Sound Quality of the Fifth Generation iPods?

ntropi asks: "As the drive on my old MP3 player (an iRiver H320) grinds toward its last days, I've found myself in search of a new one. Given the options the new iPod seems the best choice, but I'm hesitating somewhat over the murmurings as to the iPod's supposedly poor sound quality. However, while Marc Heijligers has provided a comprehensive breakdown of iPod performance for up to the fourth generation, I have been hard-pressed to find any information on the 5G's performance. With the exception of this CNET review, which reports that 'Audio quality is quite good and probably better than the previous iPod's, with reasonable bass, distinguishable mids, and shiny highs, plus the audio-output power is quite good.', there seems not to have been any detailed analysis of the iPod's output quality. Thus, it seemed a good idea to appeal to the Slashdot hive-mind for its personal experiences with the 5G's playback, or even analyses that people might have done which were simply never put online."

Comments

Here's an ideo...

[ItMustBeEsoteric]

Go to Apple's site. Read specs on iPod. Go to Apple store. Try out iPod. Don't pester people on Slashdot about it when you have the same resources available we do.

Re:Its a compressed mp3, not a cd. Its more portab

[Shanep]

If your an "audiofile" then listen to lossless or a cd or even better "VYNL RECORDS".

Vinyl exhibits some really difficult to remedy problems. First of all, TWO channels are encoded into ONE analog track. This causes terrible channel seperation (you can hear the left channel in the right and vice versa) and also kills to some degree the stereo effect. That analog encoding and then decoding of two channels into one also has the undesired effect of adding more distortion and noise, typically done in the analog domain for these so called "purists". The more you play a vinyl album, the more you loose the high frequencies. The reason for this, is that above about 15kHz gets RUBBED AWAY by the needle more and more each time you play it. The needle gets VERY hot from friction against the moving vinyl and if you are silly enough to stop the player before picking the needle arm up off the vinyl, the needle MELTS a small hole into the track where it has stopped. That causes a pop the next time you play that point of the album.

To get super high quality out of vinyl, you have to spend MEGA bucks and still not come close to a top end CD player.

I strongly reject the idea of audiophiles having "golden ears". I think in reality, audiophile is really another word for arrogant.

Years ago I saw some audiophile dorks on television, testing out the idea that CD's should be placed in the freezer prior to listening. The theory was that when they were manufactured, cracks in the plastic form due to changes in temperature. They claim that freezing the CD's brought these cracks back together and got rid of errors in the digital audio. So here we could see a bunch of dorks on a lounge, listening to some frozen CD and some nodding together agreeingly to some perceived higher quality.

I wish I could have been in that room to ask them why the hell this issue does not create great problems for CDROM media.

It is all about perception.

The whole point of portable MP3 is to carry as many songs in as small a space. If people wanted perfect CD quality in a portable package they'd buy mini-disc. But they didn't. However people want good->excellent quality and small files.

Mini-disc uses lossy compression.

BTW, I can hold about 60 uncompressed albums on my iRiver H340 as it stands now. If I had double the HDD size, I would probably decide to just put my whole collection on it uncompressed. For me and I imagine many others, the whole point of portable MP3 is to carry MY entire collection. If I could fit it as uncompressed or lossless compressed, I would.

Do you realize how retarded you sound?

[Andy Dodd]

Even if the original poster lives near an Apple store or other iPod-carrying retailer, do you realize how idiotic your advice is?

Hint: Think about the kind of listening environment that a busy Apple store presents. Especially since Apple stores are usually located in shopping malls.

Same goes for many other brick and mortar stores such as Best Buy. Circuit City is an exception, as most CC stores I've seen do actually have sound-isolated listening booths for demonstrating some of what they sell. That said, I don't think any CC is set up so that you can demo iPods in those booths, just the higher end home theater and car audio stuff.