need the best sounding mp3 player

blr_p said:
How does one determine the answer to this question :(

It would require everyone that posted to have tried out the same set of players and then made a choice which is unlikely.

One way is if you know the quailty of the DAC used in the player and then go with that. The cheaper it is the lower the quality output. But that kind of info is not easy to find at all. In fact the only time you will ever hear about it is if its a distinguishing feature and the vendor thinks he can justify a higher asking price by mentioning it. But i bet not a single mp3 player does so because they prolly are fairly close in quality ie they are standard across most players and nothing to brag about. So sound production is fairly similar across all mp3 players. They are after all to be used in a not so perfect listening environment anyway.

So 'best sounding' is a useless metric with which to choose a mp3 player. Best sounding applies more to headphones & higher end (ie non-portable) equipment than mp3 players ;)

I bet if ppl here underwent a double blind test with all the recommended players so far that they would be unable to distinguish between any given the same playback file & headphones.

Instead go with features and then see how much you can do without to fit into your budget. How well does the player do its job, how easy it is to use, looks (?), what it can or cannot do etc.
Click to expand...

Actually I will like to disagree with you there. With better earphones, the differences are far more apparent. My ipod classic has a much brighter and bass light sound signature. My Hippo VB earphones are highly sibilant on the ipod while they have hardly any sibilance on my BlackBerry 8330 Curve.

The older Apple ipods used a Wolfson DAC which was very good. From 6G onwards, they shifted to a Cirrus DAC which IMHO was a step backward. I no longer like the ipods sound anymore with the new DAC.

The Wolfson DAC is used in most high end Cowon and Iriver devices.

But yes you raise a very valid point. Just because I prefer a darker sound doesn't mean the next guy will like the same sound signature.
 
With better earphones, the differences are far more apparent.
Click to expand...

Of course, but my point was using the same set of earphones to test all the mp3 players and would have to be good quality enough to tell the diference between different DACs.

So far we have two DACs for the ipod & cowon, wolfson & Cirrus. But what about the other players :(
 
Back
Top