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Experience with portable "mp3" devices

In my experience I've found the sound in most portable devices, well shoddy at best. In searching the web the only device associated loosely with the word audiophile is the Creative Zen line including the Stone Plus.

Please help !!! At the gym I am currently being subjected to the likes of Hannah Montana and Kelly Clarkeson played through muzak and reaching my ears through 5 1/2 inch universal driver.

Any advise so I can make a timely decision is very welcome !

eddiebo
cruz123
585 posts
 
In you situation the earphones are probably more important than the player. You will needs some good earphones/buds that will block out the ambient noise (muzak). As Loomis indicates, there's probably very little difference in mp3 sound quality among the various players.
eddiebo OP
6 posts
 
Thanks, I'll have a look for some good in ear earphones.

Perhaps to deal with the mp3 compression business, I'll narrow things down to something that may handle wav and/or aiff's.

May have to hold off on the Creative Zen Stone (no aiff or wav playback)
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
I love my iPod. I use apples lossless encoding and iGrado headphones, by Grado. (I realize that " by Grado" may have been obvious.) They stay on your head when you're active, sound pretty good to. They do not block out the ambient noise, but you can hear people talk to you while you listen to music if you want, or turn them up a bit. They are only $50 too!
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
Or if you want to get more serious click the link below-

HeadRoom

Steve
elevick
2,439 posts
 
I think that compression is a huge issue. They all sounded like crap to me until I decided to waste space and go lossless. $50 headphones make a huge difference too. I just got a Sansa Clip for my daughter and it sounds great with lossless.
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