Aos:
Quote:
Originally Posted by aos
I got iRiver for optical out, after using iPod for 2 years. Yesterday, after half a year, I got fed up, had enough of it and bought a new iPod again. I want to listen to music, not fumble with buttons. It really looks like something a bunch of engineers hacked together and released, once they were satisfied that it works.
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Your experience with iRiver is understandable, but it doesn't mirror mine. Design issues aside, I borrowed a friend's 120 last year and was favorably impressed. The slow transfer time with my hoary G4 was rather an issue, but the optical out worked quite well, as did recording for my purposes (taping live environments and sounds for manipulation rather than extended concerts). If the 120 were still available new, I'd buy it immediate mot.
Yes, the gui is pointlessly cluttered. (Do we need to see the bitrate of a file as we're listening on-the-gnat? Who hears a difference of 30kbps while riding in a crowded subway car? Why do mp3 player manufacturers not put the bitrate on an information subpage?) But I'd rather err on the side of deep sub-menus than settle for a lack of options.
Another t'ing: I prefer the 120's design to that of the newer iRivers, which seem unnecessarily shiny and formica-table-chunk stylized.
Also: Might not there exist two other malnourished possibilities for an audiophile-oriented PHDP? One would be to interest a high-end design-oriented audiophile company. With its Qualia line, Sony would be a likely possibility but for their mania to cripple. If only Thiel or Mark Levinson were interested.
The other far-fetched possibility would be to enlist a modifications specialist. Unfortunately, enhancing the iPod itself with internal improvements would be nearly impossible. You'd probably have to design a larger case (thus destroying consumers' chief reason for buying the Apple eidolon), which could perhaps be manufactured by one of many third-party hard case companies (the iPod Armor foonts, for instance). All of that would be an impossible investment, especially considering that the iPod would change by the time the enhancements were perfected.
I've already written to iRiver requesting a return to the optical in/out. I expect I'll have received a form email by the time I check my mailbox.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gloco
Hmm, i wonder if a breakout cable is possible from the ipod's proprietary port on the bottom of the actual ipod. Or using the firewire port...
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This is such a good idea that I tend to think it must not be possible. I can't imagine third parties would have failed to implement it.
On the nether hind, a lot of us would be euphoric if someone proved me wrong. (The purchase line starts here.)
