sonofdbn

Which Pocket PC do you have? There are so many in the market. And what bit rate are you using for your mp3s?

You can try the cable and accessories shop in SLS - can never remember the name - UHT or something like that on the 3rd floor. I think you will almost certainly find it there. You can also try Homefix - they have quite a wide range of cables, but it depends on the branch.

But the Total Airhead is US$149 at the Headroom website.

You might want to try the Creative Soundblaster Digital Music SX (about S$165 IIRC). I connect it to my Thinkpad X40 via USB, and it can pass a digital signal via optical out and also has a headphone out. (It can also accept optical digital in, if that's useful to you.) It has analogue in and out as well. I use it with my AT AD900s, using Foobar and flac files on the laptop, and am happy with it. I really can't comment too much on the sound quality as the headphones are the only "serious" ones I've listened to, so I have no basis for comparison. If it's important to you, one feature is that it CAN produce bit-perfect output (tested by playing DTS CD, ripped to WAV and played via a receiver using foobar on the laptop). It's powered by USB and it's USB 1.1, which some people might be unhappy with, but it does take external power as well (no battery option).

Great review. Thanks.

I'm now the happy owner of ATH AD900s - way over budget, but you know how these things happen . I can also highly recommend buying from Stereo Electronics and Aron - great service.

Thanks to all for the very useful comments. What is poor about the headstage? Do you mean the spread of instruments? I'd like to get something where the instruments aren't just either left, right or centre. Any suggestions on where I can listen to both Grados and A-T?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try to listen to them this weekend.

I'm looking for headphones (no IEMs) costing less than $200 - currently considering the ATH-A500 or A700 Usage will be to listen via foobar on my laptop and Creative Digital Music SX, mainly classical and rock. I'm currently using Logitech USB headphones (!) I bought for Skype. They are better than I expected for music but I think I could do much better while keeping the cost under $200. I want to keep things simple, so I don't want to get headphones which require an amp or any modding or special cable. I'm looking for a decent soundstage and bass, and something comfortable to wear - usually don't have the aircon on, so nothing too hot. Thanks in advance.