[fl00r]

Recently I purchased a 40 Gb Ipod and although I'm very satisfied there's just one (major) minus on the Ipod: the sound. When I compare the sound of the Ipod with my Imp 550 SlimX, the bass of the SlimX is so much better; more tight , warm and dry. The bass of the Ipod was really blurry especially with one of the EQ settings on. The mp3's on the SlimX are exactly the same as on the Ipod. I use ER4P's on both.

After a little search on this board I adjusted the volume settings of my mp3's with Itunes. I increased the volume of all with 60%. After that the bass was much better. Also I don't use the EQ anymore.

Questions are:
Can I pump up the volume to 100% without loss of quality? And will the sound improve when doing this?
What can be the cause of the poor bass? Can it be the (restricted) volume on the European Ipod's?

I've read something about MP3Gain. Will this tool do the same as the volume control within Itunes or will it increase the quality even more?

Thanks a lot!

 

[enzoferrari650]

You do realize that the imp is a pcdp and the ipod is a dap right? Theres a difference there even if you use apple lossless.........

 

[fl00r]

Quote:

Originally Posted by enzoferrari650 You do realize that the imp is a pcdp and the ipod is a dap right? Theres a difference there even if you use apple lossless.........

Yes I do, but does this necessarily mean that a pcdp has a better sound quality than a dap? Didn't know that.

I don't compare a CD with mp3 if you mean that. The mp3's on the imp are exactly the same as I loaded on my Ipod

 

[leon]

This may not be the answer you want, but using a headphone amp should improve the overall sound for you. One can hear an improvement even if you use the headphone output (and not the line out).

The iPod simply doesn't boost bass in the same way that Japanese and Korean players do. I think it's a matter of what frequencies they each choose to boost and not boost.

 

[fl00r]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leon This may not be the answer you want, but using a headphone amp should improve the overall sound for you. One can hear an improvement even if you use the headphone output (and not the line out). The iPod simply doesn't boost bass in the same way that Japanese and Korean players do. I think it's a matter of what frequencies they each choose to boost and not boost.

I'd rather use it unamped because of the portability. Thanks anyway.

 

[enzoferrari650]

well from what I know and I may be wrong, most pcdp seem to bring more detail than daps. There is just no real way to rip the files and not lose any detail. Possibly in the future but thats yet to be discovered. That isnt the problem though if you're not liking the sound on the ipod because people cant hear the loss. I would also like to know this, but cd players tend to sound better. Why?, hmmm someone answer this one.

 

[White Knight]

You're right, iPod has pathetic bass. Most complaints about ipod sound is bass, totally lame bass.

 

[enzoferrari650]

Its not that horrible

, its just.. just not as good as it should be..... lets just leave it at that.

 

[bahamaman]

While it is true that the iPods are known for weak bass, that simply means you should consider matching it with a headphone that can compensate. For example, the quite portable Sennheiser PX100 is known to have strong bass and I find that it works quite well unamped out of the iPod.

 

[joelongwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bahamaman While it is true that the iPods are known for weak bass, that simply means you should consider matching it with a headphone that can compensate. For example, the quite portable Sennheiser PX100 is known to have strong bass and I find that it works quite well unamped out of the iPod.

Excellent point, bahamaman. I firmly believe that the sound of any device can be enhanced or degraded depending upon which headphone is used with it. Like you, with my iPods, I use 'phones that have a rather prominent bass. I've tried the ATH clip-ons and found them to be lacking in this department. The PX-200s, on the other hand, do a very nice job, as do the Sony E888 buds.
However, with an old school MD player, such as the Aiwa F70 or Sharp 722, the bass of those 'phones becomes too prominent, and I reach for something with less bass prominence, such as the Eggos or ATH clip-ons.
These are just some of the reasons why I get a kick out of people saying this or that amp, or this or that headphone is the absolute best. There are far too many variables to make such statements.......not to mention the widely differing frequency responses of individual ears.
These kinds of discoveries, for me at least, are what make this headphone hobby such an interesting and rewarding experience...........not to mention that I get to acquire more STUFF!

 

[fl00r]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bahamaman While it is true that the iPods are known for weak bass, that simply means you should consider matching it with a headphone that can compensate. For example, the quite portable Sennheiser PX100 is known to have strong bass and I find that it works quite well unamped out of the iPod.

I have the PX100 and I second your opinion on those cans but I fell in love with my ER4P's. I'm certainly not a bass-head that is why I like the sound of the etys. The only thing is that I miss some "imp-like-base". Maybe it's just a matter of getting used of the Ipod-bass.

I did read some good things about EUPOD. Anybody have experiences with this in combination with the er4p's?

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by enzoferrari650 There is just no real way to rip the files and not lose any detail. Possibly in the future but thats yet to be discovered.

This is a little confusing. Are you saying ripping to WAV, AIFF or ALAC loses detail?

 

[aki]

I recently made a post similar to this, comparing the iPod sound to an iRiver. And I honestly believe that iRiver's do some processing (even with all EQ off and SRS off, Extreme-3d and what not) by default -i think there is some psychoacoustic bass effect in addition to some spatial (possibly crossfeed?) on the default signal. This seems to be very common in many Japanese and asian home stereo units as well. I have a Sharp CD player which I've grown quite accustomed to, and this also produces the sorta thumpy, very clean bass which the small speakers have no way of producing naturally. I realized this was the same sorta sound I was missing on the iPod.

I would like to investigate a bit more on exactly what happens with the iRiver decoding and output, but that's for another thread and another time...

Meanwhile! Realizing this, and that the iPod's very neutral sound (with a definite bass attenuation), i went with the approach of finding colourful headphones to compensate and achieve my preferred sound. I got these Koss KSC-35's a few days ago... which some people find to have excessive bass on some sources... but also has a sharp clarity to them. I've only used this for 2 days and the difference is huge. I'm now actually getting a sound that i prefer on the iPod over the iRiver when I A/B them. I gotta thank everyone who's commented on the KSC-35's with the iPod on this forum which led me to try them out.

I might also note that, i still find the trebles to be way too biting by default (perhaps the headphones haven't burnt in yet), and manage my most preferred sound with the "Treble Reducer" EQ setting (which hasnt' distorted at all on any of the mp3s that ive found to distort on other EQ settings... most likely because it is a reducing setting rather than a boosting setting).

Of course now im considering getting a small amp to see how much further i can go... i am particularly interested in getting some crossfeed happenin' like with the Xin SuperMicro... wonder if thats worthwhile...

 

[aki]

Just thought I'd add:

Quote:

Originally Posted by enzoferrari650 well from what I know and I may be wrong, most pcdp seem to bring more detail than daps. There is just no real way to rip the files and not lose any detail. Possibly in the future but thats yet to be discovered. That isnt the problem though if you're not liking the sound on the ipod because people cant hear the loss. I would also like to know this, but cd players tend to sound better. Why?, hmmm someone answer this one.

fl00r is talking about playing the same MP3 files from the iMP (ie: MP3s on CD-ROMs). So we're not talking about audio CDs here, which means there's no reason why it should sound better than a DAP.

 

[enzoferrari650]

Oh my bad

. dayum I must have missed that part! ok in that case nm.

And yes I am saying ripping to a lossless format even from wav to wav loses some detail. Not enough for our ears to hear it but it does.