[lolos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by theory_87 well... i'll be amping the player using my crossroad hp1 amp or LDM+ with kcs75 or im716. just wondering will ipod lineout be better or the iriver H series. and it seems H1XX is better sound than H3XX...

Not necessary. I have owned both and I remember I liked H320 more. However, I haven't compared both at the same time. But as I rememer, with some tracks, I used to enjoy the H320 more.

NOTE: I didn't use them with an amp.

First I owned H320 and sold it and got both H120 + iAudio U3. I bought the H120 to use it with an external DAC but then decided I need to get the most out of a portable rig so I went with the imod. Right now, I don't have any players and sent an ipod 30gb photo to Vinnie for the mod, a great guy to deal with.

If you want my advice, buy used unless you can't find what you really need. If I were you, I will look at it this way, what features do you want? For instance, do you need voice recorder, FM, color screen, hard drive space, etc.

If you don't care about all that and only SQ is what you are after, then fom the reviews I have been reading for over 6 months... the imod is best SQ.

If you can't afford it, I would go with iriver H320 and ipod 60gb Video in second place. BTW, if you are going to use IEM, you better make sure your player of choice won't hiss too much with it. Since I never owned IEM before (my shure E500 is on its way to me though

) I can't help you out here, but you can look into that.

I literally hold myself from any fancy and sometimes basic stuff to afford this hobby... I hope all the money I have spent since joining headfi will pay out later

Good luck... it is a very stressing hobby but quite interesting... I am loving it, especially this great forum... everyone here is so friendly and mad cool

 

[JayJayz]

Ok, so from what i can tell so far, a device with an optical out will provide the best SQ, but this means i will need an external DAC, something i cannot have on a PORTABLE rig, yes i need a portable player for portable use, so i was intrested in the best SQ i could get while it was being used for portable use.

I'm not sure but isn't the line out of a player normally much better SQ than the headphone out?

I WILL be using a PINT amp and i have a good set of DT 770/80's , that is what i will be using for my portable rig, but now i need a portable player with great SQ, i will be ONLY using the line out as i will be using the PINT hooked to the portable device with a mini to mini.

So i was wondering, because i will only be using the line-out, what player provides the best SQ from the line-out?

Is the line out from a 5g ipod 60gb video a good line out? if it isnt is there a way i can improve its SQ ?

Otherwise it seems the iMod is the best for SQ, but it will only have limited features because of them only being 4th gen, the ipod photo is the best but thats still quite expensive so that would be like 200+200 for the ipod +mod so it seems because of that the 5th gen ipod video is MUCH better, but in terms of SQ it isn't as good, but how much worser is it ?

Also other players too like the iRiver and the creative Zen M seem allright, how do they compare in terms of SQ and functionability to the 5th gen ipod video? Do the irivers play video? I think the zen m does, but how does that fare compared to the 5th gen ipod in terms of SQ ?

So basically i find because of the price, the iMod is the most expensive by quite a bit so its cheaper to get the 5th gen ipod which is alot better in terms of size and features like playing video, so if the SQ is not SOOO much better from the iMod (line-out SQ) then it would fare me much better to get the 5th gen ipod. This then leaves another player the zen vision M, seems to have all the functions of the ipod 5g, but looks bigger and is only half the space (30gb vs ipod's 60gb) than the ipod, so if it's SQ (vision M) isn't better than the 5g ipod i guess the 5th gen ipod video is the best.

^^ PLEASE READ ^^ if you can help me it would be greatly appreciated.

cheers, JJZ.

 

[JWolf]

One reason to get a 5g iPod is for the 60gb drive and Rockbox. My real question is ... if you have a Sendstation USB, do you need to get your iPod modded?

Jon

 

[omendelovitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JWolf One reason to get a 5g iPod is for the 60gb drive and Rockbox. My real question is ... if you have a Sendstation USB, do you need to get your iPod modded? Jon

#1 - Vinnie won't imod a 5g 'pod last I checked.
#2 - if you adjust the hardware EQ on Rockbox to boost the entire spectrum (all boosted 12dB, choose the highest frequency for the lower 4 adjustments, 2nd lowest frequency on the treble cutoff, and wide bandwidth on the 3 centre frequencies), iPod goes from sounding blah to sounding even better than the ZVM (IMO). So far with this rockbox setting, this iPod is the best sounding dap I've had the pleasure of listening to (and I've owned all types DAPs with exception of the iRivers).

 

[Brent Hutto]

So does Rockbox let you set your iPod on 11? I bet that would sound awesome, most portables only go to 10.

 

[gloco]

There really isn't a clear winner on SQ, it's all a matter of preference. Lately, I've taken to flac'ing my cd's for use on my Rio Karma+shures. It's bliss.

 

[fierce_freak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brent Hutto So does Rockbox let you set your iPod on 11? I bet that would sound awesome, most portables only go to 10.

it goes to 11, man!

