triumph

hi deniel, been looking for discmans of the past too. discmans of the past seem to have better sound quality. of course, particular models only.. it's a pity that the few discmans manufacturers have stopped producing good quality discmans. it will be good if they produce a few good quality discmans now. but yeah most probably, that will not happen since emphasis is strongly on MP3 players! miss those days whereby a newly purchased CD can be listened immediately just by using a discman! and i do like the alkaline batteries method. when they die, no fuss, just purchase a fresh pack and slot them in and the discman is good to go. sigh.

over the ear design can help SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the mircophonics issue. microphonics issue refers to the irritating sound you hear when the earphone cables hit your body when you are walking, or whenever you're moving. it will be good to get a pair of earphones with 1 year warranty. from past experience, i find mainstream earphones' cables to die on me pretty fast. sound's always missing from one side. i guess my negligence is at fault too. to assure your purchase, get one with at least 1 year warranty.

my comparison was done using my ipod player. i ripped various versions of the same song and compared. i kept everything constant. the only variable is the bit rate of the same song. all i can say is that... we all hear things differently! it's indeed a very cliche term.. haha. anyway thanks for the discussion.

yup you won't be able to audition before you buy it. it's a risk you take. but i believe a high end custom ear monitor will have significant improvements over universal earphones. the WHIPlash cable that i mentioned does help significantly in bring the music one level up. it costs about near SGD400 if i'm not mistaken. but i would say pretty worth the money since you already paid SGD1K plus for the custom ear monitors. and lastly, rip your CDs into WAV format. WAV format owns MP3 and Apple LOSSLESS in my honest opinion. the disadvantage is that WAV takes up hell lot of space. as a matter of fact (to me, at least), i feel there's no difference between 192 - 320 kbps MP3 and Apple Lossless. if you are willing to fork out cash for custom ear monitors + WHIPlash cable + CDs (which i believe you already have a decent collection, with due thanks to your hifi hobby), you will be very satisfied with the sound you can get from just the custom earphones and your DAP. best part, no hassle of lugging a portable amplifier. and portable amplifiers can cost pretty much too. not to mention, having to spend money on line out docks for the connection as well. Jaben @ adelphi 4th floor may have demo units for Jerry Harvery Customs and Ultimate Ears Customs. if you order directly from JH Audio, you can have significant cost savings. you can check out their website for their prices. but Jaben gives you the warranty support for the extra dough you pay. not too sure about Ultimate Ears. on the cost savings bit. it will be good if you can borrow someone's custom earphones (at jaben) and try to squeeze them into your ears. may give you a better picture of what kind of sound you will be getting instead of trying the universal demos.

agree on the "how similar they sound" part. there are different sound signatures among different earphones. but difference is nothing as vast as the hifi world. you should try a high end pair of custom earphones. Ultimate Ears 18 PRO / 11 PRO or JERRY HARVEY 13 PRO / 16 PRO. paired with WHIPlash TWag earphone cables. the results will be shocking if you compare them to universal earphones. they definitely won't sound as good as a decent hifi system. but they will be able to capture the essence of the hifi world. tight bass. soundstage. smooth vocals. it will feel like you're listening to a portable speaker setup. but of course, speakers will still own the custom earphones.