audiophile mobile devise..?

[hybridauth_Facebook_664715932]

Greetings all

Next few months I will be travelling a lot. I normally use my ipod classic.
I was just wondering if there is something better available, something with better sound quality?

Thanks

 

[bluedroog]

Personally I think the ipod classic is more than adequate for music on the go but there are other options....

Astell & Kern make very expensive 'high end' portable gear, then Fiio make more accesable gear which has been well received from a sound perspective, less so on usability. How about the much malinged Pono player?

Those are the option that spring to mind but in all honesty the Fiio is the only one I'd consider paying for or just stick with the ipod. Have you got hard to drive headphones? In which case you could add a portable amp such as the Fiio E17 I think is the name of the one I have although to be honest with my easy to drive Grado 325is it makes little diffenrece.

 

[pauln]

Just buy the best, easy to drive, headphones you can afford. That will make by far the biggest difference to sound quality. IEM's or closed back probably best unless you are only using them in your room.

 

[ifor]

http://www.gspaudio.co.uk/voyagerportableheadphoneamplifier.htm

 

[iQ Speakers]

Listened to the A&K via a table full of high end headphones at the Bristol show, they all seemed very shouty to me!

 

[Womaz]

I got the Sony NWZ15 just before xmas. I just copy my FLAC files to it. It sounds a lot better than my I pod ever did.

If you have a large library then you will need additional memory cards, but I think its excellent value. Hifi News reviewed it this month too and they liked it too.

 

[Vladimir]

 

[SteveR750]

A good pair of IEMs that are at least 115dB/mW because most phones audio output voltage is understandably lacking if you like it loud. You could buy a remote DAC amp, assuming you can configure it / the device software for USB digital out, but it just gets messy carrying around lots of boxes.

FWIW I take a pair of Klipsch X11i and my Xperia Z3 stuffed full of Spotify and a few FLACs and tbh after a nice dinner and a few glasses of red it sounds fantastic. Not quite loud enough to drown out aircraft noise, but it's good enough.

 

[Thompsonuxb]

Try a pair of Sennhieser HD205.

About 40quid - these Have no noise canceling facility and they start out pretty tight on the ears. But become comfortable with time and do a good job of blocking external noise.

They're also pretty bulky with no volume control.

But they sound very good on my phone, PC and in the amp.

Got mine from Curry's they'll work well with your iPod.

 

[ID.]

I got the Sony NWZ15 just before xmas. I just copy my FLAC files to it. It sounds a lot better than my I pod ever did.

If you have a large library then you will need additional memory cards, but I think its excellent value. Hifi News reviewed it this month too and they liked it too.

Or NWZ17. 64gb but you can add another 128 with a memory card. I'm looking at getting one of these of the FiiO X5 (because it has more options for taking a digital output to various equipment I have at home with DACs and headphone amps)

As others have mentioned, in terms of pure bang for your buck I think you'd get a bigger jump in performance by spending a similar amount on some sensitive earphones that can work with your iPod.

 

[Al ears]

Its nice to see it comes with the best quality Apple in ear headphones ( I was hoping for Beats by Dr Dre). Also if you don't get on with it you can eat it afterwards..... Well done Mr. Young.

 

[Al ears]

Working offshore as I do I have always been looking for quality portables to take away with me to work. To this end I progressed, if that is what you call it, from an iPod Classic through a C4 Colorfly Pro (which I satill have) to a Fiio X3.

This is, by far, the best value for money device I have yet encountered. It plays back every file type I have including my DSD ones and has enough storage for what I want. The sound quality (on Normal equalisation) is better than the Colorfly and this originally retailed at over £500 (£449 now).

I did look at its bigger brother the X5 but thought for the cost difference / features it wasn't really worth the extra outlay.

You could keep the Classic and hook it up to something like the Oppo HA-2 I suppose but this is maybe not the way to go unless you can store DSD / DSF files on the Classic.

Of course if you happen to be loaded you could splash out around £1100 on the latest Sony NW-ZX2 Digital Media Player which is, allegedly m'lud, better than the A&K 120 .......

 

[ID.]

Working offshore as I do I have always been looking for quality portables to take away with me to work. To this end I progressed, if that is what you call it, from an iPod Classic through a C4 Colorfly Pro (which I satill have) to a Fiio X3.

This is, by far, the best value for money device I have yet encountered. It plays back every file type I have including my DSD ones and has enough storage for what I want. The sound quality (on Normal equalisation) is better than the Colorfly and this originally retailed at over £500 (£449 now).

