[Sinistarr]

Hello all. I've been lurking here for awhile, soaking up as much as I can. I currently have an iPod Classic 6G (160GB fat) which I'm looking to mod or update and I figured if anyone anywhere would know the answer to my question, someone here would.
 
As above, I currently have the 6G Classic, as well as a 4G iPod Touch. I've been reading up on what's out there and am looking to replace the 6G with either an iMod+amp or 7G Classic+amp or DAC+amp (either would get an upgraded hard drive). I've been tinkering with HE-AAC/HEv2 for use with the Touch and have found that, to my ears, I hear little to no difference with some (by no means all) music between MP3/AAC of suitable quality (i.e. LAME -V2 VBR or higher for MP3) and HE-AAC. In particular, some extreme metal, already highly clipped/compressed, sounds indistinguishable (again, to me).
 
According to Apple's page for the iPod Classic, the current iteration of the Classic (7G) supports HE-AAC. In my reading, I've seen that the 7G has a newer firmware version (2.x) than the 6/6.5G has (1.1.x IIRC). From what I can gather, the main feature of the newer firmware version is support for Genius, which, for me, is not a big draw for buying a new Classic. Full HE-AAC support, on the other hand, is. I've seen posters on another forum saying the new Classic lacks support for HE-AAC v2 (LC-core with SBR and parametric stereo), but I've found no solid answer for straight HE-AAC (just LC-core with SBR for higher frequencies).
 
Can anyone here confirm that the 7G/160GB thin iPod Classic has full support for HE-AAC (decoding the SBR portion properly as well as the core), or was Apple's web team so fixated with the newest gadgets that they didn't bother to fact check the Classic's specs before updating its page? (Yes, I know technically any iPod should be able to play an HE-AAC file, playing only the LC-core - that doesn't count as full support.)
 
And please, no hatred for daring to bring up HE-AAC on an audiophile forum. I never claimed I thought it sounded to same for all  music, just some here and there. Nor did I ever claim to have perfectly golden ears. 

 
In case anyone's wondering, current desktop PC rig on which I draw my outlandish codec conclusions is: Asus Xonar soundcard optical out -> Schiit Bifrost -> Schiit Valhalla -> Beyerdynamic T1/Grado RS-1i. 

 
Thanks to anyone who can help me out!

 

[lilkoolaidman]

iTunes 9.2 and iOS4 include full decoding of HE-AAC v2 parametric stereo streams. iTunes 9 thru 9.1, iPhone OS 3.1 and Fall 2009 iPods have support for HE-AAC playback for version 1 with no parametric stereo. Other third-party software featuring support for HE-AAC include FStream, VLC (without metadata/title streaming), Songbird, Snowtape, and recent development versions of Audacious Media Player.

 
Older versions of Apple iTunes, iPod Touch, and iPhone will play HE-AAC files at reduced fidelity because they ignore the spectral-band replication and parametric stereo information, instead playing them as though they were standard AAC-LC files without the high-frequency, or "treble," information that is only present in the SBR part of the signal.[citation needed] These will report the track length as twice its actual length.[citation needed]
 
 
*source - Wikipedia page on High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding
 
Personally, with 160gb of storage, I keep everything in ALAC and call it a day.