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New 2009 iPod Touch 3G 64GB mini frustrated review

post #1 of 103
9/21/09 at 9:55pm
Thread Starter 
I've just recently purchased a brand new iPod Touch to go with my Sennheiser IE7s. All I can say is BIG MISTAKE!

First thing I noticed when I first turned the device on was the yellow tint on the screen. The 'white' lists for artist/songs etc are all a horrible shade of yellow. I had the 1st Gen touch a while ago and this new version is significantly worse.

Another thing I noticed was the battery life. A claimed '30 hours' is questionable. In fairness I was using some apps but even still the battery life was quite poor, having to charge it daily so far.

Ok now the big part...Sound Quality. I'm disappointed to inform everyone that the sound quality really is shocking. I knew that it being an iPod I wasn't going to get much, but I hoped it would be better than what it was. Previously I was using a 2GB Sansa Clip which was a phenomenal player! The iPod truely fails in comparison. Excuse my lack of audio terminology here as I'm new to this game. Everything seemed muddled, there wasn't distinctive separation of instruments and the soundstand was rather small. This wasn't down to the IEMs as my Sansa Clip sounds amazing using it. The iPod showed poor performance all around. The bass had no kick and vocals sounded thin.

I'm truly pissed at Apple's latest offering. One of the reasons I went for the iPod was for compatibility as I'm using a Mac and the storage. Bare in mind the IEMs have been plenty burned in and sound great with other sources and the songs on the iPod were all either 320Kbps or Apple lossless.

The device is good for the apps and internet use, but just fails on too many other important levels. Yellow tinted screen? Rubbish battery?? Sounds like the audio is being processed through a bin. It's a very user friendly multimedia player but what good is that if it doesn't do what it's made to do to a good standard?

I've only had the damn thing for 4 days, hopefully Apple let me bring it back.

AVOID!
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post #2 of 103
9/21/09 at 10:30pm
Here it is! So what is wrong with the iPod Touch? This is what's wrong... I only have the 1G Touch, but I am very happy not to try the new ones! The sound signature you described is exactly how it is on the 1G Touch.
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post #3 of 103
9/21/09 at 10:47pm
I've heard good things about the Gen 2's sound quality. I'm assuming that it's the best sounding Ipod Touch player yet?

Has anyone compared the G2 and the G3 in terms of audio quality?
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post #4 of 103
9/21/09 at 10:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TurnThePage View Post
I've just recently purchased a brand new iPod Touch to go with my Sennheiser IE7s. All I can say is BIG MISTAKE!

First thing I noticed when I first turned the device on was the yellow tint on the screen. The 'white' lists for artist/songs etc are all a horrible shade of yellow. I had the 1st Gen touch a while ago and this new version is significantly worse.

Another thing I noticed was the battery life. A claimed '30 hours' is questionable. In fairness I was using some apps but even still the battery life was quite poor, having to charge it daily so far.

Ok now the big part...Sound Quality. I'm disappointed to inform everyone that the sound quality really is shocking. I knew that it being an iPod I wasn't going to get much, but I hoped it would be better than what it was. Previously I was using a 2GB Sansa Clip which was a phenomenal player! The iPod truely fails in comparison. Excuse my lack of audio terminology here as I'm new to this game. Everything seemed muddled, there wasn't distinctive separation of instruments and the soundstand was rather small. This wasn't down to the IEMs as my Sansa Clip sounds amazing using it. The iPod showed poor performance all around. The bass had no kick and vocals sounded thin.

I'm truly pissed at Apple's latest offering. One of the reasons I went for the iPod was for compatibility as I'm using a Mac and the storage. Bare in mind the IEMs have been plenty burned in and sound great with other sources and the songs on the iPod were all either 320Kbps or Apple lossless.

The device is good for the apps and internet use, but just fails on too many other important levels. Yellow tinted screen? Rubbish battery?? Sounds like the audio is being processed through a bin. It's a very user friendly multimedia player but what good is that if it doesn't do what it's made to do to a good standard?

I've only had the damn thing for 4 days, hopefully Apple let me bring it back.

