IPOD help??

[jaxvon]

Would you really put your workout second seat to your music? I can't stand bad music all the time, let alone when I'm working out.

Ipod have pretty nasty headphone outs, and Creative models do everything they do, and more, for less.

The new shuffle is one of a kind, but it still sounds like an apple.

SheepStar

Wrong. Stereophile has measured the iPod and it is very much a high-fidelity, low-noise device. It is on par with many expensive electronics that you'll find at your local hi-fi store. Yes iPods are more expensive, but the fit and finish are unmatched by any other mp3 player, IMO. Also, I don't think anyone has mentioned it here, for those of you contemplating a Shuffle, do note that the songs play in random order (hence the "Shuffle" moniker), and you cannot change this.

Additionally, "sounds like an Apple" would be a compliment. The majority of audio and video production is done on Apple computers. Next time you pop in Morph the Cat, remember that it was recorded in ProTools on a Mac.

 

[Sheep]

I've AB'd between my Zen Micro and my Friends 30gig Video, and we both preferred the Zen.

We used Sennheiser HD500s, Sennheiser HD212Pros, Shure E2Cs, Koss KCS75s, and Altec Lansing Inmotion IM716s.

The fact that the Creative MuVo TX (which I also own) has a 5 band EQ and my friends 400 dollar Ipod Video doesn't is quite sad.

SheepStar

 

[WmAx]

To be fair, the IPOD measures superbly well when driving a very high load impedance, as the majority of on Stereophile tests used as a condition in the review at subject here. This represents driving a pre-amplifier or amplifier input(s). When driving low impedance loads, such as headphones(especially those under 32 ohms), the IPOD has been shown to have problems in various areas, such as lowered bass amplitude caused by an effective high pass fiilter in combination with low impedance(due to coupling capacitors that are too small) and high distortion at the highest volume setting. I measured a Zen Extra that I used to have into all of these conditions, and it had much smaller deviation in performance, when compared to what has been shown to be the case with the IPOD into such loads.

-Chris