Mobile Hifi Rediscovered

FiiO Mont Blanc E12 Headphone Amplifier, circa. GBP100, is a cost effective upgrade for your iPod Classic. B&W P5 or P7 headphones ever better.

Dave

Thanks Dave

Thanks Bert - useful info. 

James

After the crime series I had almost two hours of listening with my new set. Very very enjoyable. I haven't thought about the technicalities of what I heard it was just a lot of fun, a bass which you don't expect from a mobile setup. It just sounds right. I don't have the feeling I am missing something without headphone amplifier, obviously my Shures are easy to drive...

For more of a Naimish flavour, may I suggest the Cowon Plenue series? These use Naim'spreferred Burr-Brown Dac chips - the P1 the PCM1792A and the M the PCM1795. I use the P1 with the AKG K 3003 and it's like a portable naim rig, far more PRAT to my ears than the Astells, the Sony, the Fiio and the iBasso lines. Bass is impactful, though not quite as fast as the AK240, instrument timbre is the class leader, sound stage not as wide as the Sony (but that was never a flat earth thing, was it). The Sony Ui is better and the Cowon does not have either wifi or bluetooth The sound is similar to the Naim Dac V1 for a comparison. Well worth the audition and to be blunt, at this level it's about sound signature preferences rather than absolute sound quality.

Regards,

Giles

While a very much appreciated advise - it's too late now for the next couple of years. I have now bought this setup and will have to live with it, and I am not sad about that. 

I have bought the setup out of multiple reasons and good sound quality was one of them, but not being the sole criterium this time. While I also wouldn't mean with that that the sound quality is bad ...., it's up there with the best - but perhaps in details being challenged by others, while it challenges others in other aspects.

so thanks for comming up with the suggestion, but this time I will pass.....

Congratulations on your purchase, IME, the mos satisfying and relaxing way to listen to music. I have unplugged my SuperUniti from speakers and lounge, and it is acting as my (not very portable) bedside listening device, paired with HD800s. I love going up to bed an hour early for a listen, only thing is the missus scares the life out of me when she "appears" out of the shadowy darkness. 

...I wouldn't mind to be scarred by a missus, without gives the benefit of not being scarred, but I still would prefer being scarred every now and then.......

Hi Bert,

Please note I'm not criticising your purchase, which I do think is a fine set up, merely offering alternate advice to the rest of the board readers. The world of mobile audio is changing quite rapidly and the Sony is at this point right at the cutting edge - that wifi capability was sorely tempting, instead I 'merely' have 10 64GB cards ( +128GB onboard)...Nice to hear of other people's setups and you seem to have sparked a real conversation on the topic, with interest from Mr Dane no less...

regards,

Giles

Bert, the Sony A1x and ZXx series have been criticized for their amp, which supposedly has a high noise floor (i.e. hiss through headphones) - which means it would be very sensitive to the right headphones. Have you found any of this to be an issue? 

EJ

Well after a lot of thought and deliberation (and the fact my 11 year old 4th Gen iPod has now stopped holding charge for more than an hours worth of play) i've gone and ordered the ZX2.

Silly price i know, but i keep these sort of things forever so the amount of use it will get will more than justify the initial expenditure 

Hi Bert, reading with interest as I'm a long time Shure user with the SE525. I tried the SE535 but found them too uncomfortable. As you have used the 535 and 846, I was wondering how they compare in this regard. What are your thoughts

regards

Nick

Arrived this morning (thanks Amazon). What a cracking little device - very solid build and it looks nicely understated in black. An intuitive interface for navigation and it's very easy to load music using the content transfer app on my Mac - just drag and drop from iTunes.

It's been charged and loaded up with 50Gb of AIFF files to get me started and it's sounding rather sublime through my Etymotic ER4S phones. 

Hi EJ, I think it's a class better device than the older ones you mentioned. But indeed it's not 100 percent black silent, and with my SE846 are quite revealing in that respect. But it's not at all a problem while listening music - as you don't notice it then, even in the silent passages. So you only hear it when no music is playing and at startup.....

what at the amp does is by the way great.

