I am hoping that some of you "audiophile purists" will give this thread a chance before you reply, and I am sure there are going to be some replies...good and not so good......
I am a "audiophile" I suppose.........I do enjoy listening to music as best as it can be repropduced (at least as much as my pocket book and my techincal ability will let me...........).
My choices in a recorded music source are (in this order)....vinyl, SACD (have not had a chance to listen to DVDA yet), CD......and lastly my IPOD...........
I recently purchased a IPOD simply for listening to music while being "out of the house".....in my car/truck, sitting around at a classic car show in the summer, etc....you get the picture...........
I also DJ at classic car shows during the summer and I use a laptop using 320kbps MP3 muisc files......(it does not sound to bad either...I use JBL speakers, crown amp.....works pretty well), anyway.........
After I purchased the IPOD (a Classic Video 80GB), I did some reading up on it (actually bought a book on it.....) and learned alot and was impressed what all it does but the only reason I got it was to hopefully that it would work out well enough that it would take the place of carrying CD's around.....
Well anyway I was able to copy all the MP3 files from my laptop into my IPOD...........and after editing out all the stuph I did not want on the IPOD I wound up with about 1800 songs.......sort of like my best of everything that I like to listen to......
So I started listening to it and it was ok but was not really happy with the way it sounded........so I started checking out different brands & models of head and ear phones.........bought a set of Shure ear-buds, sounded pretty nice but it amplified all the noises in my head........breathing, eating, talking, etc.....and that really sucked and took away from the music...they sure are not very comfortable either, kept falling out, anyway..........so I continued the search and what I wound up with is a set of Audio Techinca ATH-EW9's......boy what a difference.........sure sound nice..........in the mean time I had bought and installed IPOD interfaces for our (wife & I) cars & trucks ....I even installed one in my 1972 442...and they are sounding very good also........sure beats carrying around all theose cd's......so anyway yesterday I did a comparision of a 320kbps MP3 file and a wav file (same artist & title..same track ..same redbook cd) and using the Audio Techinca ear phones I was able to tell the difference and the wav file did sound better, a little more depth, bass notes sound better all around certain passages were a little smoother sounding.....sounded very nice...I was impressed.....so I figured out that it would take about 69GB to have around 2300 songs on my IPOD in wav format (thats about all the songs I would need for what I am going to use it for)......
So basically what I am driving at here is that a MP3 player does have it's uses and can sound very good (takes alot of disc space though).....so if your into the quality of sound rather then the quanity of sound, the right MP3 player does have it's uses and can be very enjoyable and sound pretty good............:thmbsp:

Would not know about music as I only use a MP3 player for old time radio programs. I did try an iPod with some music and compared it to my PPC6700 and the 6700 sounded better so as a backup to the MP3 player, if I vant music or video, I can just use my telephone with a card. The 30 gig iPod might be interesting if I push more into the classic television shows and such as it has the storage capacity.

I am hoping that some of you "audiophile purists" will give this thread a chance before you reply, and I am sure there are going to be some replies...good and not so good......

Why the apology in advance?

I have a 60gig Toshiba Gigabeat and all of my music is either Window Media Lossless or, for my favorites, wav format. It is almost full, and cannot hold all of my music this way, but it works very well, for it's intended purpose as a portable media source. With my Sennheiser 'phones, it sounds pretty damn good. I paid far less then retail by buying it used, though I will need to purchase a new internal battery for it soon.

You might be suprised at the large number of AK'ers who use iPod's and MP3 players while on the go. I can't make a sweeping generalization, but lot's of people here embrace all things audio, old, new and so on.....

I've been slowly converting my entire music library to Apple Lossless format, both to archive it and to listen to it on my ipod. Also, since I don't have a very high quality cd player or soundcard for my pc and because it's so much more convenient than using cds, I use a direct connection from my ipod's dock hookup to the RCA inputs on my amp when I want to listen to something from my digital connection. The overall sound quality is very good as far as my ears are concerned when going this route. Basically, my ipod provides a massive amount of utility and I appreciate that.

Songs encoded in AAC are smaller than Apple Lossless and also sounds very good. Even 128kbps AAC sound better than many 192/256/or 320kbps mp3s.

Extended highs on my Kappas instead of a gently hissing high tweeter. AAC at 256kbps or 320kbps should be very good, and at a much smaller size than .wav

Test out the other encoding options and see what you like besides mp3 and wav.

