[chadbang]

First of all the ipod touch is the coolest device I've ever played with. Just wanted to get that straight. Plus, I'm a total apple geek. But... My true devotion is to music and audio reproduction and I must say, have to say the iPod 2nd generation touch is a bit of a lemon as far as SQ. I've own five iPod since the second gen up, and this is the least musically involving iPod I've owned. I think it suffers from limited.dynamics and has a compressed sound (and, no it's not my 256 Mp3s). I was trying to define the sound in practical terms And it reminds me of a canned FM radio broadcast. There's just sometimg artificial sounding about it. Headfi used to be the home of truly discerning audiophiles, so am I the only one here Hearing this lacking in the 2nd generation ipod?

 

[Numeryk]

I quite liked the sound of 2nd gen Touch, found it quite detailed and so to speak clean if you know what I mean.
I acquired Sony S639 literally two days ago. The Touch does not seem so good anymore.
Honestly, on some Pink Floyd tracks or classical music I noticed instruments that I could not hear before. My Touch is no up for sale on Ebay

 

[Mors]

Technically it is a very good player, ticking all the boxes, and is an awesome toy with its gadgets/looks/shape.

But from an Audio point of view, I think it's boring, flat and uninspiring. That's flat and EQ'd. I'd much rather listen to my Zune or Sony, flat with no EQ.

There will be Apple fanboys on here galore saying you're mad, but a lot of it comes down to presonal preference, no one can question what you like and what sounds good to you.

It's interesting what you say about it not sounding as good as older models, my first experience of listening to an ipod was the shuffle and the 1st gen Touch, then the 2nd Gen Touch and the 3G iPhone. None of those device impressed me at all :s

I'm going to be getting the new iPhone when it comes out, I doubt it's going to be sounding any better as Apple think they're onto a winning formula with the current one. :s

 

[craiglester]

Its a great gadget for sure.. but my 6 year old Karma kills it SQ wise... now if I could combine the two..

 

[chadbang]

After four days of playing its opened up a little and sounds presentable enough. Sucked for the first two days. But now that I've discovered apps, I'm tossing half my music anyway and thinking of more fun ways to use the touch.

 

[Miyazaki]

I bought this recently mainly for the WIFI. The sound is listenable and decent but won't compare to say the newer Sonys. It is clean and wide but also somewhat neutral and not as 'lush' as some other players.

 

[ILikeMusic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chadbang /img/forum/go_quote.gif After four days of playing its opened up a little

Huh?

 

[Lil' Knight]

That's DAP burn-in process.

 

[ILikeMusic]

Ah, I see. Well if it were me I'd leave the unit aligned north-south to take advantage of the Earth's magnetic field, and maybe place a pyramid on top to help focus the energy. That should speed break-in even more.

 

[ajai_dev]

While the ipod's with their fancy samsung chips never sound as good as ipod's on wolfson DAP's. The fact of the matter is that with time and proper burn in of the players chips and the time for the IEM's/Headphones to adjust to the new audio source.

 

[VoLTaG3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajai_dev /img/forum/go_quote.gif While the ipod's with their fancy samsung chips never sound as good as ipod's on wolfson DAP's. The fact of the matter is that with time and proper burn in of the players chips and the time for the IEM's/Headphones to adjust to the new audio source.

What? This does not happen.

 

[Fungi]

It might also be a problem with the impedance of your headphones, but I'm not sure how much of a problem that is nowadays.

 

[chadbang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mors /img/forum/go_quote.gif Technically it is a very good player, ticking all the boxes, and is an awesome toy with its gadgets/looks/shape. But from an Audio point of view, I think it's boring, flat and uninspiring. That's flat and EQ'd. I'd much rather listen to my Zune or Sony, flat with no EQ. There will be Apple fanboys on here galore saying you're mad, but a lot of it comes down to presonal preference, no one can question what you like and what sounds good to you. It's interesting what you say about it not sounding as good as older models, my first experience of listening to an ipod was the shuffle and the 1st gen Touch, then the 2nd Gen Touch and the 3G iPhone. None of those device impressed me at all :s I'm going to be getting the new iPhone when it comes out, I doubt it's going to be sounding any better as Apple think they're onto a winning formula with the current one. :s

My favorite sounding iPod was my 2nd generation. It was also immensely powerful, huge output compared to today's players. I also like my 5.5 video ipod, but this touch is dull. Does it still use wolfson dac? I didn't even bother to research that.

 

[shigzeo]

i am a fan of the sound of the ipod touch 2g, but i will admit that i prefer the 1g nano or 5g ipod. my sony's are also quite good but i don't think i would pick a clear winner in terms of sq.

for certain music, i much prefer the sony and for other musics, i prefer the ipod touch.

 

[nlaudio]

Unfortunaely, the Apple stock sound kinda sucks. The iMod is about the best portable source I know of.