Buying an iPod

Napoleon Plural · September 2009

An iconic bit of kit. But is the sound quality the same with all of them? If I get an iPod classic, will that be okay? Because some of them do sound a bit tinny, but is that the headphones?

Or would you suggest an MP3 rather than an iPod?

I want to get one with mini wooden speakers so I can listen to my own personal jukebox, not so much for its Walkman capacities.

thesecretagent · September 2009

I'm really not that into music technology, nor mobile phones now every ten-year-old has a better one than I seem to. But I was bought a Sony MP3 player (newest at the time), and an IPod nano last Christmas, and I have to say I can hear no difference through my car's audio system. I don't listen to music with earphones (and only have the ear pieces that came with them), but both seem the same to me. I think the Nano was over twice the price of the Sony so that's something to think about. But the IPod does a lot more and has better liberary functions for different types of music.

Higgins · September 2009

I own several iPods and a Sony MP3-Player NWZ-A 818. With good earphones, everyone is able to experience a HUGE difference in terms of sound. One reason for this may be the fact, that Apple changed the Sound processor to a cheaper one some years ago.

Another fact are good headphones. With the exception of Sony (my MDR-EX 82 from the mentioned player are superb!) any investment to a good pair of earphones is a good one.

Regarding sound, Cowon is considered to be the best (the D2 is considered to be the sound reference for all MP3 Players), followed by Sony. The Apple iPod touch is said to be better than the other iPods in terms of sound.

And one more thing to buying good earphones (I have the Sony MDR-EX90) is to set the conversion rate to lossless or to a minimum of 256 Kbit/s

Professor Dent · September 2009

Another point to keep in mind is the bit rate at which you encode your music will have an impact on the sound quality especially if it is really low (like 96 kbps or lower).

On the iPod, hold off on your purchase for now. Apple has an iPod event scheduled for September 9th where they will be introducing new iPods. Even if you don't like the new ones, you may be able to get a better deal on the current models if you do decide to go with an iPod.

Mr Martini · September 2009

Professor Dent wrote:

Another point to keep in mind is the bit rate at which you encode your music will have an impact on the sound quality especially if it is really low (like 96 kbps or lower).

On the iPod, hold off on your purchase for now. Apple has an iPod event scheduled for September 9th where they will be introducing new iPods. Even if you don't like the new ones, you may be able to get a better deal on the current models if you do decide to go with an iPod.

Nice to know. I'm in the market for a new iPod myself. If I don't like the new ones, maybe I can get a good deal on the old model. And with a 10% discount on the recycling of my old iPod, I may be able to save some cash. Thanks Professor Dent!!

Napoleon Plural · September 2009

Professor Dent wrote:

Another point to keep in mind is the bit rate at which you encode your music will have an impact on the sound quality especially if it is really low (like 96 kbps or lower).

In English please! as Carver once said. If you download off a CD you own via a computer, surely it's going to be the same-ish sound quality! When you say 'rate' does that mean how long you take to encode or download it? Do you have any choice? ?:)

Thanks for the info about holding off, though the classic iPod looks sweet, better than the new stuff imo.

Higgins · September 2009

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Professor Dent wrote:

Another point to keep in mind is the bit rate at which you encode your music will have an impact on the sound quality especially if it is really low (like 96 kbps or lower).

In English please! as Carver once said. If you download off a CD you own via a computer, surely it's going to be the same-ish sound quality! When you say 'rate' does that mean how long you take to encode or download it? Do you have any choice? ?:)

Thanks for the info about holding off, though the classic iPod looks sweet, better than the new stuff imo.

I try to keep it simple:

A cd contents music data of 700 MB, a CD in MP3 around 20-100 MB.
So, if you convert a CD into MP3, it will be not only converted, it will be compressed.

So, if you are using for example iTunes to import your CDs into the library, they are converted and compressed. You can set the compression rate in iTunes.
The less compression you are using, the better the sound is. 1 song compressed with 98 Kbit/s will result in a file which is 4 MB big. If you are using 256 MB/s, the song file will be 10 MB, but will significantly sound better.
If you are using "Lossless", the file will get even bigger but I can't hear a difference to 256 kbit/s.

To set the compression rate, go to settings in itunes, general, and then import settings. Use an AAC encoder and set it to 256 Mbit/sec.

Napoleon Plural · September 2009

I'm with you. So for those not looking to have too many songs on the iPod, lower the compression rate so each song is 10 MB.

Ta!

Napoleon Plural · September 2009

Now, I have another question...

Is it possible or easy to lift tracks off much-loved vinyl and bung them on an iPod? I know it will take up more MBs, but I don't care... is it doable? Or doable, but too much hassle?

I say this because bottom line is, vinyl sounds so much better but you know, maybe I'm just nitpicking.

Higgins · September 2009

You'll have to find a way to record things from your player digitally.

You usually need a preamplifier and a matching cable and a recording program. I am not too convinced that much of the qualities of Vinyl can be transferred onto an ipod. I would say no.

The preamp and program solutions are more meant for vinyl, which is not available on CD.

Napoleon Plural · September 2009

Okay... thanks bondtoys. Just realised, one can always take vinyl albums to some special shop that specialises in recording LPs onto compact disc. Of course, defeats the object as then they get compressed. But I wonder if there are any that can record onto BluRay? If so, that would be one way around it.

It's all a bit hypothetical I suppose.

Higgins · September 2009

Well if you get a couple of vinyl discs taped that way it'll be the same price like buying the equipment.
Regarding taping on Blu Ray I am not sure, what you mean. You can put bigger files on BR but if you'd put them onto an iPod itD have to be compressed again

Napoleon Plural · September 2009

I see, but can't you choose to compress it not very much? ie have a big file with the full bandwidth? But is BluRay more for optical than audio? I understood it gives a much better sound than compact disc. But I haven't seen many music BluRay discs if at all. ?:)

Higgins · September 2009

A BR is as optical as a Cd or a DVD. I have not seen any BR Audioplayer yet and the CD vs vinyl discussion is a very academic one. I am of the opinion that the sound of Vinyl is uncomparable to Cd which has a limited bandwith. But even if you can store more audio data on DVD or BR you have to have hardware to play them and this does not exist. Another question would be if such a player would be able to draw audio in the higher definition then.

Professor Dent · September 2009

A few more comments, Napoleon Plural.

If you are going to do this yourself, in the States they sell USB turntables which simplify things a lot. If you are an audiophile, avoid this & go with Bondtoys recommendation of a preamp & turntable. It's a tedious process to do it yourself, especially if you have a lot of music, but it is a labor of love.

For importing your music, use wav if you are on Windows & aiff if you are on a Mac. This will create an uncompressed file. Good rule of thumb is one minute of music is approx 10 megabytes of hard drive space. Once you have the file on your hard drive, you can then touch it up to remove any pops & cracks with a free program like Audacity. Then you can convert it to an mp3 for your iPod or music player (but keep that original wav or aiff file so you can always go back to it & make changes later if you want). If you want the best quality possible with an iPod, you can use 320 kbps or 256 kbps as the import setting. Personally, I use 192 kbps for just about everything. Classical & jazz are the exception where I use 256 kbps. Experiment & see what sounds best to you. On a side note, you won't be able to recreate that warmth of a vinyl record in your iPod but that iPod is a lot easier to carry around than your turntable.

Using a Blu-ray disc won't give you any extra fidelity. You can only get as good as your source material. The formats like the Super Audio CD were about as close to the master audio tapes as we could get in the home.

On the new iPods, I'm eying that 160 gig Classic. -{

Buying an iPod

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