[earache]

So here I've been for the past two weeks playing with the ipod i received for a christmas gift. Loaded it up and started using it heavily. Stock buds sucked so trolled around here and picked up the EM7's, KSC-75's, MX-500's, and the ATH-7ti's. Nothing really sounded good. So I ordered a collectible (!)Coda. Sound improved a little but nothing to write home about. Ordered a pocket dock and Sik din. Got them both and still not really happy. Changed ripping to 256 (AAC) and 320kbps (Lame, EAC) thinking that would help.

So tonight out of shear boredom i hooked the ipod line out to my main home rig. What a joke! No wonder i haven't been happy with the portable sound. It sucks! Flat, two dimensional, un musical crap. Ripped the ipod off of the mini to rca's, dropped a disc into the ml and all was magical again.

The saga of the story is the old adage, garbage in, garbage out. You can have all the portable gear in the world but it's still gonna sound 'portable' unless you can go lossless digital/dac/amp.

Not really sure what the point of this has been but the new 3 Doors Down EP is rocking....

Team Compressed Portable Sucks

 

[Blitzula]

Quote:

Originally Posted by earache ...i hooked the ipod line out to my main home rig.

I did that before too. You notice how veiled the music is, unclear, like it's been dynamically compressed, even with full cd quality rips.

 

[Jon L]

Let me see... You were comparing original 16/44.1 redbook CD playing in $7000 retail CDP to $399 portable DAP playing glorified MP3 files and liked the former much better.

iPod, playing apple lossless, used where it's meant to be (portable headphone) is a great sounding player. Please pick up at least an Ety4P before saying stuff like "nothing really sounded good." 4g iPod->apple lossless->SuperMacro headamp->Ety4p sounds at least as good as any ML39 based speaker system I have ever heard IMO. To be fair, I have never found ML39 to be very involving..

 

[earache]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L Let me see... You were comparing original 16/44.1 redbook CD playing in $7000 retail CDP to $399 portable DAP playing glorified MP3 files and liked the former much better. ..

That wasn't the point i was trying to make. I wasn't 'comparing' the ipod to anything. I was simply stating my belief that the ipod playing back compressed files, of whatever type, could be comparable to to uncompressed cd sound. I no longer have that belief

Of course i would hope that apple lossless would sound better. I mentioned only compressed AAC and mp3 files. I will rip some Apple Lossless today and see how that turns out.

 

[terrymx]

i do think that his recommend out trying "4g iPod->apple lossless->SuperMacro headamp->Ety4p" or some other high end phone. might have left a better impression.

better hearphone would be the key here.

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Does this mean the iPod is not a quality home source, and should not be used to substitute the purchase of a dedicated CDP or Soundcard (e.g. EMU)?

 

[Blitzula]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bLue_oNioN Does this mean the iPod is not a quality home source, and should not be used to substitute the purchase of a dedicated CDP or Soundcard (e.g. EMU)?

It's not a quality home source from a sound quality standpoint alone compared to a standalone CDP.

Before I got my current setup, I ran the IPOD through my amp and speakers using the lineout. It wasn't good compared to my (once) $400 DVD player, which is the same price as the Ipod.

 

[Sinbios]

gee you know, sound waves are supposed to be two dimensional... amplitude and frequency

*runs before rotten tomatoes hit*