tend to listen pretty quietly. The M-100 is really efficient though, so having more than 30% maximum volume for music other than classical seems really strange to me.

Actually, I just did a test on the public bus just now.
Dr. Chesky's "Phrases" song from his "Dr. Chesky's Sensational, Fantastic, and Simply Amazing Binaural Sound Show (Binaural Plus)" album (DR21, which is probably one of the most dynamic songs I have in my library, and one of the quietest).




Versus Taylor Swift's "Sparks Fly" song (DR6). Even at this volume level in the bus, it is quiet loud for me, probably too loud. Hm, I miss singing along to this song. XD



So yeah, it seems very unusual to me that someone has to listen to their music at near maximum volume using a MacBook Pro with the M-100. :/

That is insane.
 
Wait a second. How do you have half notches on your volume? I only have full. What version of OSX are you running?

 

[miceblue]

OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion

You press and hold the alt and shift keys while pressing the volume buttons. This feature has been in OS X since at least Leopard.
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/13/mac-101-fine-tune-your-macs-volume/

 

[SomeGuyDude]

OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion

You press and hold the alt and shift keys while pressing the volume buttons. This feature has been in OS X since at least Leopard.

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/13/mac-101-fine-tune-your-macs-volume/

 
Ah. I'm new to OSX, just bought the MBPr on Black Friday.
 
But yeah, like. Right now I'm listening to Benighted - Let the Blood Spill Between My Broken Teeth on Spotify.
 

 
That's pretty loud, but far from killer. I've had this situation with all headphones I've hooked into the thing. It's never been blisteringly loud. At one notch I can barely ear anything, regardless of which set I plug in.

 

[SpiderNhan]

  I bought these headphones because I was looking for one a while back. I ended up returning them the next day. The Beyerdynamic is just simple so much better than these for half the price. I don't understand why these headphones got such high rating......

Which Beyerdynamic are you using?

 

[VladGuardian]

suzook:

That wolfson dac is pretty damn good.

Which one?
Galaxy Note 3 inner DAC, or some external DAC on Wolfson chip? explain please.

 

[plakat]

 
That's pretty loud, but far from killer. I've had this situation with all headphones I've hooked into the thing. It's never been blisteringly loud. At one notch I can barely ear anything, regardless of which set I plug in.

 
Did you turn up the volume in your music player application as well?

 

[ratinox]

As does my D2 but for the life of me I can't get it to sound as good as this phone does.

That's Cowon's fault. Please don't judge other players based on your experience with D2. Try the Clip. Worst case is that you're out the price of a good dinner.

 

[Solrighal]

No worries mate. I know who to blame. I've actually spent all afternoon finding out as much as I can about the new Fiio X5 because it sounds very appealing. Another one I've been researching is Sony's new flagship as it appears or support flac right out of the box but the price seems to be a joke, particularly for something with no expandable memory!

What specific Sansa model would you recommend and why? And can it drive the M-100's?

 

[AustinValentine]

No worries mate. I know who to blame. I've actually spent all afternoon finding out as much as I can about the new Fiio X5 because it sounds very appealing. Another one I've been researching is Sony's new flagship as it appears or support flac right out of the box but the price seems to be a joke, particularly for something with no expandable memory!

What specific Sansa model would you recommend and why? And can it drive the M-100's?

 
Both the Clip Zip and Clip + are fantastic players. Excellent mid-quality DAC chip with near perfect implementation - they punch way above their price point as you can find refurbs for around $20. The stock Clip +/Zip have a pitch error that seems to be firmware based (most people don't seem to notice it). I highly recommend buying one and Rockbox-ing it with Rockbox's firmware (http://www.rockbox.org/), as it both fixes the pitch error and adds a much improved interface with far more features than the stick Sansa firmware.
 
These little players can definitely drive an M-100 out of the box, but you might want to consider pairing them with a FiiO E6 for a similarly low profile size and a bit more power. 

 

[ratinox]

What specific Sansa model would you recommend and why? And can it drive the M-100's?

The original Clip is discontinued so it's the Clip+ and Clip Zip right now. Identical internals. The only difference is the Zip's larger screen and different button layout.

Can they drive M-100? Yes. Easily, although not to deafening levels. My Zip at -0 dB with Rockbox is loud enough to be uncomfortable but not so loud as to be immediately painful.

 

[ratinox]

These little players can definitely drive an M-100 out of the box, but you might want to consider pairing them with a FiiO E6 for a similarly low profile size and a bit more power.

Which still sort of defeats the purpose of having such a tiny music player, doesn't it?

Clip's amp is nearly perfect for portable headphones like M-100: 1 ohm output impedance, 15 mW maximum power, less than 0.05% THD, and almost laser-straight frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz. If you really, really need the power then E5 is probably a better choice than E6. But really, M-100 doesn't need the power.

 

[Nirvana1000]

  Interesting...the consensus I've always heard here is that Android smartphones are generally near the bottom in term of sound quality. (Not that that stops me from using the American version of the Galaxy S3 as my main portable player -- it's simply too convenient to bother using my dedicated player most of the time.

)
 
EDIT: I don't have a Mac, but for what it's worth, my Lenovo Y580 laptop's volume typically is kept at or around 40%. (With the M-100 in particular, though, it's usually around 30%.)

The best reference is too listen for yourself.I've listened to my brothers Samsung Galaxy S3 with the wolfson DAC and it sounds excellent.Now I have the Galaxy S2 with the Yamaha DAC.But with the Poweramp music player it sounds great.In fact I listen to it more than my iPod classic 7Gen.Then I listened to my friend's Galaxy S3 without the Wolfson DAC and it sounded like crap.Even with the Poweramp app.Now my Cowon S9 also sounds very good with the M100s,but I still like my Galaxy S2>ALO Double M3>M100 better.But it also depends with some tracks.Some tracks sound best on my iPod.

 

[Solrighal]

OK guys, I'm taking all this in and it's sounding good. Imagine this scenario;

Sansa Clip+/Clip Zip > V-Moda M -100

Or

Galaxy Note 3 > Fiio E18 > V-Moda M-100

Based purely on sound quality which combination is best?

 

[Nirvana1000]

   
Both the Clip Zip and Clip + are fantastic players. Excellent mid-quality DAC chip with near perfect implementation - they punch way above their price point as you can find refurbs for around $20. The stock Clip +/Zip have a pitch error that seems to be firmware based (most people don't seem to notice it). I highly recommend buying one and Rockbox-ing it with Rockbox's firmware (http://www.rockbox.org/), as it both fixes the pitch error and adds a much improved interface with far more features than the stick Sansa firmware.
 
These little players can definitely drive an M-100 out of the box, but you might want to consider pairing them with a FiiO E6 for a similarly low profile size and a bit more power. 

I'm getting one I've always wanted one.Best Buy replaced them with hip street as their doing with all the better players they used to have,so I can't use my gift card! But Tiger Direct has them starting under $50.So which is the best model and do they all come without EQ before Rock Boxing? 

 

[AustinValentine]

  I'm getting one I've always wanted one.Best Buy replaced them with hip street as their doing with all the better players they used to have,so I can't use my gift card! But Tiger Direct has them starting under $50.So which is the best model and do they all come without EQ before Rock Boxing? 

 
See Ratinox's post above for which models to get. He spelled it out very nicely. 
 
I wouldn't pay $50 for one if I could help it. NewEgg has both the Clip + and the Clip Zip refurbished for $19.99. My experience with refurbs has been stellar. (I've bought 6 of them, two for myself and 4 four presents. All of them are going strong still today and I'm not exactly kind with mine.)
 
See: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3ZF1A86380
And: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3ZF1A86363