Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: sxr7171
As for sound quality, anyone who is a real audiophile (the term seems be used nowadays to describe people who suddenly chanced upon a pair of Bose headphones or think that more bass and treble amounts to better sound quality) would have read the "Stereophile" article a while back that shows the iPod's digital audio performance to rival CD players costing thousands of dollars. I even saw the graphs for Jitter, IM distortion, and a few other parameters that Stereophile goes through with every review of a digital product and was impressed (as was the editor and technical reviewer John Atkinson of Stereophile). The line-out performance from an iPod is unbeatable for its size and price. Even for headphone use, Apple lossless + Etymotic ER-4p + Flat equalizer makes an excellent combo.
A real audiophile appreciates a neutral sound that truly brings out the music and not some sort of bass enhanced garbage that the other players use to impress the uneducated consumer with "lots of bass." Most high end audiophile equipment DOES NOT have tone controls leave alone an equalizer. When you pair a good quality source with a good quality pair of headphones (a good headphone amp can be useful but not always practical), you don't need to mess with equalization. There are times when more bass can be fun (not realistic but fun) and so you can use the bass boost feature on the iPod to achieve that. I do it sometimes, but I get sick of it eventually because it sounds so unnatural to have boosted bass.
It is your choice to like bass boosted stuff, but don't quote some self proclaimed "audiophile" to say that such equipment has better "quality" sound. Look up the definition of the word "fidelity" and see why people don't know what "High-Fidelity" is.
It may be hard for you to believe that such a high-fashion trendoid product actually has solid technical merits, but it is true. I couldn't believe it myself, but I saw the Stereophile review and have heard the iPod. Maybe a tech geek might prefer another player for more options in terms of formats or customizability or whatever, but for an audiophile the iPod still reigns supreme. So know what you need in a player and choose accordingly. To say the iPod has poor sound is just wrong, it has other deficits but sound quality is not one of them (the fact that every Tom, Dick and Harry has one is). The best analogy I can come up with for now is that people hate BMW and the types of people who buy BMWs, because they are perceived as shallow, trendoid idiots who blindly follow anything. Sadly, probably 80% of BMW owners are such. However the car itself is still beautifully engineered and well crafted regardless of the shallow idiots who tend to buy it. Such is life sometimes.
Iirc Stereophile's review was of the ipod's line-out performance; this is an entirely different ball game. The ipod's headphone jack, cheap to save money (which is better spent on advertising), is to blame for its low sound quality. The reason many audiophiles have no problem with it is they use the line out -> amp -> speakers/headphones. Through the headphone jack, it has 0.42% THD - over 4 times the generally accepted audible threshold of 0.1% (iRiver's h320 measures in at 0.04%). The problem is that a line-out has very limited use on a
portable player, which is meant to be listened to via the headphone jack, and is by likely 99% of users.
As I mentioned (and you ignored, going off on a basshead tirade), the ipod also attenuates bass to save on battery life. It's the opposite of a "basshead" player in that it has too little bass - but its reproduction is just as inaccurate. I prefer neutral sound, thank you very much...
The players of choice for audiophiles are the Rio Karma and 30gb Nomad Jukebox, not the ipod.
Btw I think BMWs are beautiful cars and that only a shallow idiot would so much as begin to form conclusions about the personality of someone who drives one
Originally posted by: jessieqwert
I figure I have a pretty unique case so here goes:
I got my 4thG 40GB iPod for free with one of those online deals. I really enjoy it but I'm also really glad I didn't pay for it. I like to call it a hard drive with a screen strapped on it. The interface is not great and iTunes flat out sucks compared to other Media players. I would say get it heavily discounted or else look at another brand.
:thumbsup:, at that price you can't go wrong