iPod Nano 3rd gen audio quality?

[[email protected]]

I know this isn't mp3 players forum, but there's no way I'll get the
kind of feedback I'm looking for in those kind of places, and it is
pretty on topic. I figured I'd make do without my iPod since my old
10 gig's drive crapped out for good (and I've run out of spare parts
from the assortment of generations of iPods around the house), but now
I miss it on my subway commute. I don't blame iPods but I'm pretty
soured on mini hard drives in hand held devices. So a flash drive it
will be. So...I have a (the ! ) big question for anyone who has one
of the new Nanos, and that is: all things being equal, is the audio
quality it offers at least as good as the Classic iPods? I'm getting
mixed signals from reading reviews, but, as I say, this is a better
place to ask this question.

As an aside I was able to check out a friend's iPodTouch with the same
file and headphones (before my 5th gen died) and can say with
certainty that it was a step down as a listening experience, and
that's the only thing I'm looking to avoid with its replacement. Now
that my frame of reference is dead I can't compare them as well. If
anyone has one of these and can verify that they don't sound any worse
than other iPods they're familiar with I'd be very appreciative.

Thanks!

v

[Richard Crowley]

> wrote ...
> As an aside I was able to check out a friend's iPodTouch with the same
> file and headphones (before my 5th gen died) and can say with
> certainty that it was a step down as a listening experience, and
> that's the only thing I'm looking to avoid with its replacement.

In what way did it seem like a step down?

Now you have me worried about my 80 GB 5G machine.

[[email protected]]

On Dec 3, 3:14 pm, "Richard Crowley" > wrote:

> In what way did it seem like a step down?
>
> Now you have me worried about my 80 GB 5G machine.


Well, it was certainly not scientific : ) just going back and forth
between an 8 gig Touch and my 5th Gen 10 Gig, and I determined there
was a difference between the two and that I preferred the latter.
The Touch just seemed a hair less defined, and a less open. Again, I
wasn't out to prove anything, just to see if I might buy a Touch and I
decided the price didn't justify the way I felt about it. Of course,
if it turns out they have exactly the same audio innards, well, you'll
have to take me out back and shoot me. : )

I'm curious about others' experiences with the outputs of these
things.

[Tobiah]

> is the audio
> quality it offers at least as good as the Classic iPods?

I bought a Creative Nomad refurbished from a store, because
the price was attractive. It was ugly, and clunky looking,
and the user interface was not very easy to use.

When they came out, a friend at work bought a 30Gig iPod
that played movies. The iPod was a noticeable step down
in audio quality. The friend is in to high quality audio
and had to admit this. The iPod sounded good, until compared
with the Nomad. The Nomad had a marked edge on clarity and
presence.

I don't know whether Apple has attempted to improve this now,
but since you are concerned about the quality, and you wonder
whether the new iPods are 'at least as good as the Classics',
I submit that you might want to audition some other brands
along side the iPod, unless, understandably, you are addicted
to the beautiful interface and form factor that the iPod sports.

Tobiah

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Mark]

On Dec 4, 5:47 pm, Tobiah > wrote:
> > is the audio
> > quality it offers at least as good as the Classic iPods?
>
> I bought a Creative Nomad refurbished from a store, because
> the price was attractive. It was ugly, and clunky looking,
> and the user interface was not very easy to use.
>
> When they came out, a friend at work bought a 30Gig iPod
> that played movies. The iPod was a noticeable step down
> in audio quality. The friend is in to high quality audio
> and had to admit this. The iPod sounded good, until compared
> with the Nomad. The Nomad had a marked edge on clarity and
> presence.
>
> I don't know whether Apple has attempted to improve this now,
> but since you are concerned about the quality, and you wonder
> whether the new iPods are 'at least as good as the Classics',
> I submit that you might want to audition some other brands
> along side the iPod, unless, understandably, you are addicted
> to the beautiful interface and form factor that the iPod sports.
>
> Tobiah
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

its pretty easy to make a file with some test tones and check the
various players with a scope for frequency response etc etc. and put
an end to the guessing.