AVOID!
My 3g 64gb isn't anything like you describe...HHHMMMM Maybe you got a bad unit?
IMO: I'd say it's a beauty
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post #5 of 103
9/21/09 at 11:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dAdE0H0 View Post
My 3g 64gb isn't anything like you describe...HHHMMMM Maybe you got a bad unit?
IMO: I'd say it's a beauty
It's a beauty alright... but may be you never heard a real good DAP. Could you compare it to something else? Like, "it has a fuller sound than my Sony has"... just kidding.
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post #6 of 103
9/21/09 at 11:37pm
OP, what apps are you using? The reason that audio would get much better battery life is that you're generally not using the display when listening to music. If you use any DAP with the screen on all the time it is going to kill the battery life. With apps, you could be using the screen constantly as well as Wi-Fi, possibly even using the processors heavily, all things that will impact battery life very significantly. On sound quality, are you sure that you have EQ turned off? Do you use EQ on the Clip? Are you using the same music files on both?
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post #7 of 103
9/21/09 at 11:51pm
The battery life should improve after a half dozen or so cycles.

Maybe you'll get to appreciate the sound after you become accustomed to it.
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post #8 of 103
9/22/09 at 12:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TurnThePage View Post

The device is good for the apps and internet use, but just fails on too many other important levels. Yellow tinted screen? Rubbish battery?? Sounds like the audio is being processed through a bin. It's a very user friendly multimedia player but what good is that if it doesn't do what it's made to do to a good standard?
Sorry to hear you don't like it. You probably should turn it in for another player that matches your listening taste.

I think the 3G Touch produces great sound. I pick up a lot of detail when matched with the SE 530 phones.
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post #9 of 103
9/22/09 at 12:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Mono View Post
It's a beauty alright... but may be you never heard a real good DAP. Could you compare it to something else? Like, "it has a fuller sound than my Sony has"... just kidding.
You can stop now. In fact, you could have stopped as soon as you joined Head-Fi.
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post #10 of 103
9/22/09 at 12:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TurnThePage View Post
. I knew that it being an iPod I wasn't going to get much, but I hoped it would be better than what it was..
Sounds like you got what your biased perception would allow.
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post #11 of 103
9/22/09 at 12:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Mono View Post
It's a beauty alright... but may be you never heard a real good DAP. Could you compare it to something else? Like, "it has a fuller sound than my Sony has"... just kidding.
That's why I said (IMO).....Dick........just kidding....maybe
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post #12 of 103
9/22/09 at 1:47am
Personally, I find the iPod touch 2nd gen to sound better than my Clip. I thought the soundstage was bigger, and everything sounded much more refined.

And by USING apps, obviously, you're killing the battery life. The advertised 30 hours is for the music playback, etc.
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post #13 of 103
9/22/09 at 2:12am
I ask again here to, are most of you using the headphone out or the line out because generally with ipods the sound quality was night and day going with line out(this is one advantage of having a portable headphone amp). I haven't even used my touch for music because the line out dock is different than the normal ipods, thus i have no way to even compare, just assumed that most were using LODs until I asked on another thread and got shot down, (seemed that all used the HD out and that it was a ridiculous question or something).
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post #14 of 103
9/22/09 at 3:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dallan View Post
I ask again here to, are most of you using the headphone out or the line out because generally with ipods the sound quality was night and day going with line out(this is one advantage of having a portable headphone amp). I haven't even used my touch for music because the line out dock is different than the normal ipods, thus i have no way to even compare, just assumed that most were using LODs until I asked on another thread and got shot down, (seemed that all used the HD out and that it was a ridiculous question or something).
I used headphone jack. I too felt the 2nd Gen Touch sounded better than the Sansa Clip. I think that the Touch had a really clean fairly neutral sound, which a lot of people really don't seem to like. If the newer one is similar, then I think the OP is finding the overall effect of pairing neutralish headphones and source to be too much of that (which is common).
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post #15 of 103
9/22/09 at 4:58am
My screen is as good as my 3Gs and for the record OP, I didn't like My Krell amp when I first heard it either.
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