Just got a new Ipod and I am sooo tired.

jimmymagick

Active Member
Got a Video Ipod as a Christmas gift from my employer and, while I appreciate the thought, these things cause such listening fatigue.

Loaded it up yesterday and spent about 30 minutes fooling around with it last night. Honestly, I don't see how anyone spends time listening to them.

Sure, the convenience of having that much music available is attractive but it's not a musical experience. I really don't understand why they are so popular and yet I work with a number of youngsters who won't go anywhere without one.
 
Look at the bright side... your listening experience is now lightweight, compact, portatable and ultra-convenient.

In other words, you can experience listener fatigue just about anywhere now!
 
A lot of the fatigue effect is related to the cheap earbuds they send with the iPod. A lot of audiophiles replace the buds and buy better buds/headphones and/or buy one of the portable amps that are available.

I have an aux port in the car and on my radio at work, so I have the mp3 player on a lot of the time.

You can also buy a Sonic T-amp and pair it with the ipod and a nice pair of efficient speakers and get really nice sound from it...assuming you burned your music at high bit rates or in a lossless format.

If all else fails, you can donate your iPod to me, I will find a good use for it! :D
 
Thanks for the donation offer, uofmtiger. I never cease to be amazed by the unfailing generosity of everyone on this board. (Sniff, sniff as I try to suppress tears.)

Seriously, tho, I wasn't using the earbuds that came with it. I had it hooked up to an old pair of Koss Pro 4 monitor cans, but I love your idea of a portable amp--and I was considering a pair of noise suppressing headphones.
(We have a company trip to Hawaii coming up in June.)

Thanks for the ideas.
 
Here are a couple of websites that I have heard have good portable amps at a decent price. I have not owned either of them, but I think the go-vibe looks like a great deal:

http://members.shaw.ca/storage_2/headsave/
http://www.z-audio.com/products.html

uofmtiger. I never cease to be amazed by the unfailing generosity of everyone on this board. (Sniff, sniff as I try to suppress tears.)
I do what I can to help out a brother! :tears:

I own the $30 Sonic T-amp and recommend it without reservation.
 
Even though Fisher never made an MP3 player...

I just love my iPod. I honestly think people who disparage them haven't really understood the "point", and aren't paying enough attention to the file types.

They're absolutely not a replacement for your main listening system. They can't sound that good, never will. And, unless you have a very, very expensive headphone amp, you can't experience stereo imaging through headphones.

The beauty of an iPod is the ability to take your music with you wherever you go. Whether it's on a plane, at work, or (my favorite) playing it through the stereo system in my car. It's wonderful...almost 2,000 songs that nobody else picked but me, with no commercial interruptions whatsoever, and without the crappy compression of satellite radio. That's really the point.

For most listening I have a better pair of headphones than the earbuds that came with it, and I have all my music ripped at 320 kbps AAC format. If you're using 64 or 128 kbps MP3's, with decent headphones, you'll certainly be disappointed with the sound, and you'll find it fatiguing.


Thread hijack alert!!!...

I continue to read threads in various groups bemoaning the fact that today's kids listen to boomboxes and MP3 players instead of "real" systems. You could take a different viewpoint, and assume that the kids are listening to music and lyrics, and not listening to equipment, like "real" audiophiles do. I'm not sure that's a bad thing at all.

Anything that gets people, of any age, to start listening to music is a good thing. :yes:
 
1) Rip your music to it in uncompressed AIFF or WAV formats - it supports both.
2) Use a pair of Grado SR-60 headphones with it.

You'll have a different opinion of it after that. The integral headphone amp is actually not bad, and the SR-60's are a perfect match, IMHO, for portable music players, with a little rolloff in the top end.
 
the SR-60's are a perfect match,
I have the SR-60s and agree with your assessment. Actually, I think the ripping is the most important aspect, but if he did that right, then the only thing left is to get different headphones or an amp.

I would also suggest using wavgain or other volume normalizer on your tracks and that will make "clipping" less noticable.
 
I'll second theodoric! I rip to lossles for my listening and I just got a great deal on some Grado SR125 headphones. Not quite perfect but I am looking at getting The pocket amp 2 to really help out on the computer and when I am on the go! :thmbsp:
 
Grado SR 60's huh?
Keep in mind that the SR60s are not "noise supressing". However, they have legendary status for a reason. :music:

I also have a couple of in-ear style earbuds. One is the Sony MDR-EX70LP Earbud Headphones that sound very good for a small price. The fit in your ears and are low noise.

I also like the Sennheiser MX-500 In-Ear Headphones. They are not as noise free as the Sonys, but they have great bass response and do not go all the way into the canal (which some people find uncomfortable).

There are some expensive buds that might be better depending on your budget, but I have no experience with them.
 
I use my iPod on airplanes, with a set of (Oh, the shame...) Bose noise cancelling headphones. I get off long flights far more rested than before, due largely to the noise supression.

As long as I keep the downloads in AAC, I do not find the iPod fatiguing. MP3s are a different story, and I deleted all the ones I had.
 
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