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Battery consumption is definitely an issue. Sound quality should be very good with the headroom amps. They have a very high incoming impedance--so those lousy op amps aren't really doing anything--sure they do degrade a little bit, but let's face it the CD transport is not exactly high end either. I wouldn't worry about the sound degredation from going through the board amps.

I do quite a bit of travelling, and music while travelling (good quality) is very important to me. I use the Etomatic ER-4S headphones, the Airhead amplifier (the special edition) and recently purchased a PJB-100, which is an MP-3 jukebox with 6.4 gigs of hard disk storage. Headroom recommended this MP-3 player--and they weren't even selling it. I've gotten good advice from them before so I bought it. I love it. The sound is better than most portable CD players and I can store about 70 CDs and a high bit rate that preserves good sound quality. Also, I can't say enough about the ER-4S headphones. They reduce noise by 22-25 dB. On a plane--that is great. Well happy listening--hope it makes the travel go easier.

when i can get one-o-dem dsl compootah links (not yet awailable in our area), i will consider gettin a compootah yust for hookin' up to the stereo, so i can listen to wrnr in annapolis...

doug s.

I've been kind of disappointed that this forum hasn't generated more interest as well. I think there's quite a bit of sentiment that "good sound" and "PC" don't go together, quite possibly for good reason

I did, however, come across a cool looking product that merges computers and good sound. Made by Lansonic, it basically is a file server / decoder with "audiophile-quality" A/V interfaces. It connects to an NT-based network using ethernet, and supports a browser-based control program. It has a hard drive, but can access any drive on the network. You can have multiple copies on the network. All of which adds up to having your music library in one place, listenable on any system in your house and controllable from any computer on the network. Full juke-box-like functionality.

Of course, it's still basically version 1.0 and it's still pretty expensive ($700-$2000 depending on HD size), and HD sizes still pretty much prohibit exact copies of what's on the CD if you have much of a music collection. It's still going to be a stretch to get audiophiles to buy into this concept. But the idea is something I've been waiting to see arrive for a couple years now, and in a couple more it should be everywhere. -Kirk

If what you want to do is listen to MP3s or CDs with a laptop computer on trips, consider this alternative before you spend a lot of money on a headphone amp and audiophile headphones. Buy yourself a pair of Sennheiser m@h80 headphones online from J&R Music World or a similar vendor, for $40 to $50. Sennheiser designed these specifically to be used with laptops or desktop PCs, as opposed to high-end sound systems. While more substantial and offering much better sound quality than Walkman-type headphones, they are lighter, much more comfortable to wear for prolonged periods, and more portable than audiophile-quality headphones. Maybe not the ultimate headphone, but great for the price, eminently practical as something to take on trips, and relatively inexpensive so you won't worry too much about the risk of loss or damage while traveling. I
bought my son a pair of them to go with his laptop computer when he went off to college, and he is very happy with them. He even took them off long enough to let me listen to them, briefly. They sounded great, and they were very comfortable. If you buy them and don't agree, you're not out a lot of money, and you can try something else without feeling investment-bound to stick with your first purchase.