I have an iPod...and like yourself was not impressed with the earbuds that came with it. The first thing I did was buy a set of bose in ear headphones as I spend a fair chunk of time travelling. What disappointed me the most though, was the sound reproduction of the iPod when playing MP3's....so being the tinkerer that I am, I found an application that allows me to dual boot my iPod. It's called rockbox. There are far too many controls in terms of tweaking the sound that I could ever use, but the eq and tone controls are quite good. The interface itself is not as user friendly as the iPod and creating play lists really is a hassle. What I will say though, and why rockbox is the only app that I use to play music with my iPod is that it allows me to play FLAC (lossless). Hooked up to my stereo it sounds very nice, but the primary use is still for travelling.
I still need the apple OS running on the iPod as rockbox does not as of yet (I haven't looked in a month so that may have changed), have an app to play movies.
my 2 cents

I own one plus my wifes Nano. Neither work for me mostly because they're too big and not rugged enough. I use a 3 yr old plastic MP3 player playing at 320 and an adjustable eq with removable 1GB cards and decent shure earbuds. It survives mountain climbing/hiking in 110 + degree weather, rain, Hawaii, and even some limited dog chewing.
It gets me into the "pretty damn good sounding" range which is fine for outdoor stuff. When it finally dies, I'll toss it and buy another for less than $100 bucks.

If an IPOD does what you want it to do, more power to you.

iPods can be a decent, uber-convenient source with a good hi-fi.

I've never felt the convenience of the Ipod compromised the sonic quality to a point I couldn't stand listening to it as a viable audio source on my retro gear. It's actually a great [ not to mention compact ] way to test inputs on components before buying them. Grab your Ipod, a RCA Y-cord, your earbuds, and go!

I guess I'm still one that just doesn't have to have music with me all of the time for every activity so I don't own one. For the masses that feel they have to have tunes at all times, they're perfect. I'd rather have the sit down music time or have music on in the house while working, etc. The same goes with music servers, video servers, etc. They are all a personal thing...and I'm even in the CE industry!

I used Ipods at work because we were not allowed radios.
Ipods are also great for traveling.
They certainly sound better than those little MIJ 6 transistor radio's I had as a 60's kid!

Steve

I bought mine primarily to listen to when flying on commercial flights, waiting at the airport and so on.

Pretty handy when traveling in the car, as opposed to carrying CDs.

Occasionally gets use at the Outlet Mall, while warming up a bench as the wife shops. :rolleyes:

I have been using an iPod for probably 5 years. Have always ripped my CDs to the iPod in WAV format (uncompressed). Through Shure e5C in ear monitors, the iPod sounds great. Wadia is coming out with an iPod docking station that extracts a digital signal for decoding by an external DAC or your A/V receiver. This should be an excellent audiophile alternative for premium sound from an iPod. Today I use iTunes on a PC transmitting wirelessly to an Airport Express which outputs an optical digital signal to my Denon AVR 5800 receiver for decoding. This too sounds very good. I think an iPod or iTunes on a PC as a music server is an excellent option as long as you can get a digital signal out of either unit to be decoded by a higher quality digital to analog converter than exists either in the iPod or most PC soundcards.

Regards,
BmWr75

I have an iPod that I use only for working out. I don't typically take it on trips just because I don't have noise cancelling headphones, and you have to jack the volume way up in order to hear it on the plane, so I read stereophile or sound and vision instead. I too have (my iMac harddrive crashed last week and I lost all my music on there) / will have to re encode all my cd's to apple lossless format. I use the SPDIF digital out on my airport express to my Marantz SR8000, or an RCA Y adapter to my older Marantz 2238B for casual listening. Sounds great to me and it nice to press the shuffle button and let it go. Nothing wrong with enjoying the convience when you can't be at home with the hi-fi.

I have had an iPod since Gen2. I had to add a firewire card to even get it to work. iTunes was only available on Mac, so I had to use a program called Ephpod to get it to work with my XP machine. I also have had other assorted players for different functions. I mainly use my mp3 players at work with my Sangean WR-1 radio (aux input).

