[ernieBob]

It could it be that the nano just does not suit your needs but is an acceptable player otherwise. Surely some players suit one's music style more than other players.

Having said that, the new sony will not be out for a while.

 

[LaBreaHead]

I haven't heard the 3rd generation Nano, but I do find the 2nd generation combined with the Future Sonics Atrio M5s surprisingly good sounding ... while in the past, I've found Shure E3Cs underwhelming with different iPods -- so maybe its partly a synergy issue. Although I've heard players that sounded better than iPods ...

 

[shigzeo]

i think that muddiness is in the ears of the beholder. i had the cowon d2 which i found with trance music or music with hard fast bass to have a small and closed soundstage that got muddy very easily.

both the 3g and the d2 hiss but very little compared with other players i have tried. i own the atrio m5, the denon c700, beyerdynammic dt770 and dt880.

i used to own the westone um2 and er4s and spent heaps of time with the e500 - all of which i did not like on the d2 though the westone seemed to be the most appealing out of those.

for large phones, i find the nano 3g is not the best player but for small phones, it is one of my favourites. it gives great soundstage for trance and good placement as well as speed. i get none of the muddiness that i heard in the d2.

however, as i said, muddiness is in the eyes of the beholder. other than muddiness and soundstage, i found the d2 and nano 3g to sound very similar with the same phones. both are detailed and have little hiss with good bass response considering neither can properly drive low imp phones.

i own the sony a615s as well - great sounding player for low imp phones. i find it lacks stage and overall satisfaction (look out for the technical terms here) with my big phones.

in terms of satisfaction:

road: nano (bus)
walk: just want to use tactile controls and have a player whose build quality and looks wont be bothered by a drop (if it drops, it would probably crack or something - quite flimsy but it is cheap) SONY
home: with big headphones the others do not satisfy like the cowon does. no muddiness anymore, great soundstage for a portable and without an amp, completely forgiveable.

with an amp however, the ipod again takes stage. i was surprised how much i liked it after all the negativity here at headfi - perhaps that is why i should have liked it! it is not trendy to like ipod

EDIT: cowon d3 is not yet out: perhaps the poster in the first page meant cowon d2. d3 will probably be out by june - if indeed it will be called d3.

the zune 1 and nano 3g use a very similar dac. the headphone out on that unit is basically also the headphone out and then the only real extra are caps for output power. most likely both the zune and ipod use only single end caps leading to the massive bass rolloff but i find it not too bad on my nano 3g... just not huge visceral impact. the documentation about this can be found here.

 

[Cowon_1]

What I can't figure out is why you would buy and ipod after owning and iriver...that's kinda like hanging out on the beach and then admitting yourself to jail.
Anyway all the Cowon player's are great..since you owned the iRiver iFP999 I'd recommend the Cowon U3, awesome player.
There's also the new Sony line, the 61X and 81X series.

 

[dazzer1975]

sorry to hijack but felt it tied intooriginal topic of sending nano 3g back.

I got minerecently and the other day I was listening to it and i wiped my finger across the screen to wipe some dust away and I got a sort of low electrical buzzing noise. I laid the outside of my index finger on the front of my nano and slowly brushed upwards as soon as I hit the screen the noise appeared.

I tried with my finger tip, no noise, only when my finger is laid out across the screen when listening to music.

What could that be, just some weird static effect or some problem internally to the ipod?

 

[DJGeorgeT]

hey look at my new sig

 

[Patu]

Just picked one of the Nano 3G threads to make this question.

My Nano 3G has worked flawlessly except that I can't make the album shuffle work. When I've played through one album it just stops playing instead of shuffling to the next album like it should. How to fix this?

 

[shigzeo]

i found the nano 3g to be one of my favourite players other than not being able to get volume with a ohm adapter. it has great stage, decent bass roll off performance and has a very good mid range.

obviously it was not your type of presentation, but that ipod is a very good player for sq.

 

[gilency]

I have a Nano first and a second gen. Sound quality is excellent with my mp3 320 or with losseless. Don't see a big reason to change because I am very happy with them.

 

[nsx_23]

I had a 3rd gen nano 8GB, and after about 6 months I sold it to buy a Cowon D2.

The D2 has been one of the best purchases I've made.