Personal Audio Player

[cybot]

Hi,

My personal opinion is it's impossible for best DAP player to compete against similarly priced stand alone CD player, not mention top tier CD players.
I will still consider CD format as superior to digital, sorry :)

DAP's are great as portable players, and with addition of headphone amplifier they can drive wide variety of headphones, but for me this where is ends.

My Onkyo DAP which I can probably call equal to FiiO X5, do not stand absolute chance linked through the same RCA cables do the amp. Lacks proper dynamics, details are obscured, soundstage is narrower, and all way, way worst.
I do not have proper streaming device at the moment, and sometimes I am tempted to listen music that I have downloaded on DAP (so I can compare against same CD) or streaming from Tidal or Deezer, and the quality is not great.

Regards
Maciej

Maybe I didn't make myself clear. Of course CDP's should be superior to DAP's. I was merely using my own experience. I didn't have a CDP at the time (my previous one sat down ten years earlier!) and I wasn't going back there. At that time DAP's were gaining favour and I simply wanted to try something that was better than my iPod Touch through the hi fi system. The Fiio X5 delivered as you would expect. I was taken aback how something so small could finally do justice to digital files. Of course not all cd rips sounded as good as I remembered. At the end of the day it was just a convenience trip to give my much superior vinyl set up a rest :) One good thing came out of it though : I eventually bought a CDP lol! A transport only CDP no less! It's a long story......which also lead to a solution of taking the Fiio to another level without using an external DAC. As I said it's a long story :)

[Maciej]

Sorry for misunderstanding. Probably some time in the future due to miniaturization DAP's and CD players can be close or equal.
They are great little devices, and certainly make our walks delightful, or easy pre sleep time.

[Ciaran]

It has been suggested to me that a Bluesound Vault 2i might be a solution for me. I need something small, but it doesn't have to be portable. My criteria are:

1. small
2. good sound
3. can use streaming services (Idagio, Tidal, Qobuz)
4. can connect to wi-fi
5. can drive proper headphones
6. will store a good number of CDs in high resolution

I wounder if the Bluesound would work for me. It might then slot usefully into the "big rig" once that's up and running.

Any thoughts? Thanks for your comments so far!

[Diapason]

I have a Bluesound Node (like a vault without the hard disk) and I like it. It's certainly good enough to hear the difference between bit rates, for example, but you won't mistake it for a dCS! The app works well and I've used a variety of streaming services to good effect. It also successfully plays music stored on other computers around the house via WiFi without drop-outs, so even though that might be heresy it's handy. If you don't need portability I'd definitely consider it.

[cybot]

Sorry for misunderstanding. Probably some time in the future due to miniaturization DAP's and CD players can be close or equal.
They are great little devices, and certainly make our walks delightful, or easy pre sleep time.

No need to apologise Maciej! Enjoy your walks :)

[mcq]

Either the Sony DMP-71 or the Astell & Kern SP2000 (with a nice set of headphones) look very attractive to me.

Sony DMP-71:

Thread at Head-fi.org:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/officia ... ad.886122/

Stereophile review:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/son ... sic-player

Audiofi.net review:
https://audiofi.net/2019/08/sony-dmp-z1 ... conundrum/


Astell & Kern SP2000:

Thread at Head-fi.org:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/astell- ... 00.906255/

InnerFidelity review:
https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/a ... 000-review

Headphones.com review:
https://www.headphones.com/blogs/news/a ... yer-review

[Fran]

I think a question you should ask here Ciaran is whether you will use it after you get the main rig back up and running. For example, if you travel a bit (locally or further afield) a pair of isolating/noise cancelling headphones are a joy. It makes the journey so much more calm! If this was the case I'd be thinking of the DAP like the A&K etc because you'll still use it later. Only if you can't see yourself doing this would I go the other route of a desktop amp/dac/streamer. You might be unlikely to use something that falls well short of the main rig and it might just sit there gathering dust. Of course you could sell it on at that point.

Anyway, just talking out loud.

[Ciaran]

Thanks mcq, going straight to the most expensive is often my own instinct, and I've acted on it on occasion and not regretted it. But this is hopefully a temporary situation, and maybe a €4000 - €8000 budget is more than is called for. But you have me thinking....

Thanks for the sensible advice, Fran. I'm told the Vault needs a wired internet connexion, so that rules it out for my current circumstances. It, or something like it, might well be a useful addition to the big rig when that's finally up and running again. I have got the travel bug a bit, so a DAP might be a useful companion for long flights or long waits in airports, whenever we're allowed to travel again. It might possibly also be useful at work, if the sound doesn't leak too much. Or, as you say, I could sell it.

Another thought crossed my mind: what about a small desktop DAC/amp? Audioquest Dragonfly, Chord Hugo, Audiolab M-DAC are a few I've seen mentioned. Outsource the streaming and storage to the lap-top or phone makes some sense, and some of these things are small. What do you think? Have you any experience of them? Do they sound any good?

[Diapason]

Bizarre decision to leave the Vault without WiFi in this day and age. That would be an immediate deal breaker for me.

[Georgi]

I use Bluesound Node2i + 4TB External hard drive, so no need of network cable.
I do recommended it for casual, non critical listening.