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A Review of the iPod nano

Posted by Zonk on from the tiny-screen-big-sound dept.

Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Walt Mossberg has been testing the iPod nano for a few days, and he says he is 'smitten.' Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal, 'The nano has the best combination of beauty and functionality of any music player I've tested -- including the iconic original white iPod. And it sounds great. I plan to buy one for myself this weekend, when it is due to reach stores in the U.S., Europe and Asia.' Among other things, it has surprisingly good sound: 'Despite its small size, the nano sounded as good as any other iPod, and is packed with plenty of audio power. Plugged into my car speakers, it was able to belt out the new Fountains of Wayne rocker, "Maureen," loudly enough to be heard perfectly, even though I was going 70 mph in a convertible with the top down.'"

7 of 671 comments (clear)

  1. Built-in power amp? Heh. by Kosmatos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...is packed with plenty of audio power. Plugged into my car speakers, it was able to belt out the new Fountains of Wayne rocker, "Maureen," loudly enough to be heard perfectly, even though I was going 70 mph in a convertible with the top down.

    Wow, the Nano has a built-in power amplifier with enough power to play that loud in your car? Cool :)
     
    ...Its your car's amplifier doing the job, not the Nano. The nano has a line-level or headphone-level power output... Nothing impressive there, other than that Apple didn't goof up, right?

    --
    I'm your huckleberry
  2. iPod audio out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The iPod audio out is very good. Much better then may other portable players. Of course you can't tell this with the earbuds they come with, but that's another issue.

    So with a good set of headphones or speakers, and the right music, you can easily tell the difference.

    1. Re:iPod audio out... by jrockway · · Score: 5, Interesting

      > especially when using the line-out from the docking port

      This is placebo. The sound coming from the Line-Out jack is amplified to 100% by the iPod's internal amp. I have done some serious listening through the headphone jack (with and without external amps, and with rather good headphones - Bayer DT880s and Sennheiser HD650s). The best sounding iPod is actually the shuffle (unamplified)... it has really clean bass. The mini is sloppy generally, and the regular iPod is pretty solid. The Powerbook output isn't that great, the iPod is noticeably better. I have looked at waveforms with my oscilloscope that confirm these results -- the output stage caps on the mini and Powerbook discharge too quickly, making a 20Hz square wave look triangular. Not good. The shuffle does fine though! (I'm told it uses a 2-transistor push-pull output stage, but I'm no audio amplification expert.)

      Here are some results similar to mine (I haven't written mine up due to lack of interest and time :)

      http://home.comcast.net/~machrone/playertest/playe rtest.htm

      --
      My other car is first.
  3. Size comparison by mblase · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've actually found it hard to get a good idea of how big iPod nano is from the photos, because my brain wants that color screen to be larger than it really is. I finally stumbled onto Apple's iTunes sync webpage which overlaps iPod nano with a regular iPod to put its size into perspective a bit.

  4. Didn't Creative already do a 'Nano' mp3 player? by millisa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Creative Zen Nano Plus Is Apple losing creativity or did I miss some division getting bought by someone else?

  5. Re:Not exactly unbiased by inkswamp · · Score: 5, Interesting
    You know, as a long-time Mac user who watched every interesting idea that Apple had in the mid- to late-90s and in the early 2000s be greeted with words like "beleagured" and "struggling" and predictions that they were going out of business any day, I find it extraordinarily ironic to hear people complain that Apple is being treated as a media darling (which they are not.)

    Even today, there are still lingering attitudes about Apple. How many articles have we seen in the last two years predicting the imminent arrival of devastating viruses to the Mac? How many articles have we seen explaining why Macs are no more secure? How many articles have we seen trying to play up the nonexistent virus threat while downplaying the simple fact that there isn't a single virus for OS X yet.

    And yet, people compain that someone in the media might be too nice to Apple.

    --
    --Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
  6. Re:Proof that apple fanboys will buy anything by zizzo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seriously, it's just a smaller version of the ipod with a fraction of the disk space. What does this have that the ipod doesn't? At least the Shuffle doubles as a USB key for people who like to transfer files on the go. Aside from the trend factor, I don't see what this thing has that a regular ipod doesn't.

    And thus we see why slashdot people are not in marketing.

    It's all about form, not function. iPods are functionally inferior to most other MP3 players- no radio, no voice record, no optical outputs, no OGG/WMA support, too expensive for the size, only work with iTunes- but they have a form factor that has yet to be equaled let alone beaten. They look good and feel good. That is what sells. Scoff all you want.

    And yes, form matters, even beyond just selling more. I have an iRiver device with a clicky joystick control. It sits at home, unused, because the joystick is a pain to use. My shuffle get carried everywhere and used all the time because it has a simple interface that works.