The DAP and Portable Purgatory Rant

This takes things to Coconut Audio level... This is not within my rant concern. This is troll.

 

Lol. Never understood the Tera Player pricing. It's insane. I've never heard much difference between portable daps at all. Ak100ii, ak120ii, and AK240 all sounded identical to me. I couldn't tell the difference in a blind test, no chance. I'll even say between the AK240 and an ipod touch, if I adjusted the eq, I'd have a very difficult time discerning between them.

I'm 100% guilty of buying the AK240 because it was "the best", I won't lie. I didn't need the additional storage, could have easily kept my ak120ii and never known a difference. Ak100ii, being slight less powerful, other than that I could have easily kept that in lieu of either ak's.

That's why, Android, rootable daps are the only daps I'll purchase again. LPG being the exception due to its power and parametric eq. I'm big on using eq and most daps eqs are insufficient.

When I first received my Fiio X7, I was extremely disappointed. Sound was good, but once I added 1 tick of bass, instant distortion. Even with the better modules, I wouldn't have kept it if I couldn't root it. My lgv10 (rooted of course) sounded better than the stock X7. Hell, I'd keep my lgv10 over the AK240 at this point. I just prefer having a standalone DAP.

 

Yeah, I still haven't found a compelling reason to abandon the V10 for a standalone DAP.

I'll keep looking, but am not expecting much...

 

Yep this makes me feel a little better about sticking with my IPod Touch 4th Gen that I've had for the last 3 years. It seems like most of the portable full-size cans aren't good bang for their buck, and all the higher end IEMs need some sort of amplification or extra work (and money). I'm just gonna grab some <$100-200 IEMs and call it a day.

No point in strapping up a portable amplifer/DAC and CIEMs when I'm going somewhere due to the unnecessary extra inconvenience.
Plus people would think I was going to go blow someplace up since those DAP/amp combos look like a friggin C4 anyways.

 

Can't beat the Clip line for the price. Yeah they're not the best, but for a budget throw around DAP? Awesome.

 

There really is no reason to. The lgv10 is a great device, and as a dap, it's the best I've used cell phone wise. It is also on par with some of the boutique daps, if not better. I love my lgv10. Overall, an excellent phone. Once I rooted and added Viper4Android, it became my favorite dap.

My apologies for my non stop praise of rooting and V4A, I'm a huge fan of viper. Transformed my cell phone to a portable playing beast!

 

So this thread answers a nagging question I've had for the last couple of weeks. I do all my listening off portable devices at the office. Not much time at home for anything but a speaker rig.

I am one of those accursed fools who likes the vintage Joseph Grado sound. I also make cups on a lathe in my garage. So my daily listener is a nice pair of vintage SR80 Grado pinks I don't mind taking to the office in my bag that I set up in some African Blackwood cups.

I've have a Pono, I have a Clip+, I have an X5 (first gen) that I pair with an E12 sometimes for shits and giggles, I also have an old iPod Touch first gen (16GB). The X5 sounds thin and annoying unamped to me. The Pono is annoying because it rolls the top end off of anything that is 16/44.1 and lower, the Touch hasn't got enough space for me and the Clip doesn't quite cut it for me.

Any recommendations for a decent DAP out there?

 

I'm very curious as to how it's selective on the files types it chooses to harm.

 

What I've read is that it's a side effect of Ayre's desire to reduce any pre-ringing, it seems to negatively affect xx/44 files. I don't think it's exclusive to 16 bit.

 

If that's true, I'm going to put my "nefarious intent" hat on and assume it was actually because they wanted to push their hi-res files.

 

Yeah, some folks say nefarious, some say to kill ringing. Either way, it is what it is...I am taking my old iPod Touch 1G to the office today. Been thinking I might go vintage iRiver at this point. An old Deadhead at the office who works for me swears by his H340, and I hear you can throw a CF card in those to upgrade the storage.

So far I have steered clear of the dark alleyway that is the A&K series. Smart kids used to avoid places they could get mugged when I was a boy, unless they were carrying weapons.

 

iPhone 5S and iPod Classic. Can't really justify much more than that. I backed Geek Wave early on and when that actually materializes I hope it will be very good. But overall I agree it's such a clusterf*.

 

I would agree except the Pono accepts files from any source, not just their music store. And their music store sells FLAC without DRM, including a lot of 16/44 files.

They even walked away from a partnership with Meridian because Meridian demanded DRM controls. Pono partnered with Ayre after that because Ayre agreed to no DRM.

 

What is the benefit of not having DRM?

 

DRM is digital rights management. It's what Apple used to use so you could only play iTunes purchases on Apple devices. It restricts usage, so even though you bought the file outright, you can't play it on any device you want.

Streaming is essentially a way to bring back DRM, but at least it's convenient and can live beside purchased files.

If Pono had introduced DRM on their player and store, and their store only sold 24/48 and higher res files, then I could see the nefarious intent argument. But instead they walked away from a partnership to avoid DRM, and their store has no DRM, so I'm going to choose to believe the ringing argument.

 

Thank you for the clarification. That's pretty foul that they can restrict your use with DRM. I don't use apple to purchase music fortunately. I'd be furious if I did and I wasn't able to use it with my other players.

 

Does anyone use it anymore? Other than streaming, which I completely understand.

 

The Pono is now permanently on my list of "Bull Shit audio products." Some older albums have a lot of high range information and I want my Iron Maiden and Dire Straights among others to sound good.

No to DRM, they deserve my applause.

 

We should find out if the Ayre Codex has the same issue. If it does, I'd be more inclined to believe the ringing theory. If it doesn't, I'd lean more towards nefarious intent on the Pono.