Older iPod vs. Classic iPod (and iMod) SQ
This is a post from another thread on 5/5.5G vs. 6G iPod SQ, which Vinnie asked me to repost here:
As it looks like you know, there have been a number of discussions on this here. I'll weigh in. I've been able to compare a 4G, 5G, and 6G iPod and a 5.5G iMod, w/ both HP and line outs on all of them. Several docks for the iPods, including an expensive ALO, and the ALO cable for the iMod. iQube when any of them are amped.
The key issue here ended up being distinguishing between what you might call "underlying SQ" and noise. Both the HP outs and the line outs on the 4G and 5/5.5G iPods are noisy - there's hiss and other distortion that doesn't belong to the music. The 5/5.5G is better but it's still there. When I got my 160GB Classic it immediately sounded much better, because there's much less noise, again from both the HP and line outs. My IEMs -- SE530s and UE11s -- both hiss annoyingly from the 5G; they don't with the 6G. To my ears the music sounds a lot bettter from the 6G; there's more music and less noise.
The 6G was still frustrating; it didn't sound as satisfying as I wanted. So I bit the bullet and had a refurbished 5.5G iModded. I'd read all the same threads you probably have, with widely different opinions on the results, from "night and day" to "can't tell the difference." And there's Vinnie's big thread, saying that the 6G can't be iModded but that he sees at least a small difference between its SQ and iMods. I was very nervous about doing this; it's expensive and some amount of trouble and I was afraid that it would all be for nothing.
I can tell you that to my ears it's a simply massive improvement. Everything about the music is better - silence is absolute, all the ranges are better, bass is extraordinarily better, separation of voices and instruments is better, all of it. SQ is still heavily dependent on source; well-recorded music will stop you in your tracks, while less well-recorded sounds, well, lesser. But even rotten recordings - I've been listening to old Decca Billie Holiday - sound good. I don't have have the experience I've had with all the other DAPs I've ever used, where I'm listening and constantly wishing they sounded better somehow. It's just good. I had it at a weekend party recently with a bunch of people who are audiophiles/in the music business, and they were poleaxed. That never happened with an iPod...
So here's what I think is going on. As a lot of people say/think, the DAC on the earlier iPods, and thus what I'm going to call "underlying SQ," probably really is better. But the rest of the path is poor, so you get good underlying SQ with noise and other distortions. (The iMod fixes this, so you get good underlying SQ without the problems.) The DAC on the 6G probably really is worse but the rest of the path is better, so you get poorer underlying SQ with much less noise. If you read Vinnie's long thread on this, he's really saying two things: 1) the 6G can't be iModded, since the trashy parts in the path out of the DAC have been eliminated, and 2) the SQ still isn't what it should be, meaning probably that the DAC is lower quality.
So here's a way to make sense of the dispute about the earlier/later iPod SQ. Some people hear the much cleaner signal out of the 6G and think it sounds better. Some people hear the better underlying SQ of the earlier iPods, somehow listen past the noise, and think it sounds better. I think this really may be a case of what you like. Overall the 6G sounded better to me, because the noise always really bothered me. Others, I think, are focusing on other things. Your taste, your call.
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