I got an iPod touch for Christmas and I really like the new features. The web interface really comes in handy for controlling my Roku M1000-B using the Slimserver web interface. It will also control my receiver, so I can turn it up and down without needing another "remote". Surfing the web is also pretty cool. I have transcoded all of my FLAC files to Apple Lossless and it sounds pretty good through my Grado headphones (and PA2V2 headphone amp) or Ety-ER4Ps when I need isolation. :thmbsp:

I put music on my friends iPod in .wav format when I borrowed it, it wasn't bad. The MP3s he had on there were 128k I think and sounded really bad. Keep in mind, I was running the iPod into a portable headphone amp and Grado SR-225 headphones. 128k MP3s might be fine with earbuds or the like...

Before all my headphone gear was stolen my portable source was a Walkman portable CD player, I can't remember the model but it was an older one, and got really good reviews and sold for rediculous sums on eBay, probably still does. It sounded better than the iPod to me, but certainly wasn't as portable as an iPod and earbuds.

I have a pretty nice sounding Ipod system. When I use it portable, I use my Etymotic ER-4P Earbud headphones. I have those plugged into probably the best portable headphone amp made, a SR-71 from Ray Samuels http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/905ray/ I don't use the headphone jack on the Ipod. I use an adapter that lets me get line output from the bottom of the Ipod http://www.sendstation.com/us/products/pocketdock/av.html The whole thing fits on a small case that clips on my belt. It's a little bulky, but the fantastic sound it produces more than makes up for it.

The ER-4P earpud headphones stick into your ear canals and it takes a couple of days to get used to wearing them, but the nice thing is you can be sitting next to somebody, have the volume cranked up as high as you can stand it, and the person next to you can't hear what your listening to. They also block out any noise coming your way. I can mow the lawn and not even hear the lawn mower.

At home I use a pair of Sennheiser HD-650's plugged into the SR-71 headphone amp. It doesn't get much better than that. When the wife is not home, I turn off the speakers on my home stereo, put the HD-650's on and leave only the subwoofer on. That way I can really feel the bass and still have excellent sound through the headphones.

I also have a Slimbox hooked up to the computer, and that sends all my lossless music over to the big stereo.

Their good for background music. If I'm doing stuff around the house I'll put it on shuffle and play it for hours while I'm busy...

I have never been able to find a use for an Ipod. Nothing against them or those who use them, I just don't have a use for them. I am either at home or in the car. At home I have my records and my hi-fi, in the car I have XM. I ride a bicycle in warmer months on some nice trails around here, but I like to hear the sounds of nature. I hate it when I see someone with headphones or earbuds on in a social situation as it is very anti-social behaviour.

I like my Ipod. Very small, stores some 80 cd's, easy to use and decent sounding to say the least. When I'm working out or have to travel by plane it's the ideal audio solution. In the end, my full blown audio system sounds better, but hey... don't think I'll be able to get a pair of Apogees, pre- and (big) poweramp and a two-box cd player in the plane... ;)

I use my iPod for mainly running around.

Dont own one, but when a friend of mine came to the house were were able to hook it up to my system. Too much loss of detail for me, but for a portable system not too bad.

I've got a couple. I have a mix of tracks on mine, stuff from the iTunes store, tracks ripped from CD's, and tracks I've converted from LP's.

I agree with you on the headphones, I've got an earbud Sony headphone with noise cancellation and it makes all the difference.

I use the classic iPod in a sound dock when I'm traveling (it also makes for a convenient backup drive for the laptop), and I use a Nano for running (no hard drive). I play either of them through my vintage gear, and I'm pretty happy with the results all around.

bs

Yes, I have just been reading about the Wadia 170I this past week......it gives one access to the "raw" digital signal coming out of the IPOD so you can by-pass the IPOD's cheap inter DAC.....but.........you still have to run the digital signal through some sort of external DAC but the reports/reviews have been very good..........thinking seriously about getting one........:music:

I won't give up my CD's in the home and car without a fight. But I own an mp3 player because I am in a rock band and it's easy to take music that the band is going to learn to play over to rehearsals for all members to hear.

Also, the mp3 player can be plugged into the PA and used as background music for gigs during our set breaks! Much easier than carrying a CD player and CD's to gigs.
Brian

I use mine mainly at work, and encode at 192 (not great if you want to play that back on a nice audio system).

Imho, they serve a purpose. I wear it constantly at work, in office or driving around; and if I get off my butt and go for a walk I tend to bring it along.

It's mainly a supplement, and not a substitute for purist audio gear.

