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Originally Posted by davidhunternyc /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Does the iQube add "that little bit extra" or a lot extra? It better add more than just that little extra for its price and additional bulk as a portable rig. It seems the swelledhead thinks that the iQube doesn't add enough to justify its use with the iPod Classic and SE530's. With lossless, is the difference still just a little or a lot? Hmmm. Now I am wondering what ripping format swelledhead used for his comparisons. That could be one of the reasons he didn't hear much of a difference with the iQube or not.
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I used CD's imported to iTunes using Apple's lossless coding, which saves about half the space of the original CD's files. And to make what I wrote clear, I originally compared the headphones using the Touch's headphone output, and then when I got the i-Qube, I tapped the Touch's DAC off the multi-connector at the bottom. When I got the iPod Classic, I also began by tapping off the DAC, and then switched to listening to the SE530s using the headphone output of the Classic. This tortured path to knowledge led to the meandering evaluations in my post and subsequent replies. It's been quite a lesson, unmatched by my experience with high end home systems. It's a truism that components interact with each other in complex ways, but still I was not prepared for the scale of differences between the headphone output of the iPod Touch vs. the iPod Classic. As a character in the film Under Siege said, assumptions are the mother of all screw ups.
I just returned from a trip, and will soon continue, mainly by comparing the SE530s with the UE Triple.fi Pros on the Classic's headphone out jack, and also focus more on how the UEs sound in various contexts. Also I plan to listen to the i-Qube at length on Sennheiser 650s, which probably require an amp more than those little earphones things whose delicacy and close coupling to the eardrum make them so easy to drive by portable gear.
As for the i-Qube, I liked it better using the Touch's DAC than the Classic's DAC. On the Classic, it seemed more bright. The profound limitation of evaluating equipment is one can't listen to anything by itself. You can't hear a recording without a playback system. You can't listen to any particular piece of equipment in the chain of a playback system without listening to a complete chain. Nobody's ever heard an amp, preamp, speaker, recording, CD, record, etc., but in the context of an array of all the rest. I am guilty of rushing to judgment by ignoring what I know about the complexities of subjective evaluation because I didn't anticipate the scale of the problem using iPods, which without really thinking about it, had me assuming their sonic qualities were more or less equivalent. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb. I won't make that mistake again.
I still think the i-Qube is a fine piece of equipment. Question is, what's it really good for, and what is it not particularly good for. I can also compare the i-Qube with my custom built Dynahi headphone amp, built by Drew Baird at Moon Audio. So far, I've only listened to it on my Sennheisers. I never thought of driving those little earphones with it, but why not give it a try?
Thanks to all for your interest and useful comments.
Curt Raney (a.k.a. Swelled Head, a particularly apt moniker it seems.)