How do you find the interface/controls for the X3? The main reason I want the X5 is because it takes 2 memory cards, so I'd be able to fit my entire collection in it.

 

[Al ears]

Working offshore as I do I have always been looking for quality portables to take away with me to work. To this end I progressed, if that is what you call it, from an iPod Classic through a C4 Colorfly Pro (which I satill have) to a Fiio X3.

This is, by far, the best value for money device I have yet encountered. It plays back every file type I have including my DSD ones and has enough storage for what I want. The sound quality (on Normal equalisation) is better than the Colorfly and this originally retailed at over £500 (£449 now).

How do you find the interface/controls for the X3? The main reason I want the X5 is because it takes 2 memory cards, so I'd be able to fit my entire collection in it.

The interface is by no means the most intuative I've come across (requires use of 4 buttons to make and start a new selection) but once you get it sussed it's easy. I thought the 2 slots would be good but I simply carry 2 cards and swap between them.... and saved a bunch of money. It is a pity the internal storage isn't greater but, hey, what can you expect for that sort of money!

 

[Al ears]

There has been some mention of better headphones on this thread and, although it is probably not the correct subsection of the forum for it, I fell I should add the benefit of my experience just in case the OP decides to head down this route.

Over the course of my travels / years of using portable music players I have found that headphone developement, especially IEM's, have really progressed in leaps and bounds. It is my considered opinion that (for the money) the best headphones I have experienced (and there have been quite a few believe me) are those that are still relatively new to the market. To that end I would suggest RHA MA750 or T10 for use in-ear, AKG K451 (as I haven't yet heard the Focal Spirit One S yet) for on-ear, and the B&W P7's for over-ear listening.

 

[ID.]

Working offshore as I do I have always been looking for quality portables to take away with me to work. To this end I progressed, if that is what you call it, from an iPod Classic through a C4 Colorfly Pro (which I satill have) to a Fiio X3.

This is, by far, the best value for money device I have yet encountered. It plays back every file type I have including my DSD ones and has enough storage for what I want. The sound quality (on Normal equalisation) is better than the Colorfly and this originally retailed at over £500 (£449 now).

How do you find the interface/controls for the X3? The main reason I want the X5 is because it takes 2 memory cards, so I'd be able to fit my entire collection in it.

The interface is by no means the most intuative I've come across (requires use of 4 buttons to make and start a new selection) but once you get it sussed it's easy. I thought the 2 slots would be good but I simply carry 2 cards and swap between them.... and saved a bunch of money. It is a pity the internal storage isn't greater but, hey, what can you expect for that sort of money!

I was considering the 2 (or more) cards option. It's probably the way I'll go considering the X5 is now only available here in Japan as a grey import. They only ever did a Japan edition of the X5 where they charged another 60 pounds for a bit of bling on it, which was also annoying.

 

[Al ears]

Working offshore as I do I have always been looking for quality portables to take away with me to work. To this end I progressed, if that is what you call it, from an iPod Classic through a C4 Colorfly Pro (which I satill have) to a Fiio X3.

This is, by far, the best value for money device I have yet encountered. It plays back every file type I have including my DSD ones and has enough storage for what I want. The sound quality (on Normal equalisation) is better than the Colorfly and this originally retailed at over £500 (£449 now).

How do you find the interface/controls for the X3? The main reason I want the X5 is because it takes 2 memory cards, so I'd be able to fit my entire collection in it.

The interface is by no means the most intuative I've come across (requires use of 4 buttons to make and start a new selection) but once you get it sussed it's easy. I thought the 2 slots would be good but I simply carry 2 cards and swap between them.... and saved a bunch of money. It is a pity the internal storage isn't greater but, hey, what can you expect for that sort of money!

I was considering the 2 (or more) cards option. It's probably the way I'll go considering the X5 is now only available here in Japan as a grey import. They only ever did a Japan edition of the X5 where they charged another 60 pounds for a bit of bling on it, which was also annoying.

£60 for bling is a bit steep. I can see why you might go for the multi-card option. They are cheap and I now have 4 on the go, splitting my music by genre. (Jazz, Classical etc.) It is a bit of a hassle swapping the cards but it's something I can live with.

 

[TrevC]

I use my HTC desire on AKG 550 headphones and it sounds fantastic.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_664715932]

Thank you all very much for your suggestions. Sony NWZ looks good.
I shall keep you guys updated one I pull the trigger.