I've heard of people doing lossless encodes and using the Wadia unit and having very nice results, but I thought most lossless encodes still tend to be about half of what a CD is (unless it's .wav).

Having said that, our ears can only handle so much information, especially as we age, unless we're The Six Million Dollar Man (or Woman). :D

I use the stock headphones, which aren't great; admittedly.

I tried the Etymotics and liked them; but I have to hear people at work and wearing them just isn't gonna work in that environment, without having to take them out every time I'm near anyone. ;) Not everyone can adjust to those. I did reasonably well, but I really can't get away with that at work, as I can't completely isolate myself.

I have had an Ipod or actually a Toshiba for 6yrs. Finally died, bought an Ipod 60GB and I use it in the truck or car and on planes,in airports. Works for portable but if I`m out in the woods I want to hear the woods and nature whether hiking or biking.

I just upgraded to the Classic 80 GB iPod - from 4th gen 20 GB. I ripped all my CD's lossless nd iTunes is part of my home music server. I use a Roku with digital out to Entech 205.3 and you can not tell difference compared to CD direct from my Denon CDP.

For traveling I use my iPod with Shure 5 inner ear HP's. Sounds great right out of iPod but I also use C&C Box+ portable HP Amp when I can. This later set up will satsfy the staunchest of audiophiles. :D Lossless files are major part of the quality puzzle.

the headphones that come with ipods are sucky little pieces of crap, for sure. I found some Sony and XtremeMac buds I like and interchange for my own amusement. I find 320kbps mp3s to be fine since the buds are not exactly heavy resolvers.

The thing about these portable players is the myriad uses. I just ordered a Sansa Connect that will let me store music of course, but also buy songs online if I'm feeling desperate (not sure if I will do that) but, added bonus, listen to the ever-growing list of interesting streaming audio services. The sound quality might not be great, but when all you want is the Pacific regional news from Radio New Zealand, sq is not that big of a deal. it's the adventure. As a Walkman junkie from way back, I find it very satisfying to get that kinda stuff over a handheld device.

Oh come on, who are you kidding. iPods are great for on the go but when it comes to serious listening at home on your favorite audio gear a iPod connected to vintage gear don't mix, at least with me. I don't like compress digital audio.:smoke:



iPods can be a decent, uber-convenient source with a good hi-fi.

I'm also thinking about entering the world of the ipod. Certainly not as a replacement for cd's or records on my home set ups. It sure would be nice though to bring it along camping or boating instead of all those cd's. Can't beat the convienence part of them.

A: I wouldn't give a hoot what a so called "audiophile" thinks about anything.

B: I wouldn't own an iPod anymore than I would own an iMac, iPhone or any other iFreekin thing those crooks make!

Yeah, Iknow. I'm highly opinionated on the subject. I comes from my experience with Apple products. I spent big money to buy my daughter an iPod when they first came out and the "permanent" battery died after 6 months. (it started going bad in 1 month). We contacted Apple only to be told it was not under warranty and that the battery was not replaceable. After throwing the worthless thing in the garbage we find out that there are third party vendors selling the battery and that the iPod is easily pried open to replace it!
Much later, someone gave my daughter another dead iPod so I ordered a battery for it and put it in. It was a piece of cake!
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'm done with Apple!!!

"I'm a PC and I'm doing just fine, so bite me!" :D

i've always been very happy with the sound quality of my iPod, or direct from iTunes to the receiver. my equipment is not TOTL, so i doubt i'd be able to notice any difference between CD or iTunes formats with my equipment. i do notice a difference in the compression formats and WAV or AIF would definitely reduce loss, in bits. The trade-off is a 10MB file vs a 3MB for for a 3 minute song. All depends on your priorities.

As for the comment above regarding Apple products, I wholeheartedly disagree. I grew up on Macs and now use an iBook, iMac & iPhone in my daily life. WAY better *in my opinion* than any PC product I've owned. And I can still run Windoze faster on my iMac than on my 2GHz PC laptop.

I think we can all agree however, that the earbuds that Apple provides with the iPod are complete crap!

I have no issues regarding using iPods. In fact, I have ripped all of my CDs to a network storage drive so I can listen to all of my music (CDs anyway) from anywhere in the house through a pc. I also use my iPhone to listen to my music in my car, along with any of several Internet radio sources. It sounds great, but I still play my records whenever I can.

