[Alu]

Today a friend of mine and I wanted to try the new rockbox firmware upgrade for a 4G IPod, and while I had it, I thought I could do some tests with it over my new AKG K701 (this can has seen around 20 hours of usage).

The results I (and my non-audiophile friend) found freaked me out.

Since the IPod could now read FLAC files I thought I could compare my PC (foobar 24-bit fixed point with 96khz upsampling over ASIO!) M-Audio Transit into Bel Canto DAC2 setup to Apple's small MP3 player, and so I did. I used the K701 out of the normal headphone out of the IPod (which works wonderfully btw) and as for the PC as source I plugged the headphones into my ROTEL Preamp headphone out.

I've used various reference recordings of mine:

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Quadro Nuevo - Mocca Flor
Daft Punk - Discovery
U2 - All the things...
Pulp Fiction Soundtrack
Very nicely recorded Anime and Game Soundtracks

There was BARELY a difference to be noticed. That's right, a 1000€ DAC vs. IPod gives me only very slight changes. Sure I noticed that the sound was sometimes more refined on the PC as source, that it was more open and airy, but did I get blown away by the difference like I expected to be? No. Does this justify me getting a 1000€ source? I highly question it. I did 2 songs with blind testing, and even here I just almost didn't noticed any difference at all.

Now explanations for this might be the lack of burn-in for these headphones, as they seem to improve drastically over time, or that I lack a proper amp (for now) to drive them adequately. But doesn't the IPod also lack an expensive amp? Shouldn't it also improve with burnt-in cans?

This experience made me sincerely wonder whether the rockbox firmware turned the IPod into a worthy opponent for the DAC or whether I should just get an IPod, which is even portable, instead of spending that kind of money on something like this. It did improve my former speakersetup a lot when I first heard it, but right now I'm thinking that an IPod as source would be enough for the AKG K701. (do mind that I couldn't test bel canto vs. IPod on speakers)

There must be something wrong with me as well.

 

[PeeeMeS]

iPod has very good dac + amp

I've been saying all along that the K701 straight out of iPod is an amazing combo(95% of what you would get with a thousand $ amp + thousand $ DAC, as you found out in your case)
I've been met with quite a few

but...
I'm glad there's another believer on this lonely island

Here's another thing for you to try
Compare a brand new pair of K701s versus a pair of K701s with 500+ hours on them
I've done the comparison already and I can honestly say there's basically no change in sound quality due to the drivers "burning-in"
It's all in our heads!

(If you're a basshead like me and you need that bass boost... an Amp is a big upgrade over the iPod's internal amp. If you're looking to play flat EQ music... the iPod is an amazing contender)

 

[bigshot]

My iPods sound exactly like my home CD player. The line out of the iPod provides perfectly acceptable sound quality.

See ya
Steve