I want to listen to music while working... My computer does heavy lifting so using it as a source hasn't worked out so well. clicks and pops and squelches abound the moment i start doing real work... so plan B find a good cheap DAP, enter stage left the Sansa Clip+ and a 16gb micro sdhc card...
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/sansa-clip-measured.html. this was all the info I needed to put this on the xmas list, already have Ludo's hp amp... if the sansa can't lift the shure srh 840's... the sansa earbuds suck, as expected
The good: it does drive the shures loud enough and even handedly. Bass is strong, if not articulate enough compared to my reference... it is a bit disconcerting that this litlle thingy can drive the shure to such an extent... I mean it doesn't even really stretch the coiled cable.... Detail and vibe from the flac is better than what can be had from most mp3's. It was a breeze getting flac onto it. It is now a 20gb player courtesy of a 16gb micro-sdhc... total outlay R800...
The bad: There is no such thing as a free lunch. It is not better than iphone 3? 4? with ALAC that I have heard with these same hp's. There must be some distortion as i'm clenching my teeth and putting the volume progressively lower... let's hope it's the driver stage and not the dac that is limiting audio... Not as bad as 320kb/s mp3's played from computer through saffire pro 14. Sounds a bit like it is ringing on transients... so may just be an amp issue. The shures are however fairly low distortion headphones, unlike most consumer headphones I looked at (AKG is another low distortion headphone) So I'm assuming this will not be audible for most users.
The sound from the clip+ and flacs are not as good as I expected from the reviews... not bad though, will see when I use the amp to drive the hp's.
The Focusrite saffire pro14 audio interface is better playing the flacs from the computer, until I start doing real work. None really drive the headphones as Ludo's hp amp does... so, I am not sure how much diffs the amp can make but I hope it will make a diffs, or I must get easier hp's... Although I can totally see that another lil opamp and a battery /usb based boxy thing won't do much better, i do think a proper hp amp will be better.
I appreciate that the low impedance output is theoretically good enough to drive the srh 840 very even handedly... and it does that, it is loud enough, but the sound is fatiqueing and I cannot agree with the reviewers assertion that any distortion is below audible threshold...
Conclusion not Nirvana, but better than it should be, and getting FLAC onto it was a breeze.
