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What's the point of greater than 128kbps if you are listening to most of your music in a noisy environment like city streets.

Then you need better headphones. For cheap you can get some very nice Sennheiser PX100. They fold up and have a case, they also sound really good. Since they're over the ear they seal out some external noise.

I needed to replace the headphones on my iPod (they're too big for me and don't fit properly in my ear, plus I don't like being a billboard), and I got the above Sennheiser, I'm really happy with them.

I tried some Etymotic Research ER-6, wow I wish I could afford them, they sound amazing and really block out external sound, 15 to 20db (it's basically an ear plug).

I actually went to class with them once and I was unpacking my bag, doing my business. Suddenly I look up and notice everyone is staring at me, I plug out one side to hear my name being shouted at me very loudly by the teacher.

She was trying to get my attention to ask me something, even though she was raising her voice I hadn't even noticed. If you can afford them they're worth every penny.

A few words about the difficulty of measuring headphones and an example of how it can be done to get more readable results

Bose noise cancelling headphones suck, they aren't even the best active noise cancelling headphones available. Sennheiser has better models for around the same price. Far better than either though is the Etymotic ER-4P, these in ear canal headphone provide over 24dB of isolation, with some nice jazz playing you won't hear anything outside, headphone.com has them for only $219, about the same as the Bose units.

The Apple iPod is great, no doubt, and it sounds good, too; every bit as good as the best sounding portable CD players around these days and better."

We think the Creative Zen Xtra, and most of the devices below are almost as good sounding as the iPod; falling slightly short with a bit withdrawn midrange.

You don't have to spend huge amounts of money to get great sounding headphones. I personally own a pair of Sennheiser HD 495's. Only set me back $60 and they blow away almost anything under $150 (check out this graph to see how they perform). I would love to spend $200+ on a great pair of headphones but not in this crappy economy.

It's 30% over your budget, but the Etymotic ER-6s
might be a good choice.

Or a pair of the lower-end Grados or Sennheisers if the in-ear
thing is too weird.

This site is THE place to go for headphone info and a really decent place (good prices, great selection) to buy most 'phones too. There is a buying guide for portable 'phones that should tell you what you need.
The great thing about headphones (if you care about sound quality) is that for about $500 you can get a 99th percentile system (say some etymotic er4s's and a total airhead portable headphone amp) whereas that kind of fidelity will cost you tens of thousands in a stereo. And with the right selections you can do proportionaly as well for less.

"You know what irony is? Irony is the fact that while the hottest category in all of electronics is portable music devices like MP3 and CD players, almost nobody who buys one of these players ever hears just how good they really sound. Do you own one of these portables? Let me ask you something - did you just go ahead and use the terrible, crappy, el-cheapo headphones that came bundled with the player? Of course you did. We all do. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"What do the Etymotics sound like? Like no other headphone I've ever heard. Because they seal out all surrounding noise, you hear the music so purely and cleanly that's it's almost unnerving at first. But listen to these headphones for a few songs and you'll be spoiled for the rest of your life. The Etymotics sound so much more natural and free of distortion and coloration than even the most expensive audiophile speakers and headphones it's silly. "

"Just for laughs I compared the Etymotics to the generic headphones that come with the Nomad MP3 players. You see these 'phones all over the place - they' re the ones with the headband that goes behind the listener's head instead of over the top. Really cool looking, right? Well, after enjoying some music on the Etymotics, I switched over to the generic 'phones and lasted about five seconds before yanking them off my ears! Ugh! Get that crap offa me! We're not talking about good vs. better. We're talking stinking, rotting death vs. crystal clear mountain streams and fresh ripe peaches and backrubs by Mrs. Olsen of coffee commercial fame. Hey, I'm Mr. Pack Rat - I can't bring myself to throw away anything related to gadgets. But I threw away the generic headphones. The Etymotics sounded like music and the generics sounded like the squawk box you shout your order at when you go to the drive-thru at Mickey D's. "

It's hard to imagine that such superb sound can come from such tiny objects, but trust us--these are a traveler's best friend.

Believe me there are headphones where you can tell the difference. The $300 Etymotic ER-4P headphones are more than portable enough for a portable player and produce better sound than all but maybe a half dozen (no exaggeration) full size headphone models. In fact for regular stereo audio (i.e. not surround sound), a good pair of headphones is almost guaranteed to sound better than the same amount of money spent on speakers, because speakers have to contend with reflection noise off your walls.

