www.e-stim.net

I’ve seen the post https://www.e-stim.net/viewtopic.php?p=16206#p16206 from stimaddict about his experience with the Sony Walkman and have been researching MP3 players to potentially improve my experience with stimfiles in stereo mode. Smartphones do a lot of things but playing music isn’t it’s main objective. From 1000 feet a smartphone has a tiny amount of space set aside for processing music whereas an DAP is all about producing the best possible sound in a chassis about the size of a smartphone. These DAPs come in many flavors from cheap $30 units up to astounding four figure priced units. A good mid-range DAP, like the one stimaddict found for cheap, is going to be $300-500US.

I’m no audiophile so I find listening to music on Bluetooth buds/speaker is plenty good enough for me. I do have a fairly high end smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus) running Poweramp. It seems to do a fair job of playing stimfiles that, at times, make me moan for hours in a way I’ve never done during “normal” sex. But there are times when I’m playing a stimfile while watching the equalizer and wonder if I’m missing some of the more subtle action.

Now, I’m a bit of a nerd and like to take a deep dive to find the best equipment for the job at a reasonable price point. Diving into the DAP world is a pretty deep body of water to be sure. Most products will do more than I’ll ever be able to use for my normal listening needs but I do like some of the features of the better units such as WiFi/Bluetooth support using an android based OS. The whole reason I’m even considering this purchase is to drive stimfiles to make those moans all the better so those features may be moot.

So I guess the question is...is a good mid-range DAP going to be significantly better than a cheap MP3 player and/or my smartphone? For me, cost is less important than quality of experience but there’s no way I’m going to spend $4000 for an MP3 player

Hi,
back when I first got into e-stim I used a small reasonably priced FiiO portable/rechargeable headphone amp with built in DAC direct from my iPod classic's 30 pin dock connector bypassing it's basic built in headphone output circuitry and DAC on into the audio in port on my Erostek ET-312B which definitely helped with the feel of e-stim files.

I suspect that an Android's/iPhone's/PC or a Mac's headphone outputs and DACs aren't exactly built for high quality audio and so might benefit from adding something like a dedicated headphone amp/DAC combo to boost the signal and quality of e-stim files fed into an audio triggered e-stim power box like a 2b or a 312 and others.

Oh! and I also used a software called IDFX in conjunction with the iTunes library on my windows PC to transcode MP3 files improving sound quality for music and improved feeling with audio e-stim files.

Might be worth looking into?

Thanks merry. Some good info there. I noticed in many of the audiophile reviews that the better units have amps that can power some of the more demanding headphones. The lesser mp3 players are not always up to the task.

I'll probably get a Fiio M11. It's highly rated but not crazy expensive.