Quote:
Originally Posted by spwal
Why would you go with an ipod that will go the way of the Machintosh Apple 2 e (most of the people in here are too young to remember what us older folks grew up with).
The Denon and all vintage portables worth remembering have gone the way of fine wine, that is why they are discussed and sought after today. No you cant listen to one on the go, but after a hard day on a business trip or late night in the university library, as many of us head fiers can relate, we get the pleasure of kicking back with a beer and a fantastic sound system thats packed into a backpack or over night case. It is a rare and special pleasure that an entire age of mp3ers will miss out on, in much the same way as vinyl has passed me by...
The vintage discmen are a great part of audio history, ipods are great gadgets--that will undoubtedly prove to be a part of audio history in their own right.
And lets not forget that these units were 300 to 500 dollars to start with--all of them bvack to the d25 (i still remember the envy i felt when my friends dad bought a gyroscopic gooseneck to put the cd player in the car).
I will gladly sacrifice the portability an ipod provides for the lush and refined sound a vintage provides. I would never buy into the slick media campain of apple, and forget what it is all about--the quest for great sounding music.
As it was mentioned earlier, these two are apples and oranges and not poll worthy. Head-fiers manage to coexist in relative peace. I mean the home rig people aren't even bothering to throw in ther $.02 because it doesnt concern them. I can promise you that ipods will be worth less than a 100 bucks some time soon (like and xbox etc.), and the vintage portable people will be all the wiser...
And to make it really interesting, a controled sonic comparison between the ipod etc and some vintage classics. Lets see how that would be!
Thanks folks for the civility and the mature sharing of ideas
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spwal, I'm listening right now to my 150; own a 100 as well, but it's nowhere close in overall sound quality, as others have correctly pointed out. I just finished A/B'ing the Denon 150 and my 4G 40GB iPod's Line Out with my SR-71 and my Gilmore Lite+PSU... MS-2s, ER4s, HD650s, HD-25s, DT880s, and my PS-1s hooked up to both, with nice array of music (CDs for the 150, of course; Apple Lossless from the Line Out (Sik Din and base) for the iPod)... guess what?
The iPod smoked the 150. I'm talking with both amps and every headphone, every type of music. Bought my 150 new from the old Tweeter, Etc., just off Harvard Square, many moons ago; it's in perfect condition... even have the useless 'case' and both original batteries!
Make no mistake- if I were in the market today for a PCDP, there's only one king... the 150. But I'm not. I hook my 4G 40GB iPod's L/O to my SR-71, then on to my ER4s, or MS-2s, etc., and I get BETTER sonic quality, IMO. No fumbling with CDs, etc... spwal, you can bawl over the sale, but collect yourself, go get an iPod from BB (with the 3 year $49.00 exchange thing, natch), and you have better sound from this 'lil 'gadget' (LOL, I love how everyone predicts the demise of Apple for twenty years, then uses the iPod's success to denigrate their products and predict Apple's doom yet again... priceless)... hey, I'm fond of Apple, and I buy the products I feel are good from them... but I am a huge Denon fan; have owned their home and portable stuff for years, and I am a * fanatic * about sound quality- first, last, and always... if that's what you're after, spwal, forget about the hideous Apple ad campaigns and just go try out a 4G/5G iPod from its Line Out, (sorry, I can't mention that enough- the iPod's headphone jack and the Line Out are * way * different in amp'ed listening quality), with a good amp and your favorite cans, LOSSLESS music files from the iPod's Line Out, NOT the headphone jack... you may be surprised...
Or, grab another 150 off of eBay and never let it go again. It's the best 'portable' (yeah, right) CDP out there, and probably will be forever.
But to say that the 150 smokes the 4G iPod's L/O running Lossless... nonsense. Just heard them both, and it wasn't even close. Time moves technology forward for a reason, and until the iPod's Line Out, lossless (ok, there's always been iPod compatibility with good old AIFF files, but the [1G through 5G] iPod's buffer 'burps' digesting them because they are so HUGE), and the 4G's new Wolfson DAC chip got together, I would have called it a draw... but now (4G and 5G) iPods have it all over the 150, as long as you use the Line Out and Lossless files... I sympathize with the 'Seller's Remorse', though, spwal... I wouldn't part with this 'lil 150, but that's because my 8 year old daughter will soon be using the 150, rather than some Sony, etc. cr*p, as her 'room' source...
Thank goodness she digs Jazz and not Britney...