I must agree with Davvy. I don't like the idea of adapting a smug or superior posture, but to spread such poor information is inexplicable in someone paid to review audio (or video) gear. Even if I attempt to be charitable (which I hope is my default mode) this can be seen as nothing but extreme carelessness. Harsh words, but I am afraid true. My concerns are:
1) To talk about the sound quality of IPODs as compared to PCDP's and not specify the compression involved on the IPOD completely invalidates all of his comparisons between the two. This is a key point of Davvy's, and it is NOT a subtle or nitpicking one - it is crucial. How would we feel if someone reviewing speakers matched one pair with a $150 CD source and preceded to say, without comment or qualification, that they were inferior to another pair he had heard, when that pair had been paired with a $20,000 Linn reference CD player? The differences involved with compression may actually be far greater than this example suggests (depending on the bit rate involved, which again, he never mentions).
2) A related point: He never notes that the IPOD need not play compressed music. This is key for people to know. It is in this form that the IPOD and its descendants likely represent the future of audio sources. The smallest current IPOD (15 GB) can hold approximately 23 uncompressed CDs - CD's that can quickly be changed by reloading them from storage on your computer's hard drive (some people are using separate HDs just for this purpose). This is simply too important to miss, especially if part of your criticism of the ipod is of the general inferiority of compressed music!
3) The point has already been made about his not mentioning what headroom amp he was using. How the Sennheiser HD-650's are going to sound will be radically different on a Total Airhead (I suspect the amp he used) than on a Blockhead, or on something in-between. Given that the HD-650 is a very revealing headphone, compressed music through a low quality amp is very possibly going to sound worse to someone than when it is heard on less accurate phones (although granted, the HD-580's, which he liked, are certainly accurate). It is fine to recommend less expensive phones to be used if people are going to listen to mostly compressed music (a matter of personal taste and convenience), but the distinction is never made.
I could go on, but I am getting tired of hearing myself gripe...
I guess I will conclude with a little bit of a retreat. If anyone finds the review helpful or agrees with its conclusions based on listening experience, that is more important than the points of logic I have been ranting about. Happy listening!