Pleasantly Pleased with Apple's iPOD!

[Dylan]

Quote:

I do not understand why people insist on loving the mini.

Obviously the size difference isn't important to everyone. But it's indisputable that the mini is smaller and easier to carry. It's like the difference between carrying around a PDA and carrying around a cell phone. For some people that difference in portability is more important then the difference in capacity. Why is that so hard to understand?

 

[electic]

A little off the topic but just had to say that I love your Audi S4 Avatar AndyH, hopefully ill be getting mine in about a year! Oyah and uhh I love my 30gig iPod too!

 

[JohnnyLightOn]

I'll take my 40 gig iPod over a mini and $250 any day.

I get to carry my whole music collection with me everywhere...and how big it it anyway? With a DLO Action Jacket it fits my hand perfectly.

 

[AndyH]

Quote:

Originally posted by electic A little off the topic but just had to say that I love your Audi S4 Avatar AndyH, hopefully ill be getting mine in about a year! Oyah and uhh I love my 30gig iPod too!

Thanks! That one's modeled after my 2001 Imola Yellow S4 Avant...'tis a very fun car, especially with some mods

 

[cmascatello]

I have been carrying the 30GB and a mini with me for the last few weeks and have found myself reaching for the mini more often than the 3G. I am actually a bit surprised by this b/c the mini was purchased to be a workout/gym/dog park/short travel DAP. Size is not a deciding factor for me, as I have always felt that the 3G was plenty small for my usage AND I have been using the mini with a Sik cable 90% of the time. Could I be so vain as to subconciously like the blue color of the mini and make my decsions on those grounds?

The mini does have my 600-ish favorite tracks on it and is more than enough to get me by under most circumstances. I have only had to go to the 3G for more esoteric genres or tracks.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Funny about the UE-10! That was my same reaction. I knew that Welly was talking about them, but hadn't seen anything about how they sounded! This will be fun. Hope they live up to your expectations...

 

[Welly Wu]

Sssshhhhhh......

 

[ServinginEcuador]

IIRC someone at the CES this year had this expensive room setup and they allowed people to listen for a while before telling them they were listening to MP3s off an iPod. Most were pleasantly surprised and I doubt anyone was the wiser before being told. I guess with the stigma of the MP3's "inferior" quality removed a lot of people appreciated how good it sounded.

 

[Snake]

Can I ask questions about the iPod, hopefully in a Ety combo? I'm a noob to portable audio.

- How loud can the system get?
- Is the iPod somewhat rugged in terms of dealing with vibration, or do circuits fail in the long run?

In order to get 600 tracks into an iPod you must have to do a HELL of a lot of ripping. That must have taken, like, forever.
- Have you ever lost your tracks, having to do it all over again?

I played around with an iPod demo unit at CC and was impressed by it's size. I guess it was the "standard" one, about the size of the smallest PDA units.
- How hard is the thing to use while you are NOT looking at the controls?
- Can that control disk get easy jostled by vibration or objects brushing against it in a vibrating environment, messing up your playback?

Thanks

 

[cmascatello]

I will try and answer your questions in order and with the Ety ER-4P (since it is a portable use) as the reference. The ER-6 results and answers hsould be almost the same.

1) I listen to the 3G iPod at no more than 1/2 volume and it is plenty loud. Any more than that and I get ringing and the slightly "pushy" highs of the Etys cause quick listening fatigue.

2) I have used the 3G while sitting, flying on a plane, walking, biking, on the train, and at the park with the dogs. I have had no issue with the vibrations caused by these activities. The 1.8" drive can be susceptible to the vibrations caused by running depending on how you hold it/where you clip it. The iPod drive will lock up if exposed to persistent vibration for 20-30 minutes and a soft-reset is needed to get it back -- no the end of the world. I am on my 4th iPod (5GB original, 20GB 2G, 30GB 3G, and a mini) without any issues whatsoever. I currently have both the 30GB and the mini, the other 2 were sold to friends after I upgraded.

3) 600 tracks is NOTHING with an iPod. I record my tracks at 256kbps AAC and have 3,000+ on the 30GB unit with about 8GB left to fill. I ripped 40 full-length CDs in a few hours one weekend -- it all depends on how fast your PC is. A cheap external hard drive is all you need for reliable back-ups if you are worried about the need to re-rip. I archive my tracks as FLACs (lossless CODEC) and store the FLACs with the AACs and MP3s on an external HDD.

4) You get used to the button layout in a day or so. The scroll wheel is only used for volume control when you are not looking at the iPod, and this is a "feel" setting anyway. The top four buttons will become 2nd nature after a little bit of use. I am to the point now that I do not even think about what function it is that I want -- my thumb moves before I can even process the command.

5) The scrollwheel and the buttons are touchsensitive and require a change in the electrostatic field on the pad/button to execute any changes. Inorganic items in a pocket like keys, change, etc. will NOT cause unwanted changes on the iPod. Vibration will also have no effect on the Pod. I have gotten in the habit of activating the Hold switch (top of the iPod) at all times so that I do not accidentally change anything when I have it on my lap when on planes. This also helps preserve battery life.

 

[Snake]

Thanks for the great info.

I truly didn't know that the iPod was HD based. Even though it sounds interesting I doubt it will hold up; I'll try looking into a flash- or CD-based unit with a great buffer (I know that will work, tried it one time).

Thanks again