So I'd say you have it backwards -- computer listening doesn't really benefit much from lossless audio, but headphone listening sure can.

Even if you don't feel like spending $300 on headphones, there are still many lesser headphones for which FLAC is worthwhile. Don't judge headphone quality based on the cheap headphones included with the player.

Inaudible bands are important too.

No, really, I'm not kidding.

Humans can distinguish interference beats between similar frequencies with a difference of 7 Hz or less.

So if you have a violin playing a perfect middle C at 256 Hz, it's also producing tons of other tones, hence it does not sound like a tuning fork.

Many of these tones are above and below the human hearing range of, let's say, 20 Hz to 20 kHz. But if you've got a tone at 30,000 Hz and another at 30,005 Hz, the human ear can hear that interference beat. If your reproduction source caps below there- well, too bad.

Of course, this is where you say "wait a minute, if humans can only hear the interference beats in the audible range, then can't the microphones hear just the interference beats too and reproduce them, safely ignoring the actual cause of them?

The problem with this is that in professional recording these days, there are microphones everywhere, recording the closest thing they can get to discreet channels for every instrument. So you may catch a lot of what's going on with one violin, but the interaction between each violin and the other strings gets lost, or the lead guitar and the bass guitar, or whatever you've got.

Does this sound really matter? To the extent it's audible, isn't it junk noise you'd rather get rid of anyway? Maybe.

Some people argue that a performance should be recorded with two very good microphones positioned where the ear drum goes inside a fake head with fake ears, modeled after the closest shape they can get to "the average ear." Then listen to it through a pair of Really Good Headphones.

This isn't a minor quibble, either. I picked the violin because it produces a very complex and hard to reproduce noise. I don't think anyone has yet invented a way to reproduce sound that can fool a trained ear into think it's a real violin. This is part of the reason why, even with very low THD in all components, current hi-fi systems fall short of their goal. Perhaps SACD's will help.

MP3, AAC, etc. make a lot of assumptions about the human hearing model and guessing what information they can throw away without adversely affecting the music. It's amazing how much compression they get out of those things, and I don't know that much about the codecs, but I expect interference beats are among the things they tend to miss.

-Phat Tony.

It's really easy to spend money on really good headphones and amps. If the boss wants something really nice, suggest the Blockhead with stepped attenuators or EAR-Yoshino V20. And don't forget the AKG K1k phones. Sacrilicioussss...

It's really easy to spend money on really good headphones and amps. If the boss wants something really nice, suggest the Blockhead with stepped attenuators or EAR-Yoshino V20. And don't forget the AKG K1k phones. Sacrilicioussss...

It's really easy to spend money on really good headphones and amps. If the boss wants something really nice, suggest the Blockhead with stepped attenuators or EAR-Yoshino V20. And don't forget the AKG K1k phones. Sacrilicioussss...

It's really easy to spend money on really good headphones and amps. If the boss wants something really nice, suggest the Blockhead with stepped attenuators or EAR-Yoshino V20. And don't forget the AKG K1k phones. Sacrilicioussss...

It's really easy to spend money on really good headphones and amps. If the boss wants something really nice, suggest the Blockhead with stepped attenuators or EAR-Yoshino V20. And don't forget the AKG K1k phones. Sacrilicioussss...

You may want to try using the "in ear canal" type earbuds, as opposed to the "outer ear" type of earbuds. They have foam or silicon molds which you squeeze into your ear, which help prevent them from falling out.

You can see a list of a few of the higher end ones here

Funny you should ask...

I recently ordered the Xin Super Mini Amp with crossfeed. It arrived today, and I immediately tried it out with my pair of Sennheiser PXC250 noise-cancelling headphones (which, with noise cancelling off, act like a pair of PX200s. Source audio was a Sony MP3 CD Walkman with LAME-encoded MP3s, either --alt-preset standard or --r3mix.

OK, enough hardware details. Let's just say that about half an hour later, my wife wandered in to the front room to find out what I was doing still out there. The answer is that I was hearing musical details I had never heard before. The amp drives the headphones effortlessly. The crossover circuit effect is subtle, but it does indeed seem to give an open, spacious feeling to the sound, particularly on techno tracks where there's a lot of left-right fooling around.

