Best Player + Headphones Combo & some Intriguing Questions

[meanwhile]

Originally Posted by skip252

You have headphones thrown in pretty much as a afterthought. If you make sure you have a top quality set of headphones to go with a good player you can assure yourself of the upgrade in sound quality you're looking for. You may find a amp isn't needed if you get the right headphones.

You have a decent source now. The Touch produces a signal that is as good as the Clip+ or a Cowon.

Wait: different versions of the Touch have different DACs and amplifiers, so they don't sound exactly the same. So how can they all sound the same as the Clip+ or Cowon???

As one example of how much the hardware inside Apple products varies, and its performance, take a look at:

http://macintoshhowto.com/itunes/whi...o-quality.html

And Redwine, who specialize in modding iPods for sound quality, will only work on certain models:

http://redwineaudio.com/imod

So either Apple fans are even more susceptible to bs than I thought, or Apple products vary a lot in SQ and you can't tell him SQ from his Touch is fine when you don't even know what version he has.

Anyway, my suggestion would be

- Fuze (old model, not the Plus) 8GB + 16GB card

- HD25s for maximum sound quality (see my review) and because they should last forever. Or if the OP must have IEMs, maybe se215s (because they have replaceable cables, and investing serious money in IEMS without some degree of repairabilty bothers me.)

Why? The Fuze has more battery than the Clip (I assume) and its cheap, leaving lots of cash for the phones, where most of the money should go (at least until you have bought something in the same class as HD25s or IE80s.) If he decides that he prefers the Touch when he has heard both, driving the 25s, he can return or sell the Fuze. Why speculate when you can test? And how much money can he lose selling on a Fuze? $10? Otoh, if he likes the Fuze more than the Touch, he can sell the Touch and pay most or all of the cost of the HD25s.