4th gen shuffle-initial impressions)

Thanks for the impressions. Good to hear about the SQ. Where did you find it?

Do you have some efficient full-sized cans you could try with the little fellow?

Good to hear the SQ is decent.

I've been enjoying my shuffle. The voiceover info is surprisingly good for navigating music. It sounds very good with my Portapros, M50, and Aurvana Live. 

I really want to hear this. If Apple've put the Nano circuitry inside, I'll buy it as my Shuffle 1G is really really acting up. But, the 1G's form is the best for active use - never have to worry about it slipping away because it's too small.

Seems like apple is improving the sound quality of their players! lot of reviews on the new ipod that says it has an improved SQ.

I was in Belfast yesterday and called around to the apple shop hoping to pick up the new apple tv, sadly they had no stock and not wanting it to be a totally wasted trip i decided to buy the latest shuffle.

Have to say i was tempted by the new nano but i thought the screen was a tad on the small side to use comfortably. Usually i play it safe and go for silver but had no luck either with that colour choice so went for the lime green.

I've owned all previous generations of the shuffle at one time or another and like many others also preferred the first gen for sound quality. But my biggest gripe with all of them so far has been the amount of hiss with my trusty old Livewires , due to the fact they are probably one of the most sensitives iems available and they pick up all the background noise and hiss from every rig i've ever used them on. But i love the sound signature of them and just cant part with them.

Well here's a newsflash the 4th Gen shuffle has ZERO hiss with them...  just a totally black silent background when there's no music playing. Even the Pico Slim amp couldn't match this level of blackness with the livewires. SQ is very good with them and to my ears very similar to the ipad hp out, so its not going to win the prize for the best sounding dap but nevertheless impressive for it's size.

Just for fun i tried it my Edition 8, have to say i was pleasantly surprised how well it drove them as well and with the right track you would think your listening to a something a whole lot bigger. Then again the Ed 8 are pretty easy to drive and could sound good plugged into just about any old thing. The only downside is with the shuffle being so small you could look like some sort of crazy person walking around wearing headphones with them plugged into nothing 

When you switch this new Shuffle off then switch back on (say, the next day), does it resume playback where it left off?  Always found 1G Shuffle's erratic behavior on this annoying.

Thanks for the update. The Nano is WAAAAAY to expensive, but the shuffle (always my favourite) will probably be mine. I've got my trusty (sort of trusty) Shuffle 1G to compare directly. The report of low levels of hiss is excellent of course as that is a killer for my 1G, especially with very sensitive earphones like the Final Audio FI-BA-SB and A1.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno1man 

So after having gone across the country and back with them, I dont know if it's the same circuitry as the nano, but it is to my ears with my phones and music the best sounding shuffle so far. I still have my first gen (though the battery only lasts about an hour now) and doing a-b comparisons with the same music and same phones (ety e4, shure e4) it edges out the 1st gen and blows away 2nd and 3rd gen

Quote:

Originally Posted by vranswer 

When you switch this new Shuffle off then switch back on (say, the next day), does it resume playback where it left off?  Always found 1G Shuffle's erratic behavior on this annoying.

When i switched it on this evening it was playing in the middle of a song, now i cant for the life of me remember if that was the last song i was listening to on it last night but will know for sure tomorrow.

EDIT: Incase anyones wondering it also does gapless playback of aiff files, providing of course they are actually gapless albums 

I assume that gapless still doesn't work. Am I right? With a portable the size of the Shuffle, I don't care as much, but still - gapless is a huge part of how I listen.