The Sennheisers, by the way, are much better than the Bose noise cancelling headphones in sound quality, with the added advantage that they fold up and are significantly cheaper. HeadRoom rate them the best active noise cancellation headphones available as far as sound quality goes, and I can believe it--they're comparable to my regular home-listening Sennheisers. I considered some Etymotics, but experimenting with silicone earplugs left me uncomfortably sore; my ear canals seem to be rather shallow and narrow. So the Sennheisers are recommended too--but they do need a headphone amp. The Walkman can barely drive them without one.

Funny you should ask...

I recently ordered the Xin Super Mini Amp with crossfeed. It arrived today, and I immediately tried it out with my pair of Sennheiser PXC250 noise-cancelling headphones (which, with noise cancelling off, act like a pair of PX200s. Source audio was a Sony MP3 CD Walkman with LAME-encoded MP3s, either --alt-preset standard or --r3mix.

OK, enough hardware details. Let's just say that about half an hour later, my wife wandered in to the front room to find out what I was doing still out there. The answer is that I was hearing musical details I had never heard before. The amp drives the headphones effortlessly. The crossover circuit effect is subtle, but it does indeed seem to give an open, spacious feeling to the sound, particularly on techno tracks where there's a lot of left-right fooling around.

The Sennheisers, by the way, are much better than the Bose noise cancelling headphones in sound quality, with the added advantage that they fold up and are significantly cheaper. HeadRoom rate them the best active noise cancellation headphones available as far as sound quality goes, and I can believe it--they're comparable to my regular home-listening Sennheisers. I considered some Etymotics, but experimenting with silicone earplugs left me uncomfortably sore; my ear canals seem to be rather shallow and narrow. So the Sennheisers are recommended too--but they do need a headphone amp. The Walkman can barely drive them without one.

You can buy them here, if they're not out of stock. Bear in mind that many of the online reviews are of the form "Let us pretend that I have money to burn".

And no, I have not even seen this model.

I have two modes of listening to music. Most of the time - working, cleaning at home, whatever - I just want a constant stream of music. Trance, techno, classical... for this I prefer new music. So I listen to online radio, spinner.com trance channel is one of my favorites. I would be willing to pay (a reasonable fee) for this service, if they wanted me to. Note that cds cannot satisfy this mode. It must be a much longer uninterrupted stream..

Of course, I have also ripped a good portion of my cds, so that I can queue them up at random.

The other mode is to listen to my sennheiser hd580 headphones through my headroom headphone amp. Only uncompressed cds will do for this. Again, I buy my cds - it's worth the money to me.

But you know what? At this point I've bought over 300 cds. Several I've bought more than once due to scratches/theft. That makes me cranky enough. Now they insist on treating me like a criminal and limiting what I can do with my music. 300 cds is enough to always find something I want to listen to. (I leave you to reach the obvious conclusion)

Oh, and by the way - I never bought as many cds as I did during the brief period in which I used gnapster. So thanks - you've saved me alot of money shutting that down.

One other place to check out is Headroom for various headphones and headphone amps, as well as some interesting info on amps... I have a set of Sennheiser HD-580s, and I haven't found a soundcard or portable player that can properly drive them (though they are easier on amps than some others). The amp is a must... even a relatively cheap (battery powered) headphone amp makes a world of difference (plus, with battery power, you have one less AC supply to worry about - get some NiMH rechargables and have a ball).

I have bought from Headroom, but I don't work for them or know anyone who does.

'Audiophile' computer speakers for that price simply are not made. It's a fact of life.

But... $200 will buy you some pretty nice headphones. I have the Sennheiser HD-580's and they are most excellent. They sound better than any stereo speakers I've ever heard. Check out headroom and headwize for heaphone info.

Though, if you have already decided that speakers are a must and headphones are out, I think Logitech has the best bang for the buck.

Would be to use Etymotic ER-6 or ER-4 (see etymotic's website).

Etymotic's canalphones use passive noise cancelling to cancel around 25dB and is way more effective than most of the active units you get. Most of the active units handle low frequency noise well but the high frequencies pass. Passive noise cancellation (Etymotics use the ol fashion earplugs) blocks the entire frequency range and is more effective than the Bose or Sony units as it does not add additional circuitry that could screw things up.

Whats even more is that the Etymotics have *amazing* sound quality (which both the Bose and Sony truly lack), they are some of the best headphones out there, although a little expensive for most (ER-6 is $130 and ER-4 is $270 at Headroom. And no I do not work for etymotic and I really didn't mean for this post to be an ad, if it came off as one :)

I did compare it to "real" headphone amps. Thing is, you can't get a better headphone amp for near that price. Good "real" headphone amps cost at least $200. For an amp comprable to the one in the Stereo link (I know, I've listened to lots) you're looking at at least $300, and it won't sound that much better. The last thing I want is my amp running off my noisy ATX power supply and tied to ground with all those high freq components. You need external power to decouple yourself from that crap. (The APC UPS that my workstation and the stereo-link are plugged into generates a nice clean sine wave in it's AC out. When the machine is under heavy disk load, you should see the +5v from the ATX supply on the scope. It's all over the place.)

Take a look at Headroom Corp. for some of the best headphone amp prices on the web, and you'll see what I mean. $100 stereo-link, or $200 + whatever another USB sound card costs for practically the same quality.

The SR-60's were the best sub $100 headphones before the 495's came out. But the 495's beat many phones up to $400-$500. To see graphs of how they perform, as well as get a great price see this link headphone.com

I did a google search on 'etanomic' -- nothing found. What kind of headphones are you talking about that are nearly as expensive as the iPod?

I guess it would help if I had spelled it right, they are the Etymotic ER4P, or the ER4S ($269 for either), I'm not sure how the ER6 sounds ($139) since it is new. I also remember the price as higher since I bought the Headroom Little headphone amp at the same time (another $200 or so -- prices were diffrent on the last model).

They are extreamly nice, and they do a pretty good job of preventing outside noise from bugging me. Good when the noise is fans and people on the phone, bad if it is my boss sneaking up on me.

I did a google search on 'etanomic' -- nothing found. What kind of headphones are you talking about that are nearly as expensive as the iPod?

I guess it would help if I had spelled it right, they are the Etymotic ER4P, or the ER4S ($269 for either), I'm not sure how the ER6 sounds ($139) since it is new. I also remember the price as higher since I bought the Headroom Little headphone amp at the same time (another $200 or so -- prices were diffrent on the last model).

They are extreamly nice, and they do a pretty good job of preventing outside noise from bugging me. Good when the noise is fans and people on the phone, bad if it is my boss sneaking up on me.

Bose? If you think they sound good, you need to head to your local audiophile shop and listen to some B&W.. Or Martin Logan... Hell, Even Sennheiser HD600 (headphones) with a Lucas and/or a Headroom!! (I say headroom, for I have experienced them... *AWESOME* reproduction that gets rid of the "Gee, it sounds like headphones" soundstage.) Bose is (IMO) the Microsoft of Home audio. Looks good, and works OK, but there's many better solutions out there.

As cool as huge storage for MP3s is, I hope manufacturers don't continue to ignore the analog parts of their MP3 players. Most portable players have sound that just sucks. The Intel Pocket Concert is the only exception I've ever heard, and even it could use some improvement.

The point is, MP3s can sound really nice when you use a good DAC and headphone amplifier. Even highly integrated versions of these components can add a few bucks to a player -- but why not offer customers an option to step up the sound quality of all their MP3s, no matter what the bitrate?

-David.

You can hear NOTHING outside when you are using them. They block outside noise by 23dB (that's more than two orders of magnitude). Because they block out so much sound, you don't have to turn them up so much to hear it, so they actually protect your hearing.

Absolutely nothing can touch them for listening to tunes in a noisy office, on a plane, or a train. You can also walk down the street with them and nobody knows you are wearing a $300 pair of headphones. Sonic bliss anywhere. Despite their small size they have amazing bass response due to the seal they produce in your ear canal.

Very highly recommended. You won't be able to listen to the Sony headphones anymore after getting used to these (the Sony's will sound like shit by comparison).

Dr. Burris T. Ewell

Most sound cards Suck. Suck big time. Most are to noisy to do any actual listening to music or a video soundtrack on, IMO. It works fine for gameing, esp FPS', the noise gets lost in the hash of explosions and all of the other noise, but for *listening* to music (not as sonic wallpaper), I hate it. No sound stage, no dynamics, and all of that hiss. BLEH!!!

The idea is good, but the execution needs to be refined before I would do it.

For those who think I'm anal, and have some disposable income, check out HeadRoom. I recommend the Sennheiser HD600's with any of their amps, plugged into any reasonable preamp.

24 bit isn't so important for listening, but it's a good thing for recording, because you can't record at full dynamic range without risking clipping. By recording at a safe level with higher dynamic range, when it's all mixed and gain matched, you should have 16 bits of good data left.