IPods and You

My first Ipod

I inherited an "old" 4gb version from one of the kids when they got a new one for Christmas.

Being stubborn, I resisted the technology for a while but about a week ago, my wife loaded itunes onto my laptop and transferred some of my cds into itunes. the next day I loaded some more and filled up the ipod.

I have used it in the truck with an fm transmitter and it works well, and no commercials.

I have also used it with my home stereo and an rca to mini plug cord. I was fairly impressed with the sound quality.....but being the sceptic, I had to compare it to one of the cds.

I'm not sure what happens in the process of burning the cd to the laptop and then onto the ipod, but there is a DEFINATE change in the quality.
the original CD is louder and has more highs and lows. Side by side it is very noticable.

As I am using itunes I am not sure if software is an issue, maybe a different cd drive or laptop would change things but for me I'm not changing my entire system just for an ipod(which will likley not last more than a few years)

I may use the ipod for convenience but I will not be dumping my cds once they are on my laptop or ipod.
 
I've got an iPod 80GB video from around 2-3 years ago. I'll admit, they're very practical and great for travel/being away. That being said, I find the sound quality pretty mediocre. I've got everything ripped lossless, and while it doesn't sound BAD, it's just really boring to listen to. Compared to my CDP/turntable and even my old D141 Sony discman (pre-anti shock) I find myself skipping tracks a lot more. I use the same set of Audio Technica headphones on everything as well.

The soundcard in my desktop sounds much better, so lately I've more or less been using the iPod as a little music drive when I'm doing work (playing everything through the soundcard).
 
Can't see the Forrest through the trees...

I have been searching for the thread(s) about the best way to handle the situation where the iTunes library is far larger than the capacity of the available storage on an iPod. I have been looking for about an hour so far and simply can not find it (them). :dunno: I seem to recall that I may even have posted in one of them a while back. :headscrat

My situation is that my library has been ripped to Apple Lossless and it far exceeds the 16GB capacity of my iPod touch. I would like to use it for convenience listening only while traveling and in a vehicle so I don't need to have the lossless quality and large file sizes. I am willing to sacrifice some quality in this case for more quantity of music while building my playlists. I am looking for an as easy as possible way to create compressed playlists just for use in the iPod touch.

I know that this has been discussed before so, unless something is new or different, if someone can kindly point me to the other
thread(s) I will do my reading there.
 
I have also used it with my home stereo and an rca to mini plug cord. I was fairly impressed with the sound quality.....but being the sceptic, I had to compare it to one of the cds.

I'm not sure what happens in the process of burning the cd to the laptop and then onto the ipod, but there is a DEFINATE change in the quality.
the original CD is louder and has more highs and lows. Side by side it is very noticable.

I am expierencing the same as above, when i take a track off a cd and burn it at 360kbps or as a wav at 1411 kbps and then transfer it to the ipod and listen to it through my systmn it just doesn't sound anywhere as good !! Could it be the dock i am using ? Just a cheap logic dock nothing special !!
Any help on this would be great !!!
 
I have been searching for the thread(s) about the best way to handle the situation where the iTunes library is far larger than the capacity of the available storage on an iPod. I have been looking for about an hour so far and simply can not find it (them). :dunno: I seem to recall that I may even have posted in one of them a while back. :headscrat

My situation is that my library has been ripped to Apple Lossless and it far exceeds the 16GB capacity of my iPod touch. I would like to use it for convenience listening only while traveling and in a vehicle so I don't need to have the lossless quality and large file sizes. I am willing to sacrifice some quality in this case for more quantity of music while building my playlists. I am looking for an as easy as possible way to create compressed playlists just for use in the iPod touch.

I know that this has been discussed before so, unless something is new or different, if someone can kindly point me to the other
thread(s) I will do my reading there.

Sync your iPod only to certain playlists, i.e. don't take it all with you.

I sync my Touch to the smart playlist "Recently Added", "Rock" and "Favorites" which are all my 5 star rateds. Keep that under your 16 GB and you are all set.

I also rip tp 320 bps .mp3s as it seems to be the best trade-off between fidelity and length.
 
Thanks Andyman. That is essentially what I do now. I have managed to create two separate music libraries with the same music content, one in Apple Lossless and one compressed. I can fit about 75% of the compressed library and just the most important lossless playlists. I now can have an ideal mixture of compressed music that sounds plenty good enough while on the move and the music that I enjoy the most in uncompressed format all on the Ipod touch at the same time. Of course at home I just use the uncompressed library. It took a lot of research, reading and trial-and-error for me to figure it out but it works fine now.

I am waiting for an iPhone with 32GB or more before I upgrade. There are some rumours out there but nothing that I know of that seems credible yet.
 
I am expierencing the same as above, when i take a track off a cd and burn it at 360kbps or as a wav at 1411 kbps and then transfer it to the ipod and listen to it through my systmn it just doesn't sound anywhere as good !! Could it be the dock i am using ? Just a cheap logic dock nothing special !!
Any help on this would be great !!!

It's the DAC (digital-audio converter) of the iPod that's causing the sound quality loss. Using a line-out cable from the bottom of the unit instead of from the headphone will help a bit, but it will never sound as good as a CD player. At least it can't seem to in my house.
 
