I just posted this on facebook, and figured I'd post it here. Since it was posted on facebook first, the tone is more rant-y than if I'd written it primarily as a head-fi review; hope you don't mind.
Note that this is a review of user interface features. I am not of the school of thought that believes the DAC substantially impacts sound quality. (See Uncle Erik's comments in this thread http://www.head-fi.org/t/555690/which-is-more-important-dacs-or-amplifliers) On the other hand, the quality of the user interface greatly impacts my enjoyment of the music.
I have never been much of a fan of Apple products, but I've recently come to appreciate some of the design features of the iPod nano 3rd Generation.
Mine only holds 8GB, and I have way more music than that, so I recently bought a Sansa Fuze, a device with a similar form factor that can take a micro SD card. Although the Fuze has the same size screen as the Nano, it does a much less efficient job of displaying information in that space. In the Fuze, for no apparent reason, mostly useless information takes up the left and right edge of the screen, while the really important info -- the track title and artist, has to scroll horizontally due to lack of space. The iPod also (under certain circumstances) displays the track artist on a separate line of text from the title, and in a different font, making music easy to browse whereas the Fuze does not even tell you the artist.
Furthermore, the iPod has some very nice little aesthetic and efficiency touches. The screen on the iPod can be turned much dimmer than on the Fuze, saving battery life. The iPod displays album art with a visual effect that makes it look like it's sitting against a mirror. Little touches like that add up.
I also tried installing Rockbox, which is essentially a Linux operating system for portable music players, on the Fuze. It suffers from the same problems as my other attempts to use Linux -- theoretically it's very powerful and customizable, but it's hard to use in practice. One time, I accidentally set the backlight to be permanently off. But fortunately, it was still set to come on if I plugged the thing in. But . . . I could have disabled that, too, and then I would have had to reinstall Rockbox to fix it. Rockbox, like the original Fuze software, cannot display the artist and title on separate lines, and has to scroll. Unlike the Fuze software, you can customize the font size, scroll speed, etc. of the Rockbox ad nauseum . . . but this is still not as convenient as the iPod's already beautiful interface.
Rockbox has some really awesome features, like an advanced equalizer, crossfeed (feeds some of the signal from the left ear into the right and vice versa, for a more natural sound), and volume measured in decibels below the max volume rather than just a volume bar. But in spite of all that, it's a pain in the ass.
So for now, I've mostly just been using my old iPod nano, even though I would really like to fit more music on it. It's far from perfect -- in addition to the storage limit, it has annoying DRM "features" and some of the navigating takes several clicks more than it would if apple were willing to put a few more buttons on the front. But still, I've really come to appreciate many of its features . . . too bad Apple doesn't make any equally good music player with a larger capacity. The current iPod nano is too small. And even the 4th gen nano, which comes in a 16GB version, has a worse screen -- it's the 3rd gen screen turned on its end so that it's skinny and long. Given that I value the horizontal dimension more than the vertical, this is annoying. Darn it Apple, why don't you just make your iPods take micro SD cards? And it's the same with the iPad. $100 for 16 gigs more storage or something like that? Ridiculous!
I might have to start using iPod touch or the software on my Android phone. The thing is, I also like the nano for its simplicity -- it's nice to have a device that just does music. I'd hate to be interrupted by a phone call or a notification from my digital calendar while chilling with music. So . . . I'm still debating what will make the best solution.
Note that this is a review of user interface features. I am not of the school of thought that believes the DAC substantially impacts sound quality. (See Uncle Erik's comments in this thread http://www.head-fi.org/t/555690/which-is-more-important-dacs-or-amplifliers) On the other hand, the quality of the user interface greatly impacts my enjoyment of the music.
I have never been much of a fan of Apple products, but I've recently come to appreciate some of the design features of the iPod nano 3rd Generation.
Mine only holds 8GB, and I have way more music than that, so I recently bought a Sansa Fuze, a device with a similar form factor that can take a micro SD card. Although the Fuze has the same size screen as the Nano, it does a much less efficient job of displaying information in that space. In the Fuze, for no apparent reason, mostly useless information takes up the left and right edge of the screen, while the really important info -- the track title and artist, has to scroll horizontally due to lack of space. The iPod also (under certain circumstances) displays the track artist on a separate line of text from the title, and in a different font, making music easy to browse whereas the Fuze does not even tell you the artist.
Furthermore, the iPod has some very nice little aesthetic and efficiency touches. The screen on the iPod can be turned much dimmer than on the Fuze, saving battery life. The iPod displays album art with a visual effect that makes it look like it's sitting against a mirror. Little touches like that add up.
I also tried installing Rockbox, which is essentially a Linux operating system for portable music players, on the Fuze. It suffers from the same problems as my other attempts to use Linux -- theoretically it's very powerful and customizable, but it's hard to use in practice. One time, I accidentally set the backlight to be permanently off. But fortunately, it was still set to come on if I plugged the thing in. But . . . I could have disabled that, too, and then I would have had to reinstall Rockbox to fix it. Rockbox, like the original Fuze software, cannot display the artist and title on separate lines, and has to scroll. Unlike the Fuze software, you can customize the font size, scroll speed, etc. of the Rockbox ad nauseum . . . but this is still not as convenient as the iPod's already beautiful interface.
Rockbox has some really awesome features, like an advanced equalizer, crossfeed (feeds some of the signal from the left ear into the right and vice versa, for a more natural sound), and volume measured in decibels below the max volume rather than just a volume bar. But in spite of all that, it's a pain in the ass.
So for now, I've mostly just been using my old iPod nano, even though I would really like to fit more music on it. It's far from perfect -- in addition to the storage limit, it has annoying DRM "features" and some of the navigating takes several clicks more than it would if apple were willing to put a few more buttons on the front. But still, I've really come to appreciate many of its features . . . too bad Apple doesn't make any equally good music player with a larger capacity. The current iPod nano is too small. And even the 4th gen nano, which comes in a 16GB version, has a worse screen -- it's the 3rd gen screen turned on its end so that it's skinny and long. Given that I value the horizontal dimension more than the vertical, this is annoying. Darn it Apple, why don't you just make your iPods take micro SD cards? And it's the same with the iPad. $100 for 16 gigs more storage or something like that? Ridiculous!
I might have to start using iPod touch or the software on my Android phone. The thing is, I also like the nano for its simplicity -- it's nice to have a device that just does music. I'd hate to be interrupted by a phone call or a notification from my digital calendar while chilling with music. So . . . I'm still debating what will make the best solution.
