[blessingx]

http://www.ipodlounge.com/ipodnews_c...d=2091_0_7_0_M

2003 Editor's Choice: Apple iPod

Not much needs to be said about my choice for 2003. The admission may not earn me any points in politically correct audiophile circles, but Apple's cute little iPod was the product I most enjoyed using this past year. Its large-capacity hard drive and ability to play back uncompressed AIF and WAV files pushes it ahead of run-of-the-mill portable players, while its intuitive, playlist-based interface is a harbinger of how all of us will be surfing our recorded music libraries in the near future.

Barry Willis said it best in a private e-mail: "The iPod is a groundbreaking device, a paradigm shift of the first magnitude. A designer can do anything with a big enough development budget and unlimited number of chips. While the result may be impressive, it is not really a great leap forward, given the prohibitive retail cost and cumbersome implementation. Packing the iPod's level of performance, accessibility, and ease of use into such a small, sleek package ranks right up there with some of the great inventions of all time."

I'll give Chip Stern the final word: "As the stalking dawg for a new class of audio products, the iPod represents part of a long-term survival scheme for two-channel audio."

Amen to that. Hook up an iPod to a pair of in-the-ear headphones like the Etymotic ER-4s or the new Shure E5cs, and you have true high-end sound to go. Now if only it had an S/PDIF digital output!

2003 Budget Product of the Year: Apple iPod

Everyone was surprised by this one.

Holding tight to their audiophile morals, Wes Phillips and John Atkinson did the unthinkable dirty deed: They went on a run with the fashionistas and rubbed shoulders with the beautiful people to get to know Apple's sexy white box a bit better. Someone had to do it. Could true audiophiles take this cute little gadget seriously?

JA found that the iPod's measured performance was better than that of many CD players, while WP was most impressed by its ease of use and lack of a single playback standard, allowing it to support even hi-rez digital files.

JA: "Excellent, cost-effective audio engineering from an unexpected source."

WP, channeling a different Apple: "Baby, you're a rich man!"

Stephen Mejias: "I still can't afford it."

 

[hempcamp]

I was pleased when I got my issue of Stereophile and saw this tidbit, but frankly also very shocked. Can't wait to read all the "cancel my subscription" letters next month!

--Chris

 

[terrymx]

it might be good but there's nothing budget about it i swear. and the whiet color is so ugly. it should get dirty pertty fast.

 

[ToddM]

As a owner of the 2nd and 3rd generation of Ipods I'm not sure I'd call it the budget product of the year.

First of all having followed many forums on different products I can say that by far the most unhappy customers I've seen in a long while are on the Ipod forum. There are more problems and repeated problems and bugs in the software that just have not been fixed. Other manufacturer forums have customers with issues as well, in fact you'd expect most customers to go there with complaints. However the Ipod forum is the worst I've seen.

Also for having a product with 3 new generations and several software updates, the ipod is still very buggy. If one reads the apple forum there are many people have the same problems, over and over.

Some of the problems I've had with mine:

Horrible battery indicator, this has not been fixed since the first ipod. It just does not reliably indicate how much battery if left.

No customizable EQ, the presets are iffy at best. Now with itunes for windows you can set a eq on that and it will transfer if you set the Ipod to Flat EQ. How hard is it to set a custom eq on the ipod?

Very hit and miss playback......I can only think this is due to buggy software but many people including myself have problems with the ipod skipping or flat out not playing songs. Generally after about 3-4 attempts at a full HD wipe and reinstall it works out but this just should not happen on a product that is this old with this many revisions.

Screen contrast is iffy at best, there are much cheaper products with better screen resolution and backlights.

Poor battery life, the latest generation of the ipod has the least battery life. What good is having 5000 songs when you can only listen to 7 hours of music. It's a nice small size sure, but I'd rather have a little larger unit and more battery life. That or a user replaceable battery similar to cell phones so those that want longer life can carry a spare.

Overall I think the Ipod is a good product, and considering a lot of 256meg mp3 players are $200+ $400 for a 20 gig player is pretty good. It also does produce good sound and a very good volume for a portable.

I think in the next year you are going to see some players come out that can really rival the ipod if not crush it. By then Apple will probalby have released at least one new if not two new ipods, so it's hard to say.

I do know one thing, I'm sure glad I bought a 3 year product plan from best buy with my ipod.

 

[karmypolitics]

did stereophile even review othe players like the zen or the iriver ihp?

 

[Rizumu]

Quote:

Originally posted by karmypolitics did stereophile even review othe players like the zen or the iriver ihp?

Don't be silly. Why would they do that?

I'm not arguing whether the iPod is "good" or "bad", but it's certainly not "budget".

 

[3Double]

Stereophile's budget component category is not based on your perception of the term budget. Budget in stereophile is sub-1k products, I believe.

 

[smjason]

Just remember that when a magazine is reviewing $22,000 speakers i.e. the Wilson Watt Puppy 7 or $35,000 CD Transports/DACs, a $499 iPod seems like a bargain.

 

[Rizumu]

Quote:

Originally posted by smjason Just remember that when a magazine is reviewing $22,000 speakers i.e. the Wilson Watt Puppy 7 or $35,000 CD Transports/DACs, a $499 iPod seems like a bargain.

But not compared to other MP3 players and that's the whole point. You don't compare an MP3 player to a DAC and then call it a bargain because it isn't in the thousands of dollars.

It just bugs me that Stereophile hasn't bothered to compare or review any other MP3 players out there and then is crowning iPod as king.

 

[3Double]

Quote:

Originally posted by Rizumu But not compared to other MP3 players and that's the whole point. You don't compare an MP3 player to a DAC and then call it a bargain because it isn't in the thousands of dollars.

Not a valid complaint.

Quote:

It just bugs me that Stereophile hasn't bothered to compare or review any other MP3 players out there and then is crowning iPod as king.

A valid complaint.

 

[Music Fanatic]

I was under the impression that the award had a lot more to do with the iPod's convenience and idea than the actual sound quality.

 

[noguilt]

it's sound quality, too, for sure.

anyway, Stereophile does have at least one more hd player review in the pipeline...

 

[adhoc]

 

[hempcamp]

Stereophile was brave enough to review the iPod in the first place. But in fairness, they should check out a few competitors... but I'd give 'em some time for that.

Stereophile is a good magazine, and I enjoy reading it, but they are frustratingly slow at reviewing a diverse selection of competing products. Like any magazine, they have their recurring favorites and they sometimes ingore everyone else. Just goes with the territory.

--Chris