Yeah, Iknow. I'm highly opinionated on the subject.
:D

Gee ya think :scratch2:

For all the iPod bashers - you miss the point when you diss it cause of compressed files. Owner has choice of compression or no compression - lossless. Lossless just removes the non-music data from the CD. My lossless files are typically 20-30 MB compared to 1-2 for downloaded compressed song.

The iPod has a very decent DAC for portable listening. It's not the best and it's not the best op amp. But - if all you are doing is using it as a storage device/format for your audiophile system there's nothing to diss.

I have an iMac. In 2 years no virus, spyware - nothing. And I can go to the "genius" bar at the local Apple store for help when I need it - for free.

Pisses me off when folks trash something out of ignorance or a one time bad experience with one item from a company. I'm not an Apple groupy for sure. But they don't deserve the bashing that's going on here. :no:

Pisses me off when folks trash something out of ignorance or a one time bad experience with one item from a company. I'm not an Apple groupy for sure. But they don't deserve the bashing that's going on here. :no:

I agree. Especially when the original experience is one of ignorance to begin with.

I love my ipod, the only problem is that I need a bigger one. I started with an iPod Mini that had the battery issue but Mac replaced it at no charge to me. I now have a 30gb classic and really need more space.

I also love my Mac Mini. Great music source, works wonderfully as a web surfing, emailing, document editing machine with a tiny footprint, zero fan noise, and a snap to maintain.

In my experience, all broad-sweeping generalizations are WRONG!

Some folks just get a bit hot under collar over something that has happened to them. In general I don't see much Apple Bashing here? To each there own :)

But, before I jump into the iTunes and iPod worlds, I need to know a LOT more. It is a major switch from cassette and CD. My cars all still have cassette's. In the case of the Beemer, that's a Nakamichi 350z. I'm still trying to get the most out of 20~40 year old technology.

I don't have anything against iPods and the related technologies. I think Apple has done a great thing with iTunes. The first major player to really break the stranglehold of the RIAA - yeah :)

I am very interested in buying good quality music as digital files for ~$1 a pop. I don't want all the stuff on a CD most of the time. I want to cherry pick. BUT, I'm not quite there yet. I need a good primer on iPod/iTunes technology. Since I'm starting from ground zero, I have a chance to make this pretty seamless. How about some tips and tricks?

My music machine is a Win2000 Pro server MB based system. I run Win2K because of software compatibility issues. The cost of new copy of AutoCAD or GIS outstrips all the costs of the hardware (many, many $K's). I'm not going the Mac route anytime soon for the same reasons. Sound card is an M-Audio 24/96. Music software (editing) is Diamond Cut 6. Piped to the Pioneer SA-8800 and then onto other devices as needed. Sources so far are LPs and CDs along with the odd tune from a DVD movie or so. So this thread and comments are very timely - thanks :)

Before you buy an Ipod take a look at the Cowon D2. The digital amp in the Cowon is more powerful than the Ipod, and it plays flac, ape, shn, mp3, wav, and a couple other codecs. It is just as portable as an Ipod, and its use of flac is very convenient when hooking up to a home stereo. Also, it takes all sd cards. Very convenient. Yes, it plays video too (and the screen is better than the Ipod). Cheaper also! A magnificient portable for the knowing audiophile. Matching a Cowon with a Grado headphone is sheer delight. Walking around town with a Koss KSC75 is sheer bliss.

My music machine is a Win2000 Pro server MB based system. I run Win2K because of software compatibility issues. The cost of new copy of AutoCAD or GIS outstrips all the costs of the hardware (many, many $K's). I'm not going the Mac route anytime soon for the same reasons.

Get Parallels 4.0 and run any OS you want on an Intel based Mac. I use XP because it works relatively well and has far fewer issues than Vista. I also run Architectural Desktop 3.3 (older AutoCAD version) for the same cost reasons. Runs faster and more reliably on my iMac with Parallels than on the aforementioned laptop. Definitely worth a try. The best of both worlds.

I agree. Especially when the original experience is one of ignorance to begin with.


In my experience, all broad-sweeping generalizations are WRONG!

I agree that my original experience was one of ignorance. Ignorance caused by believing what the fine folks at Apple told me!

As far as "all broad-sweeping generalizations" being wrong...that's a broad-sweeping generalization!

I'm not knocking Apple's other products, or even the current generation of iPods. I'm just relating my experience and making a choice not to do business with liars again.

