Best audio quality?

[fredrik]

Which MP3-player should I buy if I only care about the sound quality? Particularly, I want the player to be completely free of any hiss. Apart from that, I want to get a rich sound with good bass.

My headphones are Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7, which are headphones with active noise cancelling so the last thing I want is extra noise from the MP3 player. The headphones have an impedance of 260 ohms, does that mean anything to which MP3 player I should get?

Thanks for any help!
Best regards, Fredrik

[CrowdAds]

[gregzx]

Hi frederik.
For such high impedance phones you shoud use an mp3 player with a strong internal amplifier (COWON daps have got very strong amps) or get a portable headphone amplifier (see: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...play.php?f=189 ).

In general, I would get some new headphones with impedance below 100 ohms for portable use.

cheers,
GZX

[fredrik]

Hmm... I guess my phones are causing trouble for me with that high impedance. But I like them, so they stay.
I am looking around at the reviews here, and the Sansa Clip seems great. But I guess that tiny player would be just too weak for my phones? But one of the Cowon players would be strong enough, then?

[gregzx]

Well, generally your headphones have not been designed for portable use.
If you want to stick with them though, I would highly recommend you a cowon player like the iAudio 7 or COWON D2. They are not the newest cowon players so you might get them for a decent price. If you want the sansa clip very bad, than better equip yourself with a portable headphone amplifier... I, myself, would go for a cowon. Portable amps are a big problem to carry around. Unless you would concider a very compact one like the iBasso t4.

[soap]

On to your basic question - the RMAA signal to noise ratio numbers are indicative of "hiss".
That being said, higher impedance phones tend to perform better than low ones in this regard.
That also being said, your active noise canceling circuit produces far more hiss than even the worst DAP.

[fredrik]

Originally Posted by soap

On to your basic question - the RMAA signal to noise ratio numbers are indicative of "hiss".
That being said, higher impedance phones tend to perform better than low ones in this regard.
That also being said, your active noise canceling circuit produces far more hiss than even the worst DAP.

That makes sense, I didn't think about that... I do like these phones, because I can't hear any of the hiss that is expected from noise cancelling though.

Well, I think Cowon iAudio 7 is the player for me.

[fredrik]

Originally Posted by gregzx

Hi frederik.
For such high impedance phones you shoud use an mp3 player with a strong internal amplifier (COWON daps have got very strong amps) or get a portable headphone amplifier

I got the suggestion from dfkt that my phones probably have an amplifier already (in the forum for Cowon iAudio > Cowon 6 / 7). That makes sense, although I can't see anything about that in the manual for my phones. Anyhow, I have ordered the iAudio 7 now from Amazon, so now I just have to wait...

[gregzx]

Good choice man! I hope you enjoy your new dap!

cheers,
GZX

[h1a8]

Originally Posted by soap

On to your basic question - the RMAA signal to noise ratio numbers are indicative of "hiss".
That being said, higher impedance phones tend to perform better than low ones in this regard.
That also being said, your active noise canceling circuit produces far more hiss than even the worst DAP.

Which RMAA numbers display the signal to noise ratio which indicate "hiss"?
Is it the IMD + Noise, %?

[Jack4L]

I think that 260ohm impedance is only an accurate measurement of how hard to drive they are when the headphones are not in the active noise canceling mode. When the active noise canceling is on (powerd) it will be as loud as the phones need to be.

What did you use before deciding to get a new player? Or better yet, do the headphones basicaly turn off when you dont have the active noise canceling on?

I just know I've tried a pair of ANC7's from my Sony HD5, which is an extremely low powerd mp3 player, and they sounded decently loud. However I am not 100% sure if they were amplified or not. Since they were bound to a rack and the 3.5 plug only came out of said rack, so you couldn't just walk away with them.

[fredrik]

Well... I have no idea what that 260 ohms is referring to. I do know that if I turn of the noise cancellling, the sound gets kind of muffled. They don't turn off, so they are possible to use even if I don't have any battery power left for the active noise cancelling.

I just got these headphones a week ago, to use at work. I am sitting in a room with lots of hissing computer fans and air conditionings, so I thought I'll get some active noise cancelling phones. So far I've only tried them on my computer's headphones output. I really like the fact that now I can play music at a lower volume and still enjoy it since all that background noise is removed.

The problem is however that my computer has some kind of issue with it's sound output. There is some extra noise from that Dell workstation. So I thought it's about time I get me a good MP3 player...

[h1a8]

Originally Posted by soap

On to your basic question - the RMAA signal to noise ratio numbers are indicative of "hiss".
That being said, higher impedance phones tend to perform better than low ones in this regard.
That also being said, your active noise canceling circuit produces far more hiss than even the worst DAP.

Which RMAA numbers display the signal to noise ratio which indicate "hiss"?
Is it the IMD + Noise, %?