[Gofre]

Hi all.
 
So yeah, in April I will be getting a pretty substantial windfall from my student loan, followed closely by my 21st birthday, so I will be "In the money" as my flatmates so eloquently put it. Having recently caught the audiophile bug from my ex-musician father, I'm intending to invest a sizeable chunk of this disposable income into a proper audio setup, however as a new comer to high end audio I don't trust myself to come to a solo decision on it's composition! I've got some decent quality stuff at the moment but nothing on the scale of the high-end equipment I've had the pleasure of trying at any of the audio stores I've visited. I'm looking for a full setup, from the PMP to the headphones and any DCAs/amps inbetween. My budget is probably going to be about £700 (Roughly $1000 at current exchange rates) to accommodate everything, a number I know some of you could happily drop on a single product, but for a humble student and a relative beginner audio enthusiast, it's as much as I'm willing to invest.
 
The one limitation is that it needs to be able to function as a portable setup. I don't mind it being bulky, as long as it's not the size of a house brick I'll consider it, and I don't have any preference regarding in ear or over ear headphones, audio fidelity really is the only concern. I currently have a rockbox'd iPod "Classic" 5G, a pair of Klipsch Image S4 in ears and Audio Technica ATH-WS55 over ears to work with, although I'm sure the headphones in particular will be replaced over the course of assembling whatever you guys recommend. In terms of listening preferences, I listen primarily to electronic music of various stripes, along with a lot of classic/glam rock and post-hardcore metal.
 
 That's about it, I think, go nuts [=

 

[Gofre]

I'm going to bump this, my family are asking for ideas of things to get me for my birthday so I may as well get ahead of this in case anything's difficult to track down. So, suggestions anybody?

 

[Jalo]

I'm going to bump this, my family are asking for ideas of things to get me for my birthday so I may as well get ahead of this in case anything's difficult to track down. So, suggestions anybody?

Well if I were you, I'll build my portable rig around the Ibasso DX100 which will cost you around $830. However, I have a feeling that it may come down to $750.00 when it is back on order again in a month or so. Then I'll sell whenever phones you have to add to the remaining fund to get a custom iem like the JH13/16 lines, or the ES5, or the UM Merlin or Miracle, or Ultimate Ears 18 etc. That will give you the best portable sound anyone can give you at the smallest physical setup.

Or if you want to stick with Apple, get a Solo with an amp like Pico Slim will also sound great. But somehow you have to get to he top level of headphone like those I mentioned above.

 

[Gofre]

Quote:

Well if I were you, I'll build my portable rig around the Ibasso DX100 which will cost you around $830. However, I have a feeling that it may come down to $750.00 when it is back on order again in a month or so. Then I'll sell whenever phones you have to add to the remaining fund to get a custom iem like the JH13/16 lines, or the ES5, or the UM Merlin or Miracle, or Ultimate Ears 18 etc. That will give you the best portable sound anyone can give you at the smallest physical setup.
Or if you want to stick with Apple, get a Solo with an amp like Pico Slim will also sound great. But somehow you have to get to he top level of headphone like those I mentioned above.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it. Now I've just got to find a UK retailer!