Audiophile-ish Ipod? Please Help!

[admin_exported]

Dear All, I am loking to build a half decent rig around my ipod. i know its not the perfect source available but, i'd like a good budget amp, speakers, interconnect and speaker cables to go with my ipod and Arcam rdock. i run my music in ALAC on my ipod. My budget is tight as it is a second system in a small room. Standmount speakers are a must! many thanks in advance Glen

 

[Dazmb]

Acoustic Energy Aego 2. Can't be beaten mate. I have the old model, and it's a really nice sound you get for £100. It's all included (active sub unit) and even the leads are good. Alphasson make a pair of stands that fit the satellites (model: SS20).

 

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="glen12345"]
i'd like a good budget amp, speakers, interconnect and speaker cables to go with my ipod and Arcam rdock. i run my music in ALAC on my ipod. My budget is tight as it is a second system in a small room. Standmount speakers are a must!

[/quote]

Try out a @£200 Cambridge Audio amp - this could appeal - and some budget standmounts. If you want to buy from the same place as the amp (ie Richer Sounds) the Mordaunt Short Avant 902i (£150) are a strong bet. Otherwise the Q Acoustics 1010 (£100) or the Tannoy Mercury F1s (£110) are excellent choices.

As ever, QED Silver Anniversary XT speaker cable is your best bet.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for your quick response. Clare, what components would be on the next step of the never ending hi-fi ladder. i have heard the combo that you recomended but am still not totally happy, is the codec that i am using the problem or am i just being to critical? i am aware the ipod as a source i limited but surely i can get more or is this asking to much?

 

[Anonymous]

This might be a little off topic, but it also might be the solution to your problem.

Why not try a headphone and a dedicated headphone amp!?

Provided you can live with the fact it will only be for private listening, it should provide you with the best sound you can get for relatively little money.

 

[Anonymous]

Dear Glen,
I am running my iPod 80Gb through a pair of Sennheiser PXC300 headphones, and it sounds superb.The hifi I use here in Sri Lanka is a RotelRA04/RCD6 through a pair of Rega R3's - floorstanders, true, but many use B&W stand mounts, which are OK but not as good.
You can plug an iPod directly into the front of the Rotel amp. The sound is awesome, but I have used WAV files to encode all my CDs instead of carrying them from my Swiss home system - which is really high end stuff. WAV files sound amazing - up to good CD player standard - through a good rig (I have Naim gear, including a CD5x and a pair of Sonus Faber Cremonas). You should not waste your time and money on so-called 'lossless', AAC or MP3 encoding. They are not music. Apple rip us off through the iTunes store, charging full CD prices for AAC = one tenth files.You are basically 'not happy' because your front end is rubbish - you have used a lossy codec which cannot sound like music however hard you try down the road in the system. An iPod with WAV files is unbelievably good. That woudl not disappoint you at all.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your help. My system requirements have changed as i have moved to a new flat where anything other than headphone listening isnt possible. Any your suggestions on Headphone amps and headphones would be greatly received. I have recently been sent a Russ Andrews catalogue and am wondering if a mains extention and filter anlong with Kimber cables would be a good idea aswell?

 

[Anonymous]

Well, if you are only going to listen through headphones, bearing in mind that you ought to restart with WAV encoding on your iPod to arrive at something like 'audiophile' sound, i can heartily recommend the PXC 300 by Sennheiser, if you want noise reduction, or simply Grado 60's, both of which I have and both of which work excellently straight off the iPod. There are plenty of headphone amps around - on my big rig I use a Creek, but I cannot say I know much about headphone amps in general.
As for cabling etc, if you run everything off the pod, you need no mains other than to your computer! In Switzerland, on the big Naim rig, I have installed a dedicated spur from the fuse box, as it is a new apartment, and that seems to have greatly improved things.

 

[Anonymous]

Dear Glen12345,

"Any your suggestions on Headphone amps and headphones
would be greatly received. I have recently been sent a Russ Andrews
catalogue and am wondering if a mains extention and filter anlong with
Kimber cables would be a good idea aswell?

The best answer I can give you is to

1)set a budget,

2)make a shortlist of products you want to listen to and

3)then actually listen to them at a dealer (put some of your favorite wav-files on your ipod and take the ipod and the dock along with you).

I'll tell you 'bout my own experience first: I have a Sennheiser HD650 (very comfortable and powerful bass) powered by Musical Fidelity X-can V3 . I listened to them through an acram cd192... spine tingling...but a little bit over my budget-so that's for later. By the way, I did notice some slow bass occasionally on pop music like kylie minogue's Ultimate Kylie. I think this could be attributed to the MF X-can- read it in a review from WHFS&V. On the other hand it seems that Stereophile's testers actually prefer the X-can with the sennheisers- best for classical music they say. Anyway, I love them, but ultimately it all depends on taste.

Your best bet for headphones are Grado or Sennheiser (see the buyer's guide in WHFS&V)). I think WHF prefers the Grados (Grado sr60 and grado sr325i etc). Check out www.head-fi.org for further info.

A head phone like the sennheiser HD600 or 650 really needs a good headphone amp-can't do without it!

Creek OBH-21, OBH21SE, Musical Fidality X-can will all be great- there are also cheaper options from qued and headroom. I don't know much about the grado's, maybe other people could share their experience with those cans. Only thing I know is that they have a much lower impedance (32 ohms) compared to the senny's (300 ohms). So plugging the grado's straight into an ipod is a possibility, with the sennys ,however, I wouldn't recommend it!

The russ andrew's catalogue, the powercords and the kimber cables are a concern for later; first set a budget and go listen to your favorite music through those cans!

Best wishes,

Mark

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your quick response and superb advice, its all highly appreciated.

Regards Glen