Hi,

i was was not seeing it as ctitisism - just an advice which is past due as I made the buying decision before. And the more I listen to the device the more I like it, so I am not sad that I bought it.

If you mean with comfort the way they are placed in the ear and are hanging around. This hasn't changed at all, and one would even say that the 846 is even a bit more stiff and heavy (heavy of course in relative terms). So if that was not to your liking, I wouldn't recommend this ones. However I would be a bit amazed as they are known the 535's for comfort, and I also appreciated them for that. 

If comfort is music quality for you, yes they are a considerable step upward with the SE535 - so recommended....

James congratulations. You will start to love the device if it's paired with good headphones. The burn is essential to get to the full quality of the device so I suggest you to let it run during the night. It helped me to run in my earphones as well, so double benefit.

Now with a couple of hours more of listening. I have to say that I amazed. combined with the Se 846 I noticed that I have never had a comparable mobile situation which sounded better, perhaps I am also too less experienced in mobile hifi, but it's great to have also good music on the road. And the comfort off one base opas music library you just need to slice and dice which is indeed a bit a challenge. And then the last cool benefit the listening to your full collection via the network is a killer feature fro bedtime listening.

i will also publish after more hours - but I now already have no regrets whatsoever.

Hi Bert - thank you. It's certainly exceeded my expectations - I really didn't think mobile music could sound this good. The step up in quality between this an my previous iPod / Rega Ear source is quite surprising. Exceedingly detailed with lots of pace and verve and just very enjoyable to listen to. I'll eventually look at different earphones, but the Etymotics with the foam ear tips provide excellent isolation in my office environment and I like their neutral response.  

Enjoy your setup and thanks again for the recommendation 

Hi Bert - how are the 846's settling in. They are looking very tempting...

James

Chris, congratulations with your purchase you will not regret it. Please male sure that you have it run in for a good time, because the sound will much more evolve when it has more hours on the meter. And yes you will be forced to get better earphones to match the sound quality - keep us updated on your experience.

The Shures are an absolute dream combination with the Sony. Sometimes you read about the Shure's with the reference of having a mobile subwoofer and that's actually what they can produce when properly sealed with the right ear tips. This by the way doesn't mean that the bass is overpowering the other regions, it's just very capable. Fit is also very good for a non custom product. And I have used Shure throughout the years I can say that the quality is also exceptional. 

I was was contemplating before of getting an Ultrasone overeat Edition 5 unlimited, but so far I haven't felt a huge urge to do that as the Shures don't leave me with missing something. 

Perhaps ps there are better ones on the market (custom one, Kaiser 10 perhaps) but I have been more then satisfied and don't think the lofty price is too much for the experience you get back for it.

Well, my ZX2 arrived yesterday, and first impressions are good. It took just a few minutes to set it up, including adding my Tidal account , BBC iPlayer radio, and playing from my Unitiserve using the Sony's DLNA app. I've also put CD rips on it by simply dragging them from the US folder to the Sony, so filling it up with music should be a breeze: I'd better get myself an SD card or 2 soon.

Sound quality seems very good, just well balanced and musical, but I'll reserve judgement until it's burnt in (Sony suggest 100 hours) and more importantly, until I have a pair of headphones that are up to the job. I'm tempted to throw caution to the wind and just buy a pair of SE846s, but if anyone has any other in-ear recommendations, I'm all ears...

Chris

Enjoy Chris - i love mine. A fantastically musical player and it does indeed need a bit of burn in to sound at its best. 

Bert - the Shures are brilliant. Took me a few days to get used to them and select the right ear buds but once sorted i find them very easy to put in and very comfortable. I'm not a bass head, but these produce very tight low bass which adds another dimension to familiar tracks. They also produce the sensation of bass you can feel which i usually find missing with headphones. The only other thing i've done is change the filters to the bright ones as i prefer this to the as supplied balanced ones.

James