It's the DAC (digital-audio converter) of the iPod that's causing the sound quality loss. Using a line-out cable from the bottom of the unit instead of from the headphone will help a bit, but it will never sound as good as a CD player. At least it can't seem to in my house.
Thanks Dave
I already have the line out from the dock and not the headphone socket and am now going to get a better quality interconnect to see if that improves things ! I think the wadia dock seems the way to go but i believe you also need a separate DAC for the Wadia to go into is that right?
 
That is correct. The Wadia extracts the signal directly from the iPod before the iPod's DAC.
 
From the internet, about Krell's "The KID":

"Hey man, check out my $4000 combo iPod dock / Class A amp playing a 128kbps MP3 file! Listen to that brittle high-end... it's like you're in the room with the computer that compressed this file!"

(I confess I use my iPod quite frequently as source.)
 
As a cheapskate, one thing I've found to the iPod's advantage is how numerous they are. I'm a pawn shopper from decades back, and for every one of the other mp3 players I see in the shops I will see 10 iPods - they're just so damn easy to find, and find for cheap if you buy used. My son actually picked up an older 30 GB iPod a few months ago as a spare for $20, and the last two newer generation 8 GB players I've bought (one for me, one for my son) have cost me $40.
 
I just ordered a brand new replacement battery for my 3rd generation iPod. Paid 1 cent and $4 for shipping. I'll see how that works out.
 
I've been pretty rude about the iPod over the years, but all the kids that work for me have them, so last spring I gave in and bought a 120GB Classic as I saw some situations over the summer where I might use one.

I've not looked back since and can honestly say I have never listened to so much music. The fact I have my entire CD collection with me at all times I have discovered music I had forgotten I owned and while I prefer to buy the CD and rip it I have even bought a few downloads from iTunes.

Actually I've never bought this much music either, I've even gone to concerts!
They may not be the best, the highest fidelity, but you know I don't care. I've rediscovered music *bigtime* and that has to be what counts.

Anyway it sounds pretty good through my office system sitting on a Pure dock through a Sugden A48 and a pair of B&W DM4's and I have a pair of the 'good' Apple earphones for when I'm out:music:
 
I've been pretty rude about the iPod over the years, but all the kids that work for me have them, so last spring I gave in and bought a 120GB Classic as I saw some situations over the summer where I might use one.

I've not looked back since and can honestly say I have never listened to so much music. The fact I have my entire CD collection with me at all times I have discovered music I had forgotten I owned and while I prefer to buy the CD and rip it I have even bought a few downloads from iTunes.

Actually I've never bought this much music either, I've even gone to concerts!
They may not be the best, the highest fidelity, but you know I don't care. I've rediscovered music *bigtime* and that has to be what counts.

Anyway it sounds pretty good through my office system sitting on a Pure dock through a Sugden A48 and a pair of B&W DM4's and I have a pair of the 'good' Apple earphones for when I'm out:music:

I have no doubt that there are better sounding players than the iPod, but I'm happy with mine. Ripping to lossless files and pairing it with a set of portable Sennheiser headphones made a big difference in sound quality. I bought my 17 year old son a pair of Sennheiser HD-570's a few months back and he uses them with his iPod quite a bit. Is it hi-fi? No, but its a convenient way to carry lots of music, and it doesn't sound half bad!
 
One thing that I found significantly improved the sound of my ipod is using a headphone amp between the line-out (dock) and the stereo preamp.

I use a cheap Rolls headphone amp that I picked up from Guitar Center. Does wonders.
 
What is a good DAC for the money, to go with the Wadia??

I am a big proponent of the Cambridge Audio DacMagic. Wadia also makes the 151 PowerDAC mini (integrated amp with DAC) and it is a physical match for the Wadia i170.
 

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iPod mini needs new battery

I'm hoping to hear from onepixel or anyone else who has replaced their own battery. Mine won't hold a charge for longer than two days so it's time to replace it. I'm looking for recommendations on suppliers.

While I'm in there, I plan to replace the micro-drive with a larger capacity CF ll card to eliminate the moving parts. Anyone know if the storage capacity is limited by the OS?

Thanks!
 
Thoughts on Best IPod Analogue Dock at Decent Price

Thoughts?

We have a iPod Touch 3g, (son) and a Nano 3g (daughter) and Nano 4g models (wife).

I tried a no-name cheapo ($15), and couldn't get the Touch to work ... but the Nanos did.

Only one i've found that definately identifies it works with all models is the Apple Universal Dock - which is expensive (in my books) at $55 (mind-you it does come with the remote). Plus from what I have read online there is a big debate on whether or not the Apple unit is true line-out.

I would like max. compatibility as I am probably going to break down and buy a Touch of my own so that would probably be a 4g .... and I don't expect the others we have to last forever.

I'd like also to find one cheap enough that I can get multiple units - I have my daughter fixed up but then one for my son, one for my home office and one for my work office.
 
Update

Well I'm a .... I got the $15 dock working with the Touch 3g ... just needed to turn it off, then dock, then turn on. Works fine.
 
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