iPod Shuffle

[fuwen 0]

Still have not seriously listening to the Shuffle yet. I am preparing 20 WAV files to be uploaded to the Shuffle and today should have some time testing them on my speaker system.

 

BTW quite happy with what I am getting: a 1G thumbdrive/MP3 player, installation CD, a pair of nice white ear phones with 2 pairs of ear sponge, a Lanyard (for u to hang around your neck).

 

Also the battery info is quite good with green indicating full, orange indicating low and red very low.

[fuwen 0]

OK. Spent some time with the Shuffle today. Anyway this is the first MP3 player I ever owned. I was curious for quite a while wanting to compare WAV against CDP. Was eyeing the iPod but was not willing to spend that amount of money until Shuffle turned out at a price I am willing to try.

 

i hooked up the Shuffle via a pair of SonicArt interconnects to my Bryston pre and poweramp. Was comparing with the $2000 A3 CDP but very quickly it is clear that Shuffle and A3 are of different class. So I became more realistic and comparing the Shuffle to a 1992 Sony D-802K PCDP, also hooked up to my Brystons.

 

As expected the output of the Shuffle is low. The preamp volumn control is at 7 o'clock for zero volumn. With CDP my normal listening is at about 8 o'clock. The D-802K is quite powerful at 10 o'clock. The Shuffle has to turn to 2-3 o'clock.

 

Listening to some small and large orchestra classcial pieces, some vocals. The shuffle in WAV is comparable to the D-802K, with adequate punch, highs and lows. Both the PCDP and the Shuffle obviously loose out to the A3 at the extreme ends, and bass lacks weight and details. For one of the classical vocal the Shuffle looses out to the D-802K in terms of weight at the mid range. Sound stage of the Shuffle seems OK.

 

Anyway, frequency roll off at extreme ends and lack of details vs A3 will not be critical if the Shuffle is used on the move under noisy environment. I am quite happy with it anyway. Though I would not say the sound quality is in the high-end region, not fair to demand so I guess.

[fuwen 0]

Try the Shuffle with my portable set up this afternoon. I only have time to compare based on Rossini String Sonata No. 3 3rd movement. I was trying Shuffle with Px200 and HD 25-1, without amp and with HX-3 headamp.

 

Did also tried out the earbuds that were supplied with the Shuffle, but find the sound lack of clarity and very loose bass, IMHO not much audiophile potential, though looks nice and that's about it.

 

Without amp Shuffle drove the PX200 pretty well. Sound stage is better with HD 25-1 but a bit not so in control vs PX200 guess because HD 25-1 is higher impedance (70 ohms).

 

With amp things were getting better and the highs and lows were clearly more in control and the best was with HD 25-1.

 

With the headamp and HD 25-1 but played back the original XRCD in Philips AZ6847 PCDP straight away the music was more airy and with more details. But the comparison may not be totally fair as XRCD do have effect on PCDP but i guess will not show up in WAV.

[evil-zen 0]

hmm I haven't noticed any difference with .wav XRCD files compared to the original cd. Even HDCD signals can be copied onto wav.

 

Maybe the philips pcdp is really better than the shuffle.

[fuwen 0]

hmm I haven't noticed any difference with .wav XRCD files compared to the original cd. Even HDCD signals can be copied onto wav.

 

Maybe the philips pcdp is really better than the shuffle.

Hi! May I know your set up for comparison? Your headphone amp or unamp?

[evil-zen 0]

for the ripping of cds, i use EAC. Once you set it up properly, the process of ripping is almost done. