[Sustenter]

Hi,
I hesitate to buy a DAP since my budget is 100€ or less.
My phone is the Galaxy Grand Plus, a 130€ android phone, so I wonder whether or not a 100€ DAP would perform better than my phone.
Also, is there less than 100€ dap with good SQ (clearly superior to the Ipod) with Wi-Fi on it ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[PurpleAngel]

You might be better off putting all your audio budget for the best headphones you can get, then buying a DAP.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Hi,
I hesitate to buy a DAP since my budget is 100€ or less.
My phone is the Galaxy Grand Plus, a 130€ android phone, so I wonder whether or not a 100€ DAP would perform better than my phone.
Also, is there less than 100€ dap with good SQ (clearly superior to the Ipod) with Wi-Fi on it ?

Thanks in advance.

I was just listening to my new FiiO X3 Mark III playing a SACD rip (DSD64) through my K5 into a pair of Sennheiser HD 25-1 II. The X3 costs around 100 Euros. It's a really musical, wonderful DAP. My X5ii sounds great also. Don't get me wrong, they have plenty of annoyances and are far from perfect, but they are both very musical. The X3 can drive the Sennheisers without an amp pretty well, but you'll drain the battery pretty quickly.

What's SQ?

 

[onevstheworld]

@Sustenter
What HP or IEM are you using? That's probably the biggest determinant whether a DAP will give you any benefit.

@gimmeheadroom
SQ = sound quality

 

[Sustenter]

PurpleAngel I will actually soon buy the best headphone I can afford, the HP150 then buy a DAP much later when my audio budget will be much larger.

gimmeheadroom SQ stands for Sound Quality. Thanks for your recommendation but the X3 is 160$, which is much higher than 100€. Is this the the cheapest DAP sounding better than a Ipod you can recommend me ?

onevstheworld I will use the Soundmagic HP150, which got the same SQ as the HP151 but a less robust folding mechanism.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I hesitate to buy a DAP since my budget is 100€ or less.
My phone is the Galaxy Grand Plus, a 130€ android phone, so I wonder whether or not a 100€ DAP would perform better than my phone.

All of them will perform better than your phone. The real problem is not absolute performance but relative and real world performance. If you're using an IEM with 24ohms to 62ohms impedance and 105dB/1mW sensitivity with any decent smartphone like a Galaxy Notex or LG Vxx with good noise performance and channel separation plus relatively low output impedance, its 15mW at 32ohms output will be more than enough for a high senstivity IEM with good isolation, rendering the 100mW at 16ohm output of a Fiio X1 for example not all that necessary. It's a cheap performance upgrade for $100, sure, but you won't be using a lot more out of it vs the smartphone, and if anything, the added bulk at least can be split between two pockets (unlike a DAC-HPamp strapped to a phone).

Also, is there less than 100€ dap with good SQ (clearly superior to the Ipod) with Wi-Fi on it ?

None yet other than a stolen Fiio X5III on Craigslist.

AFAIK Fiio X1II has BT so you can stream Spotify from your phone to the DAP, that way you can have casual listening music running off the phone.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Yeah sorry I made a little miscalculation with the currency conversion. We don't use euro here.