 

[JayJayz]

so by using rockbox on the 5th gen ipod, you can improve the SQ? that seems very strange and illogical that the software can make that improvement, how does it make that improvement then?

 

[aos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayJayz so by using rockbox on the 5th gen ipod, you can improve the SQ? that seems very strange and illogical that the software can make that improvement, how does it make that improvement then?

That's what I'd like to know too. I haven't followed this site for a while but this kind of claim is indeed illogical. Unless iPod firmware does some kind of pre-processing or sets some flags on hardware incorrectly, I am not sure how can this happen. By the way I am using Rockbox on my iRiver 120 and it's a great replacement as I can now use ALAC (Apple Lossless) and don't have to recode anhything. But iPod is much more user-friendly out of the box and I don't need it to play anything other than MP3 or ALAC anyway.

 

[omendelovitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aos That's what I'd like to know too. I haven't followed this site for a while but this kind of claim is indeed illogical. Unless iPod firmware does some kind of pre-processing or sets some flags on hardware incorrectly, I am not sure how can this happen.

I don't see how this is so illogical. Using a car analogy, some have an econo/sport setting that affects both the acceleration of the car and its gas mileage. Given Rockbox's battery consumption relative to Apple OS' (>2X), it doesn't seem unreasonable that Apple could have deliberately 'choked' the audio output in order to save either/both CPU power/battery life. Also, given the iPod's stock sound compared by many w/ the ZVM, the ZVM is often called 'boring' when compared to the iPod - I don't doubt that the output is tailored to have the 'more exciting' sound exhibited by a stock iPod.

 

[aos]

But we are talking software changes here, not hardware changes. There is nothing in the analog stage that software can adjust (unless hardware was designed with that in mind, of which I've never heard of; it is however possible that the Wolfson chip has some registers that Apple set incorrectly, or something like it).

I can only think of disabling some unnecessary signal processing - perhaps there is an additional volume limiter, such as used for European iPods, that is present in iPod firmware and is obviously not in Rockbox, and that could certainly impact the sound. I'm just interested to know what the cause is - if it exists. I mean, there are people that claim that losless compression sounds different than WAV. If that's the kind of people that claim difference in sound quality between iPpod and RockBox firmwares, then I can safely ignore this whole topic.

 

[Brent Hutto]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aos I'm just interested to know what the cause is - if it exists. I mean, there are people that claim that losless compression sounds different than WAV. If that's the kind of people that claim difference in sound quality between iPpod and RockBox firmwares, then I can safely ignore this whole topic.

Ding, ding, ding. Give the man a kewpie doll!

If you've read threads here reviewing portable music players, under "Sound Quality" they often go on at length about how fancy a software equalizer the player has. Or in the case of iPods, a lot of people will claim they are lacking in "Sound Quality" specifically because they don't have a configurable multi-band equalizer.

You probably are thinking along the old-fashioned lines of "Sound Quality" meaning how close the player can get to the sound of the original source material with your particular headphone and/or amp. That's not a universal definition by any means.

 

[redshifter]

sorry to say this, but there are some really long posts in here with incorrect information about music files.

for the op, you might try hydrogen audio for info on codecs.

 

[omendelovitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aos But we are talking software changes here, not hardware changes. There is nothing in the analog stage that software can adjust (unless hardware was designed with that in mind, of which I've never heard of; it is however possible that the Wolfson chip has some registers that Apple set incorrectly, or something like it). I can only think of disabling some unnecessary signal processing - perhaps there is an additional volume limiter, such as used for European iPods, that is present in iPod firmware and is obviously not in Rockbox, and that could certainly impact the sound. I'm just interested to know what the cause is - if it exists. I mean, there are people that claim that losless compression sounds different than WAV. If that's the kind of people that claim difference in sound quality between iPpod and RockBox firmwares, then I can safely ignore this whole topic.

Let's keep in mind here that the software controls (hence the name driver) the hardware, and that as you mentioned, signal processing can be controlled (voltage and current applied to circuitry, for example) by the software. This is just my conjecture, but I've noticed that signal bandwidth is related to voltage and current passed through system hardware.

Another point to consider - Rockbox 'skips' when a user tries to interface with the OS while playing music; From what I've been able to gather (i.e. my theory), it seems that Rockbox commits a larger % of RAM to audio playback processes than Apple OS, sacrificing battery life in the process (evidenced by more frequent HD spin-ups and the aforementioned 'skipping'. Let's keep in mind that the SQ difference b/w Apple OS and Rockbox isn't night and day (at least from my setup) - it's more like Rockbox's sound is more refined and less congested...

 

[omendelovitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aos I mean, there are people that claim that losless compression sounds different than WAV. If that's the kind of people that claim difference in sound quality between iPpod and RockBox firmwares, then I can safely ignore this whole topic.

IMO, the difference b/w Rockbox and Apple OS is sufficient enough to warrant using Rockbox - and I have more than enough reason to want to use Apple OS (I hate the loss in battery life associated w/Rockbox, but in the end sound is more important to me...)