seanadams;332691 Wrote: > It is far more challenging to get good sound quality from a portable > device. A good power supply, DAC, and output stage require board space, > and packing everything close together makes issues like internal EMI > noise much harder to deal with. The designer has much fewer components > to choose from because he has to meet size and power constraints that > simply wouldn't apply in a non-portable device. > > There is also the problem that portable devices generally need to have > headphone outputs, designed to drive some power, as opposed to line > outs, which care more about driving a clean voltage at negligible power > levels. Headphone amplifiers don't perform as well as a simpler line-out > driver.
To this end, you might look at getting a portable headphone amp to connect to your iPod. Actually, that's what I use with my SB3 on my bedside table. You would be AMAZED at the difference a portable headphone amp will make. They have enough power to drive virtually anything and are generally flat in the frequency response area. Though protable, they don't suffer the design constraints (at least as badly) that Sean mentions. I use something made by Practical Devices (www.practicaldevices.com). There are other manufacturers out there with amps at varying prices. For me, the PD offering (specifically the XM4) was a nice compromise of price and function. Go on over to www.head-fi.org for a forum that is *passionate* about the topic of headphone music listening. -- maggior Rich --------- Setup: 2 SB3s, 1 duet. SuSE 10.2 Server running SqueezeCenter 7.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ maggior's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9080 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=51532 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
