Are iPods a no-go for audiophiles?

Quote:

Originally Posted by joebags 

It's a stupid question and sorry for asking, but from all the pictures I see posted, no one uses an iPod. Is it poor sound quality and lack of Rockbox support for newer models?

What pictures? I'm pretty sure there are still a good amount of people still using them. Myself included. The iPods actually sound decent...other than bass rolloff, they're neutral. Not sure about the first gen Touch though, but the third sounds decent. And I thought the Classic sounded okay. I have a Video and Rockbox and I haven't bothered to get anything better. I probably will admittedly get a J3 or maybe even something totally different but non Apple once I get some disposable money to blow after other audio priorities.

F*** yeah. Ipods sound are unbearable. I've had no such thing with the J3 or S9. They sound enjoyable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by joebags 

Thanks. I looking through the 'Post your Portable Audio Rig Pics' thread and noticed they were a rare occurrence. I just bought a third generation Touch and was just making sure that I didn't make a horrible mistake.

Ah, haven't looked there in a year. I did notice lack of iPods there. I always looked at it as an "e-dick" showoff thread (no offense to any that had posted there. I have drooled over a couple of setups.)  The third gen sounds decent. Not spectacular, but better than Apple haters would expect. Are you using an amp and LOD with it?

id say the opposite

the interface is easy & accessories/Lods are in abundence

id say a good majority of people on head fi have an ipod, and most have had one and had no complaints with it. (well none more than any other player)

Quote:

Originally Posted by joebags 

It's a stupid question and sorry for asking, but from all the pictures I see posted, no one uses an iPod. Is it poor sound quality and lack of Rockbox support for newer models?

As much as I hate Apple I have to say a lot of headfiers use iPods and/or iMods.  From the reviews of trusted members they seem to do fine especially w/ the OS4 update.  So if you have a poster of Steve Jobs hanging on your wall, no need to take it down.....yet.

The ipod is genius and produces a sound quality that exceeds any equivalent that came before it. In the 1950s, 1960s kids were limited to transistor radios. Cheap turntables then came and the first Walkmans in the late 1970s. The 1980s were dominated by 'boomboxes' and that continued until the ipod arrived. It has a far higher SQ start to many a youths music listening that past generations.

Now, ipods can be used on their own, with a LOD to bypass the amp and digital docks to bypass amp and DAC, the latter of which can be used with confidence in the highest of high end systems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik 

iPods are wonderful. Seriously. They store lots of music, are intuitive to use, are reliable and well made, and sound very good with a pair of IEMs. No, it's not the same as running 180g vinyl or SACD through glorious vaccum tubes and into full-sized electrostatic speakers. However, something does not need to sound like that to be enjoyable. A lot of snobbery gets kicked around here, especially towards well-known consumer gear. If the iPod was handmade by one guy with a six month waiting list, cost $900, and none of your non-audiophile friends had ever heard of it, it would be regarded as a pinnacle of audiophilia. But because your old aunt knows what an iPod is and might have one, it gets downgraded to "crap" because of the super-secret, elite knowledge gained at an audio message board. While an iPod might not be the best, it's plenty good enough to be enjoyable. In the same sense, a couple of Dodger Dogs and a draft Budweiser makes me plenty happy when I go to the ballpark. Sure, I could get fussy and snippy about them, but the truth is that they're good enough to enjoy and if I get hung up on snobbery instead of fun, then I'm just being a jerkoff. Enjoy an iPod for what it is.

Great post, I agree 100%
 

Lots of people use an apple product of some sort for their music whether it is a nano, classic, touch, phone, etc. I once had one but I don't see myself owning another one for a while. That is not because of hate but more because of use. At the time of writing this my clip+ does everything I need for portable use. It has decent battery and long enough battery since more than 70% of my commute daily (to and back) consists of sleeping on the bus or subway. I liked my 5.5G ipod when I had it and almost wish I did not sell it for the ability of it to become an imod. I don't need the space that their classics (that should be what it is called) have so I would not get one of those but if I ever did want to get another apple product for music I would probably get a 16GB itouch if the price is good.

I got no issues with them and no issues with those who have one. They are well marketed and for the most part pretty decent. I just don't like that they do not support flac but alac instead and that they have their own proprietary cable and that they are not drag and drop but need some kind of program to put files in.

I suppose I'm different cause I was used to the sound of my NH1 hi-md minidisc player which I thought sounded remarkably good as I was listemning to it, then I thought wouldn't it be good if I stored all my songs on a 60G ipod. So I bought one later and recorded in the same 256K mode (but it was ACC not atrac), and once I heard it I thought what the heck! This is completely different - bad. Sure it looked good but I thought the sound was unbearable. So I thought, no I'm going to have to record on a higher bit rate - apple lossless. At first I thought it was an improvement, but after a short while I thought it sounded unbearable too. So I thought I'm going to have to move onto WAV. At first I thought yeah this is good enough, but then things started sounding bad again, and I thought I'm wasting my time and music listening to this, I'm better off with my discman for uncompressed sound and minidisc players. So I had to sell it. It happened 3 times. But there's no problem like that at all with my J3.

I have a Rockboxed iPod 5.5 Video, a 160GB Classic and an 8GB Touch.  I use all three with a LOD into a portable amp pushing IE8 or GR8. I have no complaints at all about sound quality. Is it as good as a Mapletree amp and my RS1s? Nope. But it's pretty damned good.

My only real complaint is the lack of FLAC support, but it takes about 90 seconds to convert an album to ALAC. No big deal.

Another iPod user here, yes there are better sounding options but you will pay for it and their user interface may not be as good as iTunes.