If the question were about the use of digital music files and portable players I would say that the convenience is worth whatever loss, if any, there is in sound quality. I do most of my listening with a Squeezebox playing FLAC files from my PC.

I think iPods are GREAT for what they are, a portable source for listening to music!

Purists may or may not like them. I love music and have since I was a kid, and I've owned lots of decent equipment over the years, as much as my budget allowed like many others here. I've got 1500 CDs in the racks and probably that much vinyl in storage (can anyone say collecting obsessive?). I'm a computer geek as well and have found some music on the net over the years which I simply will NOT find anywhere else. Yes, the mp3 format isn't vinyl, but it's convenient and a damn sight better than nothing when you are away from your toys!

If anything, my iPod use has inspired me to rekindle my love for audio equipment and music. I go to the gym three times a week and yes, there are a few okay portable stereos set up there, but it seems as if the music coming through them is either twang bad oldies from the 60's or today's uber hard rock and rap amalgamation. Having a device through which I can hear my own favorite stuff unhindered makes for MUCH better workouts and more enjoyment of my time there.

I think we can all agree however, that the earbuds that Apple provides with the iPod are complete crap!

Hooking the iPod to a set of good headphones helps a bunch :)....I wear a set of Sony over the ears when I go to the gym, but I have hooked my Sennheisers to the iPod and they sound pretty decent. At some point I'm going to buy a portable amp to boost the volume but I'm not going to go hog wild here. Lots of people do, but my iPod is for functionality more than on the go audio bliss :)....... to be honest, it doesn't sound that bad as is.

I'm not an Apple apologist or fanboy, just a satisfied customer. iPod's dirty little battery secret was bad, but old news. The problem was rectified. Since the bad old 3G days there's been 4G, 5G, 5.5G, Classic, Nano, Mini, Shuffle, and 1st and 2nd gen iPod Touchs. And just about every susbsequent generation has had more capacity, features than it's predecessor and has been priced about $100 less too. If Chevy offered this years 500 hp Z06 $10,000 cheaper than last year's 400 hp base model would anybody be bitching about what a slow POS the '75 vette was? I don't think so.

I bought a $500 3G and returned it for the 4G when it came out a week later. It had the click wheel, 1.5x battery life and was $100 cheaper. Even after 10% restock fee I was way better off. 15 months later it had 3 successive HD crashes over 6 months. I called Apple and asked for escalation. I explained I would be out of warranty if it happened again in 3 months. They reviewed my case history in 5 minutes and said there was a problem. The 4G/40gb was out of production so they'd have to give me a 5G/60gb and asked if I wanted black or white. The freebee was also eligible for Applecare upto a year later. I outgrew the 60gb about the same time my daughter outgrew her mini. So I upgraded to a 5.5G/80gb. I have 10,500 out of 19,000 songs on it, use smart playlists to keep it all fresh, and use it everyday at work and in both cars with hardwired interfaces.

My library is mostly 192 kbps with some at 256. For me the attaraction is having 10,000 songs in my pocket. The sound quality with Etymotic ER6i buds is excellent for portable. For those that trash the pack-in ear buds, nobody has ever been able to beat them at the $30 price point. I stream music at home from my iMac (1st one bought last April) to two systems with Airtunes using Airport Extreme boxes. As an added bonus a free app called "Remote" on my wifes iPod Touch allows me full control of iTunes anywhere in my house or yard. Nobody out there offers this level of integration and performance. Too bad, imagine what they'd do if they had any real competition.

Oh yeah, those lie'n, cheating, english speakin' bastards at Apple sent me a prepaid overnight DHL mailer the next day for each of those 3 returns and had me a shiney new one within 5 business days. Bastards one and all I tell ya.

I'm 49 years old. When I was a teenager I can remember trying to hook up some kind of rig to carry my 'portable' cassette recorder/player with me when I would go on bike rides. They sounded like crap and it wasn't exactly music on the go, lemme tell ya.

Now? Now I carry a two inch iPod that can hold thousands of songs to hear whenever I want. The iPod isn't perfect, for sure. I've done my share of resetting the thing both via hardware and software, as well as my son's. My 1stG iPod developed a problem with the lock switch...but only after I gave it to my 16 year old. I don't like the supplied earbuds either, and swapped them out as soon as I got mine.


