not that my sony NWZ-A816 sounded bad (far from it) but I can always use a little more volume even with my very efficient and great sounding phillips earbuds. I purchased a boostaroo amplifier from radio shack and wow what a difference. I know there are other expensive earphone amplifiers but for $29.99 you can't go wrong. I don't sell or promote this product but couldn't resist passing on how great it made my mp3 player sound.
Hows it going old man? It sounds like you finally have the right equipment. It is refreshing to see someone else shop using specs as the main criteria. Yeah, the problem with better sound is it requires juice for the base. Efficency and good base are mutually exclusive (physics). It is a marvel that you can get quality sound out of such small devices with so little juice. How big is the boostaroo?
Hi Mez, well that is one of it's drawbacks. it holds 2 AA batteries and is about 4 1/2" long and about double the diameter of a AA battery around. not very good for carrying around with you. I use it when I'm just setting around the house or on trips. it supposedly doubles the amplification. it has 3 output jacks (great for portable dvd players in the event two or three want to watch/hear the same movie). here's a pic and the specs.
I am sold! More for the portable DVD player. I have 3 kids! We wind up piping the player to an FM transmitter on trips. I have never gotten around to getting the Philips ear buds yet. My Koss have 15 hz instead of the 10 hz. That means they should be more efficent. I rarely have my ipod cranked above 75%. My wires are starting to stiffen. I will be needing new buds by XMass. I do know I will be able to feel that extra 5 hz and I will never be able to go back to a lesser quality. Have you ever invested in a HD radio/MP3 CD player for the car? You would need to either get a Sony or one with an aux jack in the front for your Sony mp3 player. Some have an aux jack in the front others have an mp3 interface in the back. The interface is mp3 player specific. The good part about the interface is you can control the mp3 player from the CD player controls. I will say I never installed my interface. I bought it but never got around to installing it. It is a bit of a pain and I would not have bothered buying one if I knew how big the CDs were. They hold 700 M of tuneage, that is about 150-170 tunes or 10-12 hrs of listening unless you are putting on really high BR files. I spend about 10 hrs in the car in a week. I can swap CDs once a week and not hear many repetes in the week. I randomize the tunes. My player does not have the do not repete option. The big deal is the level of fidelity. I still need to swap out my speakers but swapping out the player made a huge difference in the sound. My guess is I am hearing around 100 BR level of quality. I bet that is almost double over my old CD player. I could not hear the difference between a CD and FM radio which is about 60 BR on the old player. Now I can't hear the difference between a CD and HD radio which is 90 BR equivelent. I do not listen to regular FM. I am totally amazed at my listening habbits. I will tollerate music I do not like in HD over something I like on LD. I never would have guessed how quickly and utterly I was spoiled.
