Portaphile?

As you were.

I don't have an opinion because I don't know what it is and can't find anything with google.

"Roger Russell—a former engineer and speaker designer for McIntosh Labs—details how expensive speaker wire brand marketing misinforms consumers in his online essay called Speaker Wire - A History. He writes, "The industry has now reached the point where [wire] resistance and listening quality are not the issues any more, although listening claims may still be made....The strategy in selling these products is, in part, to appeal to those who are looking to impress others with something unique and expensive."^[2]"

 

"Even with poor-quality wire, an audible degradation of sound may not exist. Many supposedly audible differences in speaker wire can be attributed to listener bias or the placebo effect. Listener bias is enhanced in no small part by the popular manufacturers' practice of making claims about their products either with no valid engineering or scientific basis, or of no real-world significance. Many manufacturers catering to audiophiles (as well as those supplying less expensive retail markets) also make unmeasurable, if poetic, claims about their wire sounding open, dynamic, or smooth. To justify these claims, many cite electrical properties such as skin effect, characteristic impedance of the cable, or resonance, which are generally little understood by consumers. None of these has any measurable effect at audio frequencies, though each matters at radio frequencies^[2]."

To me, especially when it comes to mobile listening solutions, the most important criterion is:

Does it sound really good? You know, lots of low end (if wanted), crisp treble, excellent imaging and transparency.

If the system meets these (subjective) criteria then I don't care if there are other system which - at 10x the price and 10x the hazzle - might sound even better. Plus, like I said, there's the hands-free cableless experience.

I've listened to a number of alternatives, mostly in-ear phones, but also earbuds and mid-sized Sennheiser headphones, fed through some Creative players, iPhone/iPad and an Android phone. The BH-505 sounds better than all these, and that's essentially what made me post it here. At first I was quite suspicious because of the compression that's used for the bluetooth transmission - but as I said above, it's not an issue when you use high-bitrate sources. Would it please Oliver? Doubtful - but I'm sure that the Sennheiser M-550 might do the trick - and it comes with the steep price tag that's required for audiophile acceptance.

 

 

 

Noise cancelling headphones are never going to be audiophile, though they may approach hi-fidelity with the cancelling circuit turned off. Anything that electrically modifies the signal you hear is going to have a detrimental affect on the sound. However, if that detrimental effect is noticable in the environment you are using them in, then you probably don't need noise-cancelling but a good pair of enclosed 'phones with minimum spill (ie people can't hear what you are listening to when you're wearing them) - the general idea being if sound can't spill out then background noise can't get in either.

 

I use noise-cancelling 'phones in an environment with two industrial air-conditioners and a rack of equipment with 100s of 4" fans spinning away - the n-c 'phones block out that drone while still allowing me to hear the telephone ring or the fire-alarm go off (which fully enclosed 'phones would block).

I have never owned a pair of Senn phones, looking online there are a bunch of mfg I had not heard of....and at a pretty penny too...some over US$1000.00...yikes!!!

 

Dean if the Shadow is underpowered....what other palm sized amp should I look at?