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Latest iPod Configuration -- Any New Hope?

I know there are several threads on the pieces of this question, but I hope this will be a convenient all in one place update for iPod users who really care about the sound.

I was an early adopter for iPod with great hopes for portable, audiophile sound. I know they are fine for convenience, working out blah blah blah, but that was not my main goal. Rather I wanted truly portable and truly high end sound for traveling. And even 20 or 30 uncompressed CDs would be wonderful and -- maybe Im weird - but more than enough for most plane flights!

In the end, I got frustrated and kept hitting dead ends even with the so called experts, so at this point, I have two iPods, several sets of headphones, some noise cancellation headphones, one of the original top of the line Headroom portable amps, circa 1996 with D Cell outboard battery pack, a 9V battery powered Grado headphone amp, and expensive custom earpieces gathering dust in my drawers.

I have tried the Apple lossless scheme and for me, it is unacceptable, not to mention the devious tricks which apparently limit the number of times the files can be copied.

Maybe some of you have cracked the code, but I have had nothing but problems trying to easily "tag" uncompressed files.

In addition, it seems WAV files drain the battery life and cause brief skips in the operation of the hard drive.

Taking my iPod for the first time for months today on my motorcycle, I was reminded that the Etymotics high end headphones DO NOT play well with the wimpy internal amp of the iPod.

I was so disappointed, that I thought I should somehow velcro the Grado amp into my bike jacket or something, but aside from the geeky complexity of this there is no line level out?!

You get the idea...

Dont get me wrong, its a great little gadget for casual listening.

But WHY isnt it so so so so so so much better?!?!?!?!?

Or have I missed something?

Thank you.
cwlondon
gunbei
2,327 posts
 
CW, good questions.

I bought my iPod last summer with similar, but maybe not with as lofty hopes. I wondered if it would sound good in my 2 channel rig. I bought an Audience Conductor [not the AU24] adapter and connected it to my preamp and was pretty disappointed. I borrowed a set of Sennheisers from Viggen, but the little iPod had a big problems pushing it. I have good luck with a pair of Grado SR60s at work and a set of Koss KSC-50s with a Channel Island headphone amp for late night Tivo listening at home. I bought a Dension car adapter for the iPod, but have yet to install it. What I like about this unit is that I'll be able to control it using my car CD player controls.

I'm surprised to hear that the iPod has trouble powering the Etymotics. I've never heard that before, but that's good to know. When I take it on the plane next week, I'll bring along the stock earplugs and the little Koss headphones.

What is it about the Apple Lossless you don't like? The fidelity? Compression? For my use I find it completely acceptable.

I guess getting back to my earlier statement, I probably did have less expectations of its performance than you did. It does almost everything I'd hope for. Sounding good through my stereo would have been the icing though.
thedautch
329 posts
 
With a couple thousand songs of Apple Lossless and Shure e5C headphones, I feel my 60 GB iPod is a pretty solid piece. The sonic quality is good enough for me considering that it's just a fancy MP3 player, and the value of having only those tracks I really want burned into my iTunes is a clincher.

All in all, I'd have to say I'm pretty satisfied.
listen_hear
3 posts
 
Disclaimer: I don't own an iPod, and haven't used the following product.

A company called Simpl Acoustics developed a headphone amp, exclusively for the iPod. It may (or may not) be the solution you're looking for...
Check out these links, for more info:

http://www.simpl.com/products.html

http://www.ipodlounge.com/reviews_more.php?id=6069_0_6_0_C

http://ipodstudio.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=71&sort=7&cat=18&page=1

'Hope that helps! Good luck.
the_smokester
174 posts
 
I haven't listened critically to an iPod and don't own one. However, I own and have traveled extensively with a Creative Zen Touch and an iRiver iHP-120. Both these players support uncompressed WAV.

I use the Zen to drive Etymotics ER-4P's and with a Headroom Total Airhead portable amp to drive Sennheiser HD-650's. The iHP-120 drives both transducers directly. Of these two, the iHP-120 has better sound but it is still not audiophile quality.

Recently I purchased a Overture limited edition transportable DAC from Headroom.com. It's about the size of the iHP-120. The Overture has an optical (Toslink) input and this can be driven with the optical line out from the iHP-120. The Overture DAC is very good. If you put the Overture's output into a Ray Samuels SR-71 portable amp (about the size of an iPod) driving Ultimate Ear UE-10 Pros, Senn 650's or whatever your flavor of earphone is, you get a three box solution that is probably going to do about the best that can be done in the transportable department until someone (Headroom?) comes out with something more integrated.
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Strange as it might seem what I enjoy sometimes having listened a lot to an album on my iPod is actually hearing how much better it sounds on my main system.......

Doubtless CW over time technology will bring the fidelity to match the convienance of the iPod.
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