[Audio Empire]

On Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:54:45 -0700, Mr. Finsky wrote
(in article ):

On Oct 25, 6:43=A0pm, "Arny Krueger" wrote:
wrote in message

...

As I write I am listening to Los Indios Tabarajas "Jungle Dream".
Source is an Ipod playing through my Quad Esl63/Gradient based system.
I have to admit it doesn't sound half bad and am wondering what would
it take to make the Ipod a truly High End source.

Ipods are true CD quality devices which means that in a rational world, they
are already capable of "high end" quality *if* you load them with the right
music files.

Stay clear of low bitrate lossy-compressed recordings and hook them to a
suitable reproducers, and they are fine.

The same is true of good quality far lower cost completive devices such as
the Sansa Clip and Fuze.

Devices that attempt to put a high end gloss onto iPods by bypassing their
internal analog circuitry are mostly there for lightening the pocketbooks of
people who are easily scared by hype.

Your analysis seems to focus on the issue of storage more than
playback. If an iPod or Clip (my low cost alternative preference) can
store a .wav or .aiff file, will it play back on a true high-end
system in a respectable manner? If the device can store but not play
an uncompressed file well, why is the device needed for anything other
than portability? Why shouldn't users just focus on a computer based
audio system and ignore their portable drive?

The world seems to be full of docking stations and pseudo-boomboxes
for the iPod. Are these all passing on a decent sound in a fancy
package or can the output really sound great without bypassing the
internal DAC?

My greatest concern is that the iPod seems to be a newer version of
the cassette format. The emphasis to 95% of the world is to have a
device or format for portable sound that ignores sound quality. Apple
could have mandated a format that didn't have compression. The fact
that most of the world has no idea what music should sound like fits
the pattern of cost over quality that is so prevalent in today's life.

While it's certainly true that for the AVERAGE user (who cares little or
nothing about the issue of sonic quality that you have raised), the idea of
extreme portability and large storage capacity are the most attractive
aspects of devices like iPods. I can't speak for other than the Apple brand,
but I've had several and they all sound just fine when played through a
decent stereo system. Switching between the ipod playing a lossless file of a
CD ripped to iTunes and the CD itself (on a Sony SD-XA777ES) where the two
have been level matched, shows me no appreciable difference. The only thing
that gives away the fact that a switch has taken place is the fact that the
two aren't perfectly synchronized in their playback.

I also have a Squeezebox Touch from Logitech and I use it mostly to play
iTunes ripped discs on my stereo. I've done double-blind tests using the
lossless files from iTunes and the disc itself, and again, nobody could tell
the difference. I use the Squeezebox over the iPod for this task mostly for
convenience as I see (hear?) little to differentiate them sonically. I might
add that I don't use the built-in D/A in the Squeexebox Touch, but rather, I
use the same outboard, up-sampling 24-bit, 192 KHz outboard DAC that I use
for all my digital sources. If you are really concerned about iPod playback
quality, you might want to look into getting yourself a music server client
(one that supports Apple lossless formats - careful, not all do) such as
the Logitech Squeezebox Touch or perhaps an AppleTV box and couple those
digitally to a good quality outboard DAC such as the Cambridge DACMagic, or
the new Musical Fidelity V-DAC II.