[DrJon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot I've done the test... It was a bit of a trick to get the levels perfectly level, but the output of my 3g iPod plaing an AIFF rip through a Pocket Dock was identical to the output of my Sony midrange CD player. I did a quick test with my 5g and my Philips SACD/CD player that allows upsampling and it was identical to the upsampled sound too. (That probably is more a comment on the uselessness of upsampling than it is on the iPod.) See ya Steve

Excellent. So how did you compare the sound of one versus the other? Just trying to hear a difference? Was the stereo system good enough to discern any subtle differences?




Quote:

Originally Posted by russdog I wondered if-and-when effete Mac-ism would leak out. 'Sure didn't take very long, did it? My humble guess is you'll soon be paying more-than-necessary to get less-than-you-could. However, despite a dearth of any meaningful panache or extra capability, it will be stylish.

I’m guilty of that, no question. I’ve never claimed a Mac adds any extra functionality. It’s just slicker and more enjoyable to use. It’s like a cheap car versus a fancy car. They both get you to the same place in the same amount of time. One is just more enjoyable. And I’m at the stage in life where I’m willing to pay extra for that. Although the iPod lacking a digital out is a new one for me- new in that the Mac version actually has less capability. Hmmm…

 

[DrJon]

OK fellas. I’ll look into these iRiver things for portable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff E Have you looked at the squeezebox?

And then I can look into a Squeezebox for at home. I’ve got to investigate this one more. It sounds like what I want except for the interface doesn’t show all the available music the way iTunes or an iPod do. But I’ve got to look into it more. Heck, it’s even cheap.

 

[russdog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrJon Quote: Originally Posted by russdog I wondered if-and-when effete Mac-ism would leak out. 'Sure didn't take very long, did it? My humble guess is you'll soon be paying more-than-necessary to get less-than-you-could. However, despite a dearth of any meaningful panache or extra capability, it will be stylish. I’m guilty of that, no question. I’ve never claimed a Mac adds any extra functionality. It’s just slicker and more enjoyable to use. It’s like a cheap car versus a fancy car. They both get you to the same place in the same amount of time. One is just more enjoyable. And I’m at the stage in life where I’m willing to pay extra for that. Although the iPod lacking a digital out is a new one for me- new in that the Mac version actually has less capability. Hmmm…

I was mainly just ribbing you

I like nice cars. I agree with your sentiment about nice things being worthwhile. Our only disagreement is about whether Mac's fall into the category of nicer things. So, when you leak snootiness about Macs, I think you're on thin ice at best. Superficial image vs. meaningful substance, etc. But that's ok, it's not important that we agree about it.

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrJon Excellent. So how did you compare the sound of one versus the other? Just trying to hear a difference? Was the stereo system good enough to discern any subtle differences?

I balanced the levels with a headphone amp and set up an A/B switch so I could compare one right next to the other. I listened using my Senn HD590s. If there was a difference, it was subtle to the point of being completely irrelevant.

See ya
Steve

 

[DrJon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by russdog Superficial image vs. meaningful substance

And my biggest accomplishment in life is finding a gal who has both.

 

[DrJon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot I balanced the levels with a headphone amp and set up an A/B switch so I could compare one right next to the other. I listened using my Senn HD590s. If there was a difference, it was subtle to the point of being completely irrelevant. See ya Steve

Excellent. That sounds like good enough gear to tell- an amped HD590. So maybe I'll be OK with the analog out. Nice to know.

By the way, what type of A/B switching device did you use? I'd love to have one when doing blind tests between regular stereo gear (speakers, amps, etc.). But the only one I know of is $600. Made by Crown, I think.

 

[Chef Medeski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aos Just a few notes: 1. Airport express works fine even over wireless B network, even when music file is not on the machine running iTunes. For example, I use D-Link NSLU-1 with modded firmware as the itunes server which is then visible as a library from itunes clients running on any machine on my network. If I use my wireless laptop to play the music, there are two streams simultaneously over the wireless network (to laptop, from laptop). It still works, but you shouldn't do anything else (except browse the web) over wireless. However, I find that using wireless is just not worth it - there will be occasional dropouts and lost connections no matter what you do. Wireless is the victim of its own success - in my apartment I can see anywhere between 10 and 20 networks. Add the wireless phones, bluetooths, microwaves and you can see how it's a bad idea to rely on wireless. And with music you will notice network dropouts even if they only last a few seconds. 2. You can connect Airport Express via ethernet to your router and completely avoid going over wireless. This should provide necessary reliability. 3. I don't have any apple hardware except iPod and Airport Express. It still works fine. As previous poster mentioned, I could run the iTunes on my desktop and remotely control it via windows remote client (this is one Microsoft software that actually works really great). That way I could avoid problems with laptop falling out of the network while streaming. 4. Things would actually be so much smoother if apple didn't put so many unnecessary limits on remote libraries. Every time I want to add music from external library to my local library for sync'ing with iPod (it does not want to sync with remote libraries), I have to open windows network, find actual music files (therefore defeating utterly the whole point of having a searchable library) and drag-drop files over to iTunes. Nor you can drag-drop music from iTunes remote libraries (browsed by iTunes) to a local application. This makes this whole complex system far less useful than I thought it'd be.

iSyncTunes.... its basically a piece of software that sees remote libraries and can copy between computers the music.... all with iTunes organization.
Plus it can upload songs from an iPod... thats what I use.

 

[russdog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrJon And my biggest accomplishment in life is finding a gal who has both.

Me too!

The most remarkable thing about it is that she puts up with *me*

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrJon By the way, what type of A/B switching device did you use?

First I hooked up the iPod to the headphone amp and balanced it, plugging and unplugging into the headphone amp/iPod and CD headphone out. Later, I wanted to get rid of that second delay as I jacked and unjacked, so I used two preamps... One to balance the line level of the iPod, and another to switch between iPod and CD player.

See ya
Steve

 

[milkpowder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot The iPod uses a Wolfson Microelectronics WM8758 DAC. This DAC has a signal to noise ratio of 100db, THD at -88db, word lengths from 16 to 24 bits, and sampling rates up to 192kHz. External DACs might be needed for portable players with crappy built in DACs, but that isn't the case with the iPod. See ya Steve

Apple should make a super, unrestricted version of the iPod with upsampling to 192kHz, super-short signal paths, Blackgate caps, etc...

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkpowder Apple should make a super, unrestricted version of the iPod with upsampling to 192kHz, super-short signal paths, Blackgate caps, etc...

woodified of course, and totally free

 

[aos]

Quote:

iSyncTunes.... its basically a piece of software that sees remote libraries and can copy between computers the music.... all with iTunes organization. Plus it can upload songs from an iPod... thats what I use.

Wow, that's exactly what I need! Thanks so much! I keep syncing same tunes over and over because I'm too lazy to hunt my networked windows folders for stuff I want to add to my iPod (and iRiver)...

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkpowder Apple should make a super, unrestricted version of the iPod with upsampling to 192kHz, super-short signal paths, Blackgate caps, etc...

Yes, and dingle balls and fuzzy dice too.

See ya
Steve

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot and fuzzy dice too.

They still hang proudly...