Do you have the EQ set to flat? Set it to where you _like_ the sound
and relax and enjoy it.


Mark

[Martin Doppelbauer]

I've compared the iPodTouch against my SonyPSP (also: same file, same
headphones) and also found the audio quality of the iPodTouch was not quite
as good as the Sony's. The difference was small, however.
Martin

> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
> On Dec 3, 3:14 pm, "Richard Crowley" > wrote:
>
>> In what way did it seem like a step down?
>>
>> Now you have me worried about my 80 GB 5G machine.
>
>
> Well, it was certainly not scientific : ) just going back and forth
> between an 8 gig Touch and my 5th Gen 10 Gig, and I determined there
> was a difference between the two and that I preferred the latter.
> The Touch just seemed a hair less defined, and a less open. Again, I
> wasn't out to prove anything, just to see if I might buy a Touch and I
> decided the price didn't justify the way I felt about it. Of course,
> if it turns out they have exactly the same audio innards, well, you'll
> have to take me out back and shoot me. : )
>
> I'm curious about others' experiences with the outputs of these
> things.
>

[[email protected]]

On Dec 4, 5:47 pm, Tobiah > wrote:
The iPod sounded good, until compared
> with the Nomad. The Nomad had a marked edge on clarity and
> presence.
>
> I don't know whether Apple has attempted to improve this now,
> but since you are concerned about the quality, and you wonder
> whether the new iPods are 'at least as good as the Classics',
> I submit that you might want to audition some other brands
> along side the iPod, unless, understandably, you are addicted
> to the beautiful interface and form factor that the iPod sports.


Tobiah, nah, I'm a Mac user but have no blind enthusiasm for iPods,
though between myself and my kids we've been through a few. My
problem with Creative is that I gifted a $175 player to a PC friend
last year and it's been a downer (constant freezing, died, replacement
freezes and Creative acts as if he doesn't exist). My wife has few
year old iRiver something or other and while it works OK none of us
likes to use it. It's not relaxing to use. It takes all my
concentration to toggle through the menus to play a song! : )
Plus, it doesn't support Mss Storage and the OSX software, while it
works, is very limited and slow.

But I'm open to suggestions from anyone with non-iPods. They just
more easily integrate into my workflow and computerflow. They (mp3
players in general) are such a boon for work to listen to music I'm
working on during my commute to make decisions on that saves me the
time of doing it at the studio when I could be tweaking (naturally I'm
not talking about sound or mix decisions). I'm just soured on teeny
hard drives. In fact, if my Zoom H2 didn't make such a wonky mp3
player (great $200 recorder, though) I'd just fill up extra SD cards
and use that.


And it's not that big a compromise from the days of running off a
reference cassette, eh?

[Arny Krueger]

> wrote in message


> But I'm open to suggestions from anyone with non-iPods.
> They just more easily integrate into my workflow and
> computerflow. They (mp3 players in general) are such a
> boon for work to listen to music I'm working on during my
> commute to make decisions on that saves me the time of
> doing it at the studio when I could be tweaking
> (naturally I'm not talking about sound or mix decisions).


> I'm just soured on teeny hard drives.

Lately, the size/price ratio of flash-based memory seems to be improving a
lot faster than the "doubles performance every 2-3 years" that has been the
historical rule.

One consequence is that hard drives have lost a lot of the economic
advantages that made us want to tolerate them.

> In fact, if my
> Zoom H2 didn't make such a wonky mp3 player (great $200
> recorder, though) I'd just fill up extra SD cards and use
> that.

Ditto for the Microtrack 2496.

The playback library features of this class of devices is near non-existent.
It's all just firmware.

My NJB3 was reasonably-priced, a credible line-input recorder and had
decent playback library features as well. Nobody seems to want to run with
that concept any more. :-(