Despite these things, its just way too convenient for me to talk badly about.
We both have 3G now, and I picked them both up in great condition at pawn shops...... they show up there alot and for cheap. If you're looking for a unit that isn't the TOTL iPod then you can find 'em pretty easily. Something you new buyers might want to look into......

iPod's dirty little battery secret was bad, but old news. The problem was rectified.

Was it? I was never offered anything at all, just told to my face (well, over the phone) that the battery was not covered under warranty and that indeed it was not possible to replace it.
I guess it is old news but if your experience had been more like mine how many Apple products would you have bought since? That's how many I have!

At least nobody blasted me for saying I don't care what an audiophile thinks.

Portable cassette, heck. I remember my pride and joy. A battery operated 3" reel to reel with the rim drive with enough wow to get you seasick. But I was the only kid with one and I had a pocket full of reels with favorite songs in one pocket and in the other pounds of batteries. I remember years later lusting after a Nagra when others were walking around with their Walkmans.

Portable cassette, heck. I remember my pride and joy. A battery operated 3" reel to reel with the rim drive with enough wow to get you seasick. But I was the only kid with one and I had a pocket full of reels with favorite songs in one pocket and in the other pounds of batteries. I remember years later lusting after a Nagra when others were walking around with their Walkmans.

I had one of those mini reel-to-reels when I was a kid. Not for music - to play James Bond :D

Not James Bond for me but Mission Impossible. Never could get the tapes to self-destruct as they did in MI, they'd just start throwing tape all over as the take up reel had a fit.

Was it? I was never offered anything at all, just told to my face (well, over the phone) that the battery was not covered under warranty and that indeed it was not possible to replace it.
I guess it is old news but if your experience had been more like mine how many Apple products would you have bought since? That's how many I have!

At least nobody blasted me for saying I don't care what an audiophile thinks.

I heard about the Dirty Little Secret blog and researched it on the internet right before I decided to take my chances anyway. If I remember correctly they did institute a battery replacement program. Even if they were aware of any aftermarket solutions they probably have a legal department that wouldn't let them tell you about it. Or maybe you just got a doofus on the phone. Wherever I don't like what a CS rep tells me i always try again. If that doesn't work ask for "escalation". It doesn't sound as in your face as let me talk to your supervisor.

I actually enjoy my Ipod very much, its pretty much the only other source I listen to besides Vinyl. They are very convenient for using in the car and on the go, it was very useful doing some Christmas shopping!

But, before I jump into the iTunes and iPod worlds, I need to know a LOT more. I am very interested in buying good quality music as digital files for ~$1 a pop. I don't want all the stuff on a CD most of the time. I want to cherry pick. BUT, I'm not quite there yet. I need a good primer on iPod/iTunes technology. Since I'm starting from ground zero, I have a chance to make this pretty seamless. How about some tips and tricks?
OK here's 4:
Although it's been diluted since the iPhone, http://www.ilounge.com has some excellent downloadable guides to all things iTunes and iPods.

Experiment with bit rates before you rip all those CDs. I ripped 900 CDs in the default 128 kbps and didn't like the sound quality when I upgraded ear buds. I (actually my wife) had to go back and re-rip everything at 192 VBR.

AmazonMP3.com is a good source for $1 songs at 256 kbps and there's a utility that will place them in either your iTunes or WMP library.

If you ever want to go all out with a modded iPod check out www.redwineaudio.com/iMod.html before you buy. According to them, 4th, 5th and 5.5th gen iPods have the best DACs. This would be pre-iPod Classic. So you may want to pick up a 5.5G/80gb which happens to be what I have.

When riding the subway/El train in Chicago, the iPod is a lifesaver. I'm often having to move around too much to read, and the little earbuds in your ears are a great way to avoid having to talk to crazy people, which chicago's transit system seems to specialize in.

Those who bash the iPod and mp3s in general because of how bad they sound are missing the point. I love music, and the iPod lets me take an ok sounding version of my music with me wherever I go. It's about portability. Do I play mp3s at home? Nope...they sound terrible on my home system(s). But that's why I also have a huge CD and LP collection. You don't have to throw out one to have the other. But it's really hard to play an LP on the train.

The iPod is permanently tethered to my stereo and plays music every day: Music from its own hard drive, serving music stored on other hard drives on my LAN, and streaming Internet audio. It complements my other sources perfectly. :music:

126274

I offer no apologies to anybody - end of story. :yes:

I use my Ipod at work. The convenience of being able to bring all my music with me is awesome. God forbid I would have to listen to the radio.

