[Arny Krueger[_4_]]

"Mr. Finsky" wrote in message
...
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.

No, I'm mentioning the strongest influence on the sound quality of these
players, which is the files that they play. Second is the transducers that
you use with them. The players themselves are generally very good.

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?

What is unclear about:

" 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."


If the device can store but not play
an uncompressed file well, why is the device needed for anything other
than portability?

The idea that an iPod can store but not play an uncompressed file well has
already been dealt with.

Again what is unclear about

" Ipods are true CD quality devices..."

Why shouldn't users just focus on a computer based
audio system and ignore their portable drive?

Most people find that portability is a great benefit, even when there is a
fixed-emplaced audio system a few yards away. If someone wants to listen to
music while vacuuming a rug, they can either blast the stereo in the same
room and run back and forth to it to operate it, or use their portable
player with IEMs and have better sound quality given the noise of the vacuum
cleaner, and the convenience of full operator controls on their person.

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?

The bogus issue of bypassing the very good quality DAC inside the iPod has
already been dealt with.

My greatest concern is that the iPod seems to be a newer version of
the cassette format.

There's no comparison in terms of sound quality. Analog cassette was one of
the most seriously compromised audio formats since the Shellac 78 rpm
record. iPods have been found by many serious invetigators to be entirely
exploitave of CD format media, if proper storage formats are used such as
not-lossy AIFs. Other players support FLAC which is a free-available format,
not lossy and entirely exploitave of CD format music.

The emphasis to 95% of the world is to have a
device or format for portable sound that ignores sound quality.

No actual evidence has been provided for this argumentative and potentially
demeaning opinion.

Apple could have mandated a format that didn't have compression.

As I understand they support non-lossy files.

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.

There are valid reasons to make different choices among the variety of
music formats, depending on the application. For example, I use 64 kbps mono
MP3s for spoken word recordings. It is unreasonable to demand that hardware
and music suppliers educate customers with all of the details, conflicting
opinions, and politics related to the various file formats.

In the end people pick formats that meet their needs, which why the LP and
cassette tape effectively died as mainstream formats once portable digital
players became freely and reasonably inexpensively available.