I think my headphone amp may be a little weak.

Your other points are very illuminating for me and I'm going to follow up on
your leads.

Thanks very much! I think I'm on my way to knowing a bit more about the digital
audio game.

RM


--- In toronto-audiophiles@yahoogroups.com, aw-lists+ta@... wrote:
>
> If you're using a headphone amp, you shouldn't be having problems
> with things like impedance or gain, or frequency response.
> Really, it's just a question of quality. A Macbook is marketed as
> a multimedia machine, but it's not audiophile grade by my terms.
> The components and design of the sound card in a laptop or any
> consumer-grade sound card are chosen to meet a price point which
> will satisfy most people. By definition, everyone on this list
> has a much higher set of standards on the bell curve; we're
> probably the pickiest 1% of consumers. So increasing the product
> cost to satisfy us is economically infeasible for a computer
> manufacturer. I'm surprised at the lack of true audiophile
> portable music players, however, but I haven't researched
> recently. I should add, however, that some computer-based pro
> musician's gear definitely achieves quality that should be of
> interest to audiophiles, particularly as commonly available DAC
> chips improve, and the pricing for pro-gear is much more
> competitive than audiophile stuff. This is because there is a
> large demographic of musicians with average or below average
> disposable income, so the sales are higher with smaller margins.
>
> If you want to really improve the sound quality from your
> computer, look into an external DAC and be sure to feed it
> lossless audio. Some DACs have headphone amps built in, and can
> be had for less than what I'd expect to pay for a decent CD
> player.
> Here are where the headphone enthusiasts are, and of course
> there's lots of discussion about portable audio and DACs and
> portable music players etc.
> http://www.head-fi.org/
>
> This is where the digital audio enthusiasts are. This is focusing
> more on software, encoding, digital music production etc. Here's
> the FAQs:
> http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7516
> I highly recommend that everyone should know about EAC, a program
> which extracts music properly from a CD for your portable usage.
> It's linked from the FAQs above.
>
> Cheers,
> Anthony
>
>
>
> On Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:59 +0000, "rajeevmullick"
> <rajeev.mullick@...> wrote:
>
> I have a Macbook. And I have very new AKG 701 headphones along
> with a headphone amp. And I guess the combo is ok. But I can't
> help but feel that the Macbook is limiting my auditory experience
> in some physics-explicable way.
> What are the thoughts on this? I guess I'm looking for things
> like impedance, amplification, Hz and such.
> RM
>
>
> References
>
> 1.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/message/14061;_ylc=X3oDMTM2cWJ\
ldnVuBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBG1zZ0lkAzE0MDY\
xBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Z0cGMEc3RpbWUDMTI0NDQ3NjgxNwR0cGNJZAMxNDA2MQ--
> 2.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJxbnFwcG00BF9T\
Azk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBG1zZ0lkAzE0MDYxBHNlYwNm\
dHIEc2xrA3JwbHkEc3RpbWUDMTI0NDQ3NjgxNw--?act=reply&messageNum=14061
> 3.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJlcjluNW92BF9T\
Azk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGME\
c3RpbWUDMTI0NDQ3NjgxNw--
> 4.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/messages;_ylc=X3oDMTJlM3J2ZmMy\
BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA21z\
Z3MEc3RpbWUDMTI0NDQ3NjgxNg--
> 5.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/files;_ylc=X3oDMTJmbjRlMjRsBF9\
TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2ZpbGV\
zBHN0aW1lAzEyNDQ0NzY4MTY-
> 6.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/photos;_ylc=X3oDMTJlNHJ1aGNkBF\
9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Bob3\
QEc3RpbWUDMTI0NDQ3NjgxNg--
> 7.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/links;_ylc=X3oDMTJmOTZqcDFjBF9\
TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2xpbmt\
zBHN0aW1lAzEyNDQ0NzY4MTY-
> 8.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/database;_ylc=X3oDMTJjNmp1NGkx\
BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2Ri\
BHN0aW1lAzEyNDQ0NzY4MTY-
> 9.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/polls;_ylc=X3oDMTJmOWNpaWMyBF9\
TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3BvbGx\
zBHN0aW1lAzEyNDQ0NzY4MTY-
> 10.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/members;_ylc=X3oDMTJlN2FjbmpiB\
F9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA21ic\
nMEc3RpbWUDMTI0NDQ3NjgxNg--
> 11.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/calendar;_ylc=X3oDMTJkNWpuOTJr\
BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2Nh\
bARzdGltZQMxMjQ0NDc2ODE2
> 12.
http://groups.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTJkdWgybWg2BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MT\
YEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2dmcARzdGltZQMxMjQ0NDc2ODE3
> 13.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/join;_ylc=X3oDMTJmc3RjaW5hBF9T\
Azk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3N0bmdz\
BHN0aW1lAzEyNDQ0NzY4MTc-
> 14.
mailto:toronto-audiophiles-digest@yahoogroups.com?subject=Email%20Delivery:%20Di\
gest
> 15.
mailto:toronto-audiophiles-traditional@yahoogroups.com?subject=Change%20Delivery\
%20Format:%20Traditional
> 16.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles;_ylc=X3oDMTJkdXVhZzFuBF9TAzk3M\
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QMxMjQ0NDc2ODE3
> 17. http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> 18. mailto:toronto-audiophiles-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=
> 19.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles/members;_ylc=X3oDMTJmcWZtcDB0B\
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nJzBHN0aW1lAzEyNDQ0NzY4MTY-
> 20.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toronto-audiophiles;_ylc=X3oDMTJlYjVndjRsBF9TAzk3M\
zU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwMTc4MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDE3NTYzBHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZnaHAEc3Rpb\
WUDMTI0NDQ3NjgxNg--
> 21.
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2;_ylg=1/SIG=11314uv3k/**http%3A//brand.yahoo.com/forgood
> 22.
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4MTY-;_ylg=1/SIG=11c6dvmk9/**http%3A//toolbar.yahoo.com/%3F.cpdl=ygrps
> 23.
http://groups.yahoo.com/start;_ylc=X3oDMTJvdmY3cHBoBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BF9wAzMEZ3JwS\
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DQ0NzY4MTY-
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>