Hydrogenaudio Forums > Audiophile DAPs

deafmutelame

May 31 2007, 21:14

My beloved Rio Karma 20 Gb player recently died and ascended to the heaven of the audiophile DAPs. RIP.

Back in the day, the Karma was considered the standard "top notch" DAP, audio quality wise.

I am sure that this question is asked a lot. What is the consensus in the community these days about the top DAPs in regards of audio quality?

naylor83

May 31 2007, 23:43

QUOTE(deafmutelame @ Jun 1 2007, 05:14)

My beloved Rio Karma 20 Gb player recently died and ascended to the heaven of the audiophile DAPs. RIP.

Back in the day, the Karma was considered the standard "top notch" DAP, audio quality wise.

I am sure that this question is asked a lot. What is the consensus in the community these days about the top DAPs in regards of audio quality?

Wow... how naive

has there ever been a community consensus anywhere?

No, but seriously... I believe the iAudio players are rather highly regarded in sound geek territory.

slwiser

Jun 1 2007, 13:18

iMod from Red Wine Audio at http://www.redwineaudio.com/iMod.html

Night Surfer

Jun 1 2007, 20:43

The current rankings would be something like this:

1. iMod (lineout iPod with Rockbox firmware & amp) or Kenwood HD30GB9
2. Cowon X5 or X5L
3. Zune

I can personally vouch for everything except the iMod.

stel

Jun 2 2007, 00:59

I was looking around for a DAP recently, and sound quality was at the top of my list of wants.
I short listed the TrekStor vibez (supposedly the successor to the Karma), Cowon D2 and Cowon X5L.
I spent weeks trying to decide and then finally went for the D2. The only reason why I went for the D2 is because I've had a bad experience with harddrive players so I went for a flash memory player instead.

Some good links for you -

http://www.dapreview.net/news.php
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/

naylor83

Jun 2 2007, 04:02

QUOTE(stel @ Jun 2 2007, 08:59)

I was looking around for a DAP recently, and sound quality was at the top of my list of wants.
I short listed the TrekStor vibez (supposedly the successor to the Karma), Cowon D2 and Cowon X5L.
I spent weeks trying to decide and then finally went for the D2. The only reason why I went for the D2 is because I've had a bad experience with harddrive players so I went for a flash memory player instead.

Some good links for you -

http://www.dapreview.net/news.php
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/

I got the D2 as well. It's pretty fly for a black and white guy.