Just need a simple but quality music player.
Just need a simple but quality music player.
Ah, so we need a synthetic wax to be sprayed inside the ear to protect the canal which would no doubt need to be created to help the ear's sound detection. I guess that would be an oily substance, I wonder if you could extract it from snakes?
Plug some headphones into a smartphone. Find a shop where you can try out different headphones, because that is where the difference will be made and they are a very personal choice both in comfort and the sort of sound that you are looking for.
Agree with that advice, remember when I bought my old Kef towers the sales guy insisted that I bring along a tape or CD that I wanted to listen to. Since, as he said, "you wouldn't buy glasses without trying them on. Same for speakers..."
Show her a 12" EP then! Remember doing that to my kids. Even better I managed to show the same album on vinyl, tape and CD. Just wished I could have borrowed an 8 track cartridge from my dad.
Alfa - hmm, nice. If local dealer wasn't clueless then I'd be tempted. <sigh>
I had a Delta GT and an 8V Integrale. My dad used to drive a Gamma 2500 (the one with the "Made for Lancia by Ferrari" stamped on the engine), and sister and mother drove Y10 Turbos. So we're a bit sad to see what they're doing now...
I'm jealous, although not as much as my youngest who wants a 500 as her first car.
Cowon's seem to have a good reputation in some circles (check out AdvancedMP3Players for range). Likewise the Fiio X3 and X5 seem to be pretty well respected, and I've seen reviews for the new X1 (priced about the same as an iPod Nano) which really praise it's abilities, like this one from CNet.
One out-of-left-field suggestion though might be to get a second-hand iPod (Video or Classic) and get a storage update done. For the Video you can (I've done it!) boost the storage from 80GB to 128GB pretty easily. Then slap on a Fiio E1 amp and use that (since the iPod headphone jack seems to have a reputation for being of poor quality.
So, given care taken, I'm ever more inclined to suggest trying out even the SR-007, at least so you see advances done by the brand
Somehow it wouldn't surprise me to see such a thing being sold at a given time in the future, hehe.
Agreed, Cowon do some very impressive media players with (IMHO) the best processing effects feature set in the market and aren't really matched by any other players on the same price range. Fiios are also a good choice, but I have more experience with their amps rather than their players. Doing not only storage increases but also hardware mod/upgrading to older iPods can often yield excellent results, and then there are reference quality players like Colorfly C3/C4 Pro, iBasso DX90 and others.
Tell you what. If I win a serious sum, say, £10m on the lottery, I'll audition a pair. If not, it's pretty academic what they sound like.
Why?
First, I have not one but two pairs of headphones that are good enough for my needs, and I don't need three.
Second, regardless of having not abused my hearing, it's not what it used to be.
Third, no matter how good they are, there are plenty of other makes on the market, also perfectly good enough, for a lot less.
Fourth, as I said, times change. Compared to when I did justify Stax-type money, I use headphones, ANY headphones, far FAR less than I used to.
Fifth, opportunity cost. There's a LONG list of things I'd spend money on ahead of new high-end headphones, and short of winning pipedream, fantasy-type money on the lottery, I'm never likely to get that far down the list.
Sixth, and it's .... ummmm .... a technical problem. I don't actually do the lottery. Well, maybe once every couple of years when the urge kicks in and I indulge in a whim.
So, I wouldn't hold your breath.
Oh, and Seventh, if another reason were needed, I really don't know of anyone officially importing and supplying in the UK. The shop I used is no longer there, and the guy in North London that imported them for years gave up doing it. I'm certainly not, under any circumstances, buying something at Stax prices from abroad and paying a foreign-based company. I don't even know where I could audition them, and again, wouldn't dream of ordering without.
There are plenty of dynamic headphones that are not only good enough but up there with the best, at price tags to match. I personally recognize the rather unique Stax nature but I personally go for different signatures and characteristics, not to mention how I've been mostly a closed-type cans fan.
Last time I heard of audition opportunities in the UK was during meets that are scheduled a couple times a year.
All in all, still waiting for that eventual time when an unexpected influx of money heads your way, but I do understand those headphones not being a priority
I've come across meets, too, but never been to one. Even if it solved the audition problem, it'd still leave the 'importing' issue, if there's no official, legit importer, and for an item of that cost, even if I were interested, a reputable, reliable, UK source, inside UK consumer law jurisfiction, would be a red-line prerequisite.
It's academic, though, because I'm not in the market, especially at those prices, plys VAT, and presumsbly import duty too. When I bought mine, they were expensive, but from what I remember, not that expensive, even allowing for about 40 years of inflation. I wonder if you're paying more for 'brand' and the mystique of a rare item .... a bit like a Rolex watch. Good, yeah, but price is more about excellent marketing and perceived exclusivity than objective quality.
Short of winning a multi-rollover lottery jackpot, I don't see me paying that for any headphones. A hundred quid, yes. Two or three hundred, maybe. Five hundred? Very doubtful. Thousands? Can't see it.
Well, as far as I understand, Symmetry-Systems are currently the only authorized Stax dealer in the UK, but there is at least one official dealer you can check with.
About prices... yes, they're expensive, very.
The prices you're willing to go for do allow you to get pretty much the best of the best below flagship level, which is unquestionably nothing to scoff at.
Ummm .... Symmetry look more like a distributor, but they do list about a dozen dealers, the first of which I checked carry Stax. Only about 60 miles from me, too.
Dammit, Tribal, you've got me looking. Get the behind me, Satan.
Mwahahaha... *coughs* I mean... I'm positive you'll very much enjoy the experience of having your ear canals, and your whole self being transported to an unknown blissful location from which you'll have a rather hard time wanting to leave
I think I'd better shred my credit card while I still have some self-will. And burn the shreds. And throw the molten blob down a deep abandoned mineshaft. And fill in the shaft. With radioactive waste.
That oughta do it.
Oh, feel free to do so... after you burn a glowing gaping hole on said card
If you crowd the SD card up against the analog sound amp input circuits BUT then shield the to whole assemble against outside EMI and any internal wireless radio...I guess it might apply. Basically might apply in the worlds tiniest MP3 player with SD card input if designed with a sudden lapse in intelligence about internal EMI sources after blocking common outside sources.
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