Sennheiser HD-555 Audiophile Headphones List Price: $169.95 Sale Price: $97.99 Used From: $80.00 Average Rating:
	The Sennheiser HD-555 Audiophile Headphones use an internal surround reflector to generate an extended spatial sound field, making it the ideal headphone for home theater and music. Other features include Sennheiser's E...

	Denon SC-CX303 Compact Audiophile 2-way Loudspeaker List Price: $1,199.00 Sale Price: $579.00 Average Rating:
	Small in size, but expansive in sound quality, Denon’s SC-CX303 compact audiophile monitor loudspeaker system provides an incredibly smooth response that extends from the lower bass all the way to beyond the top of the audible range, and combines European speaker designer tuning with Denon’s engineering expertise...

	M-Audio Audiophile 2496 MIDI Digital Recording Interface List Price: $129.99 Sale Price: Too low to display Used From: $70.00 Average Rating:
	The Audiophile 2496 embodies a quantum leap in computer audio fidelity and performance unequaled by other audio cards in its price range. This critically acclaimed PCI card features premium digital audio converters, elegant board design, and ultra-stable drivers just like the rest of the Delta line, but with a simpler I/O configuration...

	Sennheiser HD-515 Audiophile 500 Series Headphones List Price: $129.95 Sale Price: Too low to display Average Rating:
	The HD 515 is a classic headphone and an affordable entry into the audiophile 500 series. It's perfect for listening with virtually any source. It is fitted with Sennheiser's innovative E.A.R. technology, plus special Duofol diaphragms that reduce unwanted resonances to an absolute minimum...

	Sennheiser HD650 Open-Air Dynamic Audiophile Headphone List Price: $649.95 Sale Price: Too low to display Used From: $339.00 Average Rating:
	The Sennheiser HD 650 open-air dynamic headphone is a music lover's dream: easy to wear and downright intoxicating to listen to. Sennheiser is, hands-down, the number-one name in high-quality headphones, and for good reason...

	Pioneer SE-A1000 Lightweight Audiophile AV Over-Ear Headphones (Black) List Price: $149.99 Sale Price: Too low to display Average Rating:
	SE-A1000, blackLightweight, Audiophile AV Headphone 50mm Drive Unit Maximum Input 1,500mW Sensitivity 102dB/mW Lightweight design Comfortable Cloth Ear Cushions 6.0m (18’) Fabric Jacketed cord 3.5mm mini, 6...

	M-Audio Audiophile 2496 - 4-In/4-Out Audio Card with MIDI and Digital I/O List Price: $129.95 Sale Price: $91.99 Used From: $100.00 Average Rating:
	The Audiophile 2496 embodies a quantum leap in computer audio fidelity and performance unequaled by other audio cards in its price range. This critically acclaimed PCI card features premium digital audio converters, elegant board design, and ultra-stable drivers just like the rest of the Delta line, but with a simpler I/O configuration...

	Audio Technica ATH-AD700 Open-air Dynamic Audiophile Headphones List Price: $249.95 Sale Price: Too low to display Used From: $65.99 Average Rating:
	With a lightweight honeycomb aluminum casing and magnesium frame structure, these open-air headphones produce no sense of pressure on the ears, offering a completely natural listening experience. The sound is smooth and relaxed, with deep resonating bass and vocal projection...

	Sennheiser IE 8 Premium Audiophile Noise Isolating Headphone List Price: $449.95 Sale Price: $354.00 Used From: $225.00 Average Rating:
	The Sennheiser IE 8's audio performance warrants a standing ovation. Rediscover your music collection and tailor it to your aural tastes with a tunable bass frequency response. The customized sonic signature is complemented by a unique fit thanks to the included ear adapters, ensuring perfect fit, guaranteed...

 

Audiophiles play music from phonograph records, compact discs (CDs) and from digital audio file formats that are uncompressed as well as ones that are compressed utilizing lossless data compression like FLAC, Windows Media Player LossLess and Apple lossless. Since the early 1990s, CDs have become the most common source of high-quality music, obliterating the mass market for records. Debate is sharp in this area, with analog proponents arguing that analog sound is "warmer" – has a bit of distortion which they find pleasant – and does not suffer from digital sound's alleged loss of audible information in the sampling process, while digital proponents point out that analog formats as having a smaller dynamic range, greater deviations in frequency response, and greater distortion, which lessens sound quality. Nevertheless, turntables, tonearms, and magnetic cartridges are among the most exotic and lavish high-end audio products despite the difficulties of keeping records free from dust and the delicate set-up associated with turntables. The 44.1 kHz sampling rate of the CD format, in theory, restricts CD information losses to above the theoretical upper-frequency limit of human hearing – 20 kHz, see Nyquist limit. Some believe, however, that the brick-wall filter used by CD players to remove ultrasonic noise can create audible distortion. Newer formats such as DVD-Audio and Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD), with sampling rates of 96 kHz or higher, have been developed in an attempt to address this criticism. Despite the popularity of MP3 digital-audio players, some audiophiles criticize these devices because of their reliance on lossy-data compression even though at high bit rates, the resulting files are transparent. In MP3 encoding, musical information is lost in proportion to the degree of compression. Audiophiles who use a digital-audio player will often encode their music at higher bit rates to maintain sound quality at acceptable levels for casual listening. Many digital-audio players, however, can also accept uncompressed formats such as WAV (PCM), foregoing compression in order to retain quality. Some players, including iPods, also allow lossless-data-compression algorithms, which can compress audio files without degrading their sound quality. Popular lossless formats include FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio (APE), Apple Lossless, True Audio, Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless, and Shorten. Although many digital-audio devices have integrated converters, there is a healthy demand for after-market digital-to-analog converters.