What You'll Get

This item is one Fostex HP-P1 DAC/headphone preamp combo. The package includes the preamp, a carrying bag, and a short connecting cable.

About the Fostex HP-P1

If you're reading this product description, chances are you've already taken the red pill: You can no longer just listen to low-bitrate compressed digital music files using the headphone jack in your MP3 player. You probably already own an external DAC, and you re-encoded your music files using FLAC or Apple Lossless a long time ago.

But even if you don't yet know how deep the rabbit hole goes, even if this is your first foray into expensive audio gear and expanded tone, the HP-P1 is a great place to start. Fostex has really outdone themselves with this little unit. It's super-portable (in the video posted on our website, you can see it easily strapped to an iPod), it's easy to use, and it's full of great tone.

The most appealing fact about the Fostex HP-P1 is that it combines an external DAC and a headphone preamp, all with its own rechargeable battery power. There are a number of external DACs around—we sell quite a whole lot of them—but only a few are designed to play well with iPods. And virtually none of those have their own battery power. And even though many of those units are really good at what they do, I have yet to run across anything besides this Fostex that also has a built-in headphone preamp to boot. Since most people listening to portable audio are doing so through headphones, that makes the HP-P1 the obvious choice.

As I've said when describing other gear from this manufacturer, the Fostex folks could have just thrown together a cheap DAC, added a little voltage for a headphone preamp, charged a lot less than $649, and called it a day. Instead they have gone all-out with this device, squeezing in a first-rate DAC and headphone preamp, all in a usable and portable box.

I recognize that this is an expensive unit. But if you're looking for the best possible portable audio from your iPod or iPhone, you really can't do any better than this.

About Shoreline Music

Shoreline was the world's original online music store—we're even older than eBay, where you're reading this description. We ship over 40,000 orders a year, and we've been doing this for over 17 years, so we know how to get your order to you quickly with a minimum of hassle.