- Moderator 🛠️
- #16
As far as lossless goes, iPod has Apple Lossless (m4a), and Zune has WMA Lossless. A lot of players support FLAC as well, but I don't believe those two do. I rip all my music in Apple Lossless as soon as I get it for archival's sake.
As for the headphones, big audiophile headphones like the Sennheiser HD series need some real power to run at their best quality. I use a portable headphone amp powered by 2 9V batteries if I'm using my hd-580s, but with portable ones, there should be enough power in the player.
My real recommendation for those, however, is a nice set of in ear monitors, as they are very portable, but have excellent sound quality, and don't need a lot of power. I use the Westone UM-1 earphones, and am looking to upgrade to the 2 or 3s, but those are way out of my price range now... The UM-1s are about $110 and worth every penny, but if you're not looking to spend that much, you can usually find Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 3 Studio earphones for around $60-70. At this price range, they are basically unmatched, though many people do like the Etymotic Er6i Isolators. The Ety's are a bit lacking in low end in my opinion, and very uncomfortable if you have small ears.
I'm an audio engineer by trade, btw, so if you have any audio related questions, I've more than likely run into it before. I'm always glad to help!
EDIT: Kundalini, while Creative has very good players, I avoid all of their products on principle now... It took them well over a year to get fully featured drivers out for Vista, which is completely ridiculous for such a major company. In the mean time, an amateur coder who goes by "Daniel_K" modified the gimped Vista and full XP drivers to make it work flawlessly. Did Creative thank him, hire him, get their act together? Nope! They publicly told him to stop, and sent their lawyers after him.
As for the headphones, big audiophile headphones like the Sennheiser HD series need some real power to run at their best quality. I use a portable headphone amp powered by 2 9V batteries if I'm using my hd-580s, but with portable ones, there should be enough power in the player.
My real recommendation for those, however, is a nice set of in ear monitors, as they are very portable, but have excellent sound quality, and don't need a lot of power. I use the Westone UM-1 earphones, and am looking to upgrade to the 2 or 3s, but those are way out of my price range now... The UM-1s are about $110 and worth every penny, but if you're not looking to spend that much, you can usually find Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 3 Studio earphones for around $60-70. At this price range, they are basically unmatched, though many people do like the Etymotic Er6i Isolators. The Ety's are a bit lacking in low end in my opinion, and very uncomfortable if you have small ears.
I'm an audio engineer by trade, btw, so if you have any audio related questions, I've more than likely run into it before. I'm always glad to help!
EDIT: Kundalini, while Creative has very good players, I avoid all of their products on principle now... It took them well over a year to get fully featured drivers out for Vista, which is completely ridiculous for such a major company. In the mean time, an amateur coder who goes by "Daniel_K" modified the gimped Vista and full XP drivers to make it work flawlessly. Did Creative thank him, hire him, get their act together? Nope! They publicly told him to stop, and sent their lawyers after him.