I learned my lesson back in the late '80's about proprietary rechargeable batteries via the Sony Discman.

I learned my lesson back in the late '80's about proprietary rechargeable batteries via the Sony Discman.

So did I. My D-4 had one. When I bought my D-66, I was relieved to know that SONY included a battery adapter option that took standard AAs.

Today I use a vanilla off-brand MP3 player that also plays WMA. It's powered by a single AA. And I use rechargeable NiMH cells. 1Gig native and expandable with an SD card. I don't need much since I don't watch movies on the go, so a large capacity HD-based portable isn't necessary.

320Kb/s gives me the compromise I desire between quality and file space and on the go with my Vmoda earbuds, the sound is more than passable and pretty darn good to me. Even though I know how this stuff works, I'm still amazed that we're able to enjoy recorded music of decent quality with no moving parts in machines smaller than a Zippo! ( comes from growing up in the analog era... ). Before I bought the earbuds, I was still using the SONY phones that came with my D-66 back in '91! So I got 17 years of good use out of them. These particular earbuds have a history of having poor strain relief on the signal jack and are known to be a little fragile, so I'm very careful with them, IE, NOT zipping them up in the zipper, NOT pulling the transducers out of my ears by the cord, that sort of thing. The trick with earbuds I've found is to experiment with the different size ear-seals that many models come with. I'm like most people in that one ear canal is bigger than the other. Earbuds only work well with a great seal and they take getting used to. Once I get a good fit, then I hardly have to fiddle with em again for awhile. One problem though... my ear canals can start to itch... probably from wax-vibration, LOL!!! So I try to keep the cerumen buildup to a minimum. Sometimes at home, I'll hook up my SONY MDR-V6s to the player. It drives them just fine and the sound is still very good.

As far as hooking the player up to home components, well I do occasionally when I don't want to futz with loading and changing CDs ( I have only single drawer transports now and no changers ) and I just want the convenience of a shuffled playlist for background. For critical listening, I don't do this. I'll take the time to listen to an old fashioned tape or disc. Out in the shop, though, I use one all the time with my old basket case SONY STR-D1070X receiver and home-brew bookshelf speakers and sounds good enough for that! But I'd never think of using an MP3 unit as a full-time component unless I encoded everything in a lossless format.

It complements my other sources perfectly.

126274Yes, it does -- nice pic. :thmbsp:

I prefer my cassette-playing Sony and Aiwa Walkmen. I prefer analog sound. Dirt cheap, too. If/ when one breaks down I just restock on eBay. The "newer" Walkmen go 20-30 hours on 2 AAs.

I'll also hop on the no apologies boat.

Cheers.

I had one of those mini reel-to-reels when I was a kid. Not for music - to play James Bond :D


I went through a couple of those until I got one of those Sony all in stereo reel recorders with the detachable speakers.

I loved watching the reels turn and the tape slink through it's path.

So did I. My D-4 had one. When I bought my D-66, I was relieved to know that SONY included a battery adapter option that took standard AAs.

Today I use a vanilla off-brand MP3 player that also plays WMA. It's powered by a single AA. ---snip---

What brand/model is it? I've been trying to find an mp3 player that uses AA's. My Sansa m240 uses a AAA but I'd rather use the AA's that won't power my camera any longer.

Yes, for me mp3 players are about the portability and convienence. While we'd all like a nice home cooked meal often, sometimes we settle for the McDonalds on 'every corner'.
Brian

My bad! It's a GPX cheapie ( so that I'm not out much if it's lost or stolen ). Uses AAAs! That's what I get for not proofreading...sorry!

I use my cowon d2 with Koss portapro's and the little $8 FIIO E3 amp. It also supports the OGG Vorbis codecs which give a much Higher - Fi for a given file size. So much so that a 320k OGG file is pretty much undistingusable from a FLAC file at a about a quarter of the size of a FLAC file (which is 1/2 a WAV) so you can get much much better sound than listening to MP3s on an IPOD. sounds great plugged into my panny digital amp too!.

I have a Sony Mp3 and the versatility and various eq settings make it nice for many types of music. I use it for working (with some Phillips earbuds) and on the road along with a USB powered Cmoy and my SR60's(chillin at the Holiday inn).
At home that is a different story.