[Choosy]

I have had the iPod from the first model , but my ears become more choosy year over year and especially last models wasn't so eliciting under the point of view of sound quality.

I have an Ipad to, it sounds incredibly better but it is far to be defined transportable , moreover better now is not enough to me

I travel a huge and I'm used to pass my free time with my portable toys, my GRADO which are incredible and my etymotic which are good , really good especially since the noise isolation assist when you flight and into noisy environments

Anyhow between a dedicated platform like the new Fiio or DX50 and and alternative solution i I'm really not decided, I'm fascinated from the idea to buy a DAC for a mobile phone, so I may have an emergency solution plugging directly the headphone into it when I don't want bring with me too much stuff, but go with quality the rest of the time.
The solution of ext DAC it's also fascinating since allow you to change sound taste if your DAC doesn't exactly fit your exigences

In the other hand I think a dedicated gear would be better, less stuff to combine, more balanced solution .... Fiio can make you happy with few money and combine DAC and amp ....but I'm scared since the appalling rig cost so much and if you don't like the Dx 100 pfffff ...

Finally as last option I can go back to an IPod Classic and maybe become happy with an external amp, as I already have JDS PA2v2 ( this last I had like to sell its fantastic with Bose by I don't own any Bose )

So does someone of you so kind to assist me into a decision? What are the result of phone plus ext DAC in term of sound quality?


Thank you a lot in advance

 

[Mooses9]

problem with a phone + dac, is that your quality of amp is going to obviously greatly depend on the amp inside the phone. and ive used s2,s3,note 2 ect and never been satisfied with the sound out of them, dac or not.
 
out of curiosity why did you decide to no longer go with the ipod?
 
i too recently made thisw decision after using a ipod touch for years, in combo with the algorhythm solo and other dacs and a bunch of other amps. but got tired of having to use the apple software, and tired of it not supporting .wav format for lossless audio files.
 
overall i hate apple ipod, its my choice but yeah lol
 
i now have a iriver ihp-140, taking full advantage of the fiber optic out.

 

[Choosy]

I had DAC Experienced too,
I agree between the source and the DAC there is some strange sorcery so sometime a DAC sound well when attached to the home PC but if you move it to your office PC the sound is not the same anymore... Surely there are many and many element to keep in consideration. Up today with the exemption of portable integrated rigs I ever hated the digital music , the recent upgrade to Accuphase amping changed my impression, this after have changed at least 20 amplifier along the last 3 years. So I'm convinced that a good sound is the result of a strike of lucky since the recipe is good components and a lucky pairing between them .

For this reason I decided to ask community about their experiences maybe some of you has been lucky having found the right asset

Reason I drop the iPod is not the sw , to be honest I like it ...reason is the Ipad ...
Ipad destroy iPod touch in term of sound quality , literally destroy

I start to use iPad for buzz reason, and I put also some low res song into it (just in case I forgot the iPod) .... But comparing the same song hires into iPod and low res into iPad I discovered Ipad is capable to tell us another story, since it is faster, more dynamic, warmer .. Feeling then was ok I don't need the iPod anymore ... But I had to take into account that the ipad doesn't fit into pockets neither using suits .... So It took a bit to take a decision .

Thank you for proposal I like I river per principle but .... In Italy I'm sitting here I river is a withe fly someone rarely sell it but no possibility to try it or have support in case.

It easier buy ibasso rig in Shenzhen then buy an iriver player in Rome .... And honestly I don't live into the deep end of the nothing

I'm curios about Fiio for instance at least I can have the support of Amazon, but also from other ...