evilmerlin

Yup and if you've no need for a DAC but want to roll opamps then this one should do just fine. The only thing is how it sounds as I'm pretty sure the circuitry and capacitors are a factor not just the opamps (though they have the largest impact)

Introducing the iBasso P3 Heron! Here's the blurb from the website. Very excited about this, should make for lots of fun times with opamp rolling. Looks quite simple though, hopefully it'll sound good.

Anyway of checking the current draw of the opamps? I tried looking in their data sheet and can't find any.

Have you guys checked the battery life of the D1 after you changed the opamps? Does the D1 last longer or shorter with new opamps?

Forest

Not sure. Never heard the KSC75 before.

beans

Portapro! Bass is alot better than the PX100.

Guy on Jaben forums who goes by StGrim is selling it. I'm not sure whether its still available though as someone has contacted him already. No harm trying though. http://jaben.net/forums/index.php?topic=4806.0

Its a good player. Worth getting if the capacity is enough for you.

Its soundstage is not as wide as that of the Predator and less bass as well but everything else is pretty much right up there with the best. I've tried out the Predator then the Mini^3 and other than those two points, I couldn't justify spending 5 times more for the Predator considering that I use it primarily for communting. My only complaint about it is that its quite a battery hog. My version is the high performance version and on a 230mAh 9V battery, it lasts only 9hrs and the charging circuit is very slow so you'll need to get an external charger. There is another version with much longer battery life but I didn't like the sound signature as much. If you don't need a DAC and/or are on a limited budget, the Mini^3 comes highly recommended. There are also 3 different varients of it (using different Opamps) so you can see if any of them suits you. Give it a listen, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with it.

You mean the one without DAC? Not a bad price at $475.

treatment

For that, you'll have to go down to listen yourself. We all listen to things differently.

Not sure about the AE-2 but the Predator is $800 or so.

Damn...didn't notice that...I thought it was the ESW9!

Consider IEMs? Don't really like headphones outdoors and on the move as no matter how close it is, there is still sound leakage.

Actually I meant that just comparing the straight headphone out against the line out +amp. Like I said, Creative players tend to have pretty good internal amps. Of course, its hard to compare against the likes of iQube and Predator which cost more than the player.

One small "problem" is that it uses 5 AAA batteries. So far, the affordable chargers only do 4 and this doesn't come with a charging circuit.

Yup thats correct but also must see if you can tell the difference. Creative's headphone out tend to be of good quality so you might not actually see much difference between the headphone out and Line out + amp. But like I said, go try it out. Auditions are free and the guys at Stereo are very helpful and can advise you.

I don't know about the Pico man, the wait is ridculous. Its like what now? 4 months 5 months?

The Boa I think is about $300, might be less but I'm really not sure. The iQube even worst...I dared not even ask but I again think is around the $800 - $900 region. Best is if you call up SE to ask. Amplifiers like do what their name suggests, they amplify the signal coming from your player. Because of the different chips and circuitry used in different amplifers, you can in a way enhance the music by boosting certain frequencies like bass or treble. But as with all things audio, one man's meat is another man's poison. You'll really need to go down to the shops like Stereo or Jaben to listen and decide for yourself. One thing is that jaben doesn't have any creative docks for testing so you're a bit restricted to Stereo for now till you buy one. While you can connect an amplifier through the headphone out, its not really recommended as you'll be amplifing an already amplified signal.

Well, you can give the 2 currently available top end amps a try. iQube at SE or the Predator at Jaben. Both have some stunning reviews. I've not tried the iQube but the Predator has got an awesome headstage. Couple of others you can try are the Corda 2Move, Headamp AE-2, Voyager. These are the mid-range ones and for the low end ones you can try the iBasso D2 Boa (or wait for the D3 Python). You might also want to consider the Mini^3 (look for alvin1118 for audition), its really cheap but sounds fantastic. But ultimately, it'll be up to you. Get one which makes you go WOW! not the one that costs the most. You can read up on some reviews here.

I think the Zen Vision M should be capapble of driving the ANC7 but if you're worried, you can always head down to Stereo. Ask them for the dock for the Vision series and an amp (probably the D2 Boa unless you really want to spend, the iQube) to try.

Whats your budget? What do you usually listen to?