Compare: Direct CD listening v. Apple lossless listening - Page 3

Should be the same, since Apple Lossless is lossless.
At least if the ripping process went on without any kind of errors.

Thanks for your answer,
Then it seems, according to your experience, that the ipod is as good or maybe better than a dvd/cd combo player of around $250. But I guess that's not a fair comparison since the combo does more than playing cd music.
What about a dedicated cd player? I think the point is whether the ipod is worse or better than a cd player of similar price.

Thanks! First, who is miguel? mrarroyo? Well, in that case, an ipod won't outperform a cd player of over $2000, which I was actually expecting! But still it would be interesting to know exactly which systems he was comparing. Especially regarding the ipod dock he was using and if it was lossless music.

I can hear a significantly better sound stage using a DAC between my MacBook Pro and my LD MKV. I'm not sure why you're using your iPod, but I reckon you may as well take advantage of the better possibilities of your MacBook Pro as well and do the same.

There's a thread somewhere here where songs ripped in iTunes with error correction on a Mac were tested against EAC rips of the same CD in Windows and were found to be identical. I imagine the only time iTunes might be not as good would be if the CD was scratched and generated un-correctable errors.

The iPod is comparable in sound quality to most home CD players. My old Philips was a highly regarded player, and when I did a line level matched comparison of an AIFF rip on the iPod against the original CD on the Philips, I couldn't detect any difference.

The iPod reaches the point of diminishing returns quite nicely. You can spend more, but you aren't going to be getting any "night and day" differences.

See ya
Steve

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Do you remember the model of the philips cd player you were using? Or how much you paid for it?

Aren't good DACs more expensive than "equal" CD players?

Exactly!.. Well, I compared the same recording played Apple Lossless on my 5G iPod to CD in 1998 Panasonic "musical center", and iPod sounded very clearly better. That was a surprise, I expected needing to switch back and forth a few times. That piece was bought in '98 on sale for just under $200...

Now, if somebody would follow and comment on my reasoning here (sorry I don't mean to be hijacking the thread; a slight diversion but hopefully relevant?):
My equipment now is only the iPod and AKG K701 phones. I was very surprised with how good this combination sounds, had never heard anything so detailed, many instruments so close to real... I do see how the sound can be improved by a decent amp, of course, and have now resigned to the idea that I'll have to spend more, much more... I read for many hours Head-Fi threads deciding on my upgrade path. Pretty much decided on the amp (WA6 with upgrades), but what about source?.. I seriously considered going the computer-DAC way, because this is such a convenient way to manage a music collection, and I seem to be never very far from a computer... But then I looked up the costs and saw that decent DACs discussed here were about $1,000 the cheapest, an amount for which I can instead buy a very decent standalone CD player! Am I wrong? An interesting possibility is, of course, sending the iPod to Redwineaudio for their iMod - a fairly cost-effective option ($250) - but only until this iPod quits... Besides, it is so much easier to navigate your music on a computer.
So, to make it short, I decided to invest in a good standalone CD player. Am I right thinking good DACs are more expensive?

Sorry I don't understand your post much. So, what do you think then, that an ipod is better than cd players of $200 but worse than those of $1000? That's probably no surprise, but what about a $500 cd player, like the Cambridge Audio 640C, the Denon DCD-700AE or the Marantz 6002? Those cost the same as an ipod and a dock, do they sound better? If so, then that would be a very good upgrade option for you. You could start with the denon or marantz cd players, since they have headphone output, and then when you can, you get a dedicated amplifier to go with it.

Cheers!

It was the Philips 963sa SACD/CD/DVD player. It retailed for something like $900 new. (I bought it used.) You can google up reviews on the web.

By the way, I've never found the price of something to relate much to sound quality. Features? yes. Build quality? yes. But sound is more a function of design than cost of materials.

See ya
Steve

Hi. I found that it sold for 400USD when new. And played everything, as you say. But I'm slightly suspicious about it. Philips is not really a hi fi manufacturer, and a device that plays everything can't be good at doing them all for this price.
So, maybe the comparison is not fair. What about a dedicated cd player, like the Cambridge Audio 640C, the Denon 700AE or the Marantz 6002. Will they sound better than an ipod through a denon or arcam dock?

Hi. Do you use a dock for the ipod or get the signal from the headphone out? Also, sorry I don't know much about the headphone stuff, but why do you use a dedicated headphone amplifier and not a hi fi amp? Is it because you get better sound quality or because you want it to be portable?
Cheers,

I beg to differ

I can honestly say that I prefer the sound of a CD from my Cyrus DVD7+ straight to the Slee Solo better than from ALAC to Duet and then to Slee.

The sound is simply fuller.

Guys, in most cases, you do get what you pay for. Straight from iPod is fantastic for the price and mobility. An Amp with LOD helps but nothing comes close to the CD home unit I run.

I'm keen to get either the Q7 Dac or PSX unit to improve the sound even more.

CD (or DVD Audio) is still my preference for chosen albums, but iPod wins for portability.

Thoughts?

Sceptre

Why can't a laser pickup do just as good of a job on a CD as a DVD, especially through optical out? There are plenty of computer optical drives that do just that. In most cases, a CD player is a CD player. Cost is no guarantee of sound quality in electronics. Speakers and headphones and amps to push them are what make the real difference.

See ya
Steve

Hi. So why do you use that headphone amplifier and not the headphone output from a speaker amplifier? Is the quality better?