Which iPod?

Tvad,

Isn't this the beauty of this hobby? I spent countless hours reading and listening to Shure E4C against the Etymotic ER4-P and decided on Shure and was going to buy it this evening, and then, Bham!!

Thanks a lot for the advise. While I came across the UEs during research, never had a chance to listen to them, so they kind of slipped thru my fingers. Now thay are firmly back on the table, so I need to go find a dealer for an audition.

As for the iPod, I am not entirely sure if Nano is the way to go. Besides the woes of construction quality, it is very small and light, so I am not sure how compromised the amplifier is. Not very many things come is such smaller packages with the whole goodness retained, unless the designer is David Berning, so...

Thanks Programmer and Lenny for your responses. Could you guys please clarify this 15GB iPod you are fererring to? Is this the Original iPod that had a monochrome screen?

Cheers,
Amal

Akaddict,

Have you had a chance to compare the audio quality between the 60GB Video iPod with the 20GB audio only version? While I have nothing inherantly against a device that features a color display and video capabilities, I'm wondering if the prominence given to video would cut back the audio performance. Not to mention the associated video noise. My primary need is audio.

Cheers,
Amal

Rob,

I agree with most of what you said. I'd love to have the WMA capability, if I could get my hands on another player with decent storage.

What other players have sonics better than or at least at par with iPod?

sorry to ask too many questions, but my knowledge in this area is very limited.

Cheers,
Amal

I always thought the apple-appeal for the audiophiles was the Losless compression (ALC) which was tested by the likes of Stereophile and confirmed to be the most superior compression available today.

I do agree with the ergonomics and the user friendliness etc., but that is not part of the selection criteria for me. I am living with the monstrosity of a ‘tubed-furnace’ in my living room, yet make peace with it!

Cheers,

Rob,

I may be wrong, but as far as I know, Apple Lossless Compression is propeitory.

Cheers,
Amal

For the benefit of anybody reading this archived thread, the best performance portable music player I have found at the moment is the Cowon iAudio7 player. The 16GB version comes just under USD 200. It suppports FLAC and works great with Shure earbuds.

Happy Listening.

Best,
Amal