READ THIS: Serious flaws in ipod classic

[Sparky2112]

Absolutely no hiss on my Classic 80. Sound does fill out with more volume than I'd like, but overall the sound is very good. I ran this and the Zune side-by-side before I bought (with my Atrio M5s), and I liked the iPod quite a bit more...

 

[Max F]

A 0.1 db boost at 19 khz - who cares.

There's no way I could hear that!

And this coming from a Zune lover, ha ha!

 

[sugarinthegourd]

I'm not very happy with the headphone out SQ on my 2G Nano. Much inferior to the 4G iPod, imho. Hopefully the Classic sounds better than that...

 

[hockey_magnet]

Here's a quote from a Scottish business site re Wolfson:

"Dan Ridsdale at Landsbanki said the iPod classic appeared to be "a last hoorah" for the old format, and Wolfson had lost out to a cheaper Cirrus product as Apple attempted to maximise margins. The bigger-selling Apple products in the future - the iPhone and a new touch screen iPod - both have Wolfson chips."

No mention of the Nano though.

Chris

 

[Buckster]

mines just shipped ! doh

lets hope not as bad as people make out

Mark.

 

[Henmyr]

Last week, when people only had listend to it the sound was the best of all ipods. As soon as someone does measurement a lot of people screem SHAME ON APPLE. Have the classig lost sq since last week? In the end it is whats can be heard that counts.

 

[Buckster]

Henmyr - very good point.

I may leave my IPOD in its box for a week to see how this all pans out - if I return it unused only loose 20 pounds for return carriage

I'm not sure on the Wolfson vs cheaper Cirrus Logic DAC that I've heard touted about - Cirrus Logic are a major DAC manufacturer and could well produce something better than the Wolfson DAC for less money ? just a guess ?

 

[YamiTenshi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henmyr /img/forum/go_quote.gif Last week, when people only had listend to it the sound was the best of all ipods. As soon as someone does measurement a lot of people screem SHAME ON APPLE. Have the classig lost sq since last week? In the end it is whats can be heard that counts.

It's not that the Classic has loss SQ since last week, but there was a delayed reaction from the listeners. When you initially hear something with a treble boost it makes the overall music sound clearer. The same thing happens when you play two exact same files, but one file just has the volume turned up louder; the louder file will initially sound better, but after you adjust the volume you realize it's the same.

I think the same thing is happening with the Classic as with compressed audio files. At first listen the compressed files sound better because all the frequencies are maxed out (assuming there's no clipping or static) so the overall music sounds louder (which we will initially perceive as better), but after prolong listening compressed files become fatiguing. The extra treble boost from the Classic will sound better at first, but after the listeners spend more time with it they will be able to pick out the flaws.

 

[ricthaman]

well,

this is bad news for me. I was about to order my very first iPod ever.
But since I care about SQ I'm not so sure anymore. I own a Cowon D2 wich is a amazing sounding player.

I really like the ipod touch. I see that somebody posted that the ipod touch and iphone would still have a Wolfson DAC. Can any-one confirm this??

Really important to me. Those graphs about the Classics' Frequency response look horrible compared to the 5.5G. And I thought that the 5.5G sounded bad! I hated that one for it's bad SQ.

Hoping that the touch is better, I'd really like to have one!!

greetz

 

[rhymesgalore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by YamiTenshi /img/forum/go_quote.gif When you initially hear something with a treble boost it makes the overall music sound clearer. The same thing happens when you play two exact same files, but one file just has the volume turned up louder; the louder file will initially sound better, but after you adjust the volume you realize it's the same.

0.1db hardly counts as a treble boost.....

 

[Buckster]

anyone thought that the IPOD Classic tested could have had a fault ?

or testing flawed ?

Mark.

 

[rhymesgalore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buckster /img/forum/go_quote.gif anyone thought that the IPOD Classic tested could have had a fault ? or testing flawed ? Mark.

This is a measurement chart from a german forum:

belastet means measured with a load, unbelastet without a load.
All through the headphone out (KH-out)

Looks considerably different.....

 

[luckypictures]

Well, to be fair, some people listen to only losless, and can detect a change in sound quality.

So, to some, this provides a bit of useful insight. To others, who are untrained, it won't matter. The boot time/batter life trade off is interesting though.

 

[gnychis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhymesgalore /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is a measurement chart from a german forum: belastet means measured with a load, unbelastet without a load. All through the headphone out (KH-out) Looks considerably different.....

Could somebody explain the lines and their meanings as well as the differences?

 

[mirumu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max F /img/forum/go_quote.gif A 0.1 db boost at 19 khz - who cares. There's no way I could hear that! And this coming from a Zune lover, ha ha!

I agree. Many headphones can't put out frequencies that high at any reasonable power anyway. I've been mostly using my Classic with my E500s and from prior experiments I've found they don't output much audible above 16Khz. Actually the only headphone I had to test at the time that could actually play back 19Khz accurately was the Sennheiser HE60s and the amount of people listening to these with iPods is probably close to zero.