kevinkar
Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 6, 2016
- Posts
- 54
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- 75
It's a valid question.. No, my hearing is not what it used to be and I have persistent tinnitus in both ears - a high pitched ring in the 10k range. But, with the music turned up to the right level (not THAT high, just high enough) it drowns out the ringing and I'm pretty sure I'm hearing the music well enough. Quiet passages are dead silent (except for the tinnitus) and I'm pleased with what I hear from my collection.This is not a snarky question: do you have the ears and hearing needed to be able to tell whether there’s distortion in your sources?
I realized a while back that I don’t. I’ve plugged my headphones into iPods of various makes, phones of various makes and other devices, and there was only one instance when the sound was crappy. It was from a no-name Android powered phone that sold for figurative pennies, and it was little wonder that the cellular modem died within a year. Beyond that, everything sounded good enough with no obvious distortion in my ears.
I share this simply to potentially give a simple solution. If your hearing is indeed sensitive enough, sincerely more power to you. Mine isn’t, so I’m happy to settle for an iPod that holds my entire library and maintains a charge for months. Besides, I use mine outside my home more than at home, so sound takes a hit anyway.
That being said, I do not intend to spend money on HD music I already have on CD unless I absolutely have to have it (Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, for instance). All my music is ripped to FLAC and sounds great on my Fiio played through my Marantz processor (Fiio coax output to the Marantz) and I have various albums in HD formats that sound great.
Over the years I've done some level-matched A/B tests (borrowed some gear from a local audio buff) with different sources and outputs and found most of it ends up sounding the same indicating my hearing is definitely the long pole here. So upgrading much more is a losing proposition though I sure would LIKE to hear some well regarded speakers just to see what I'd hear. A friend of mine spent some major coin on a Devialet system ($15k or more I believe) and he says it sounds awesome but, being he's as old as I am and has gone to way more concerts than I have, my opinion is he's only saying what he thinks he should because he spent the money!
But to confirm what you're saying - my Samsung Galaxy S23 does indeed sound pretty much on par with the Fiio..... and the iPods..... and the SanDisk Clip Jam..... and the Creative Nano...... and the iRiver H340...... and..... Well, you get the picture. Thus the desire to not get something I don't need. Just a player that can sometimes play the HD stuff I have and might still get. Don't need all the fluff (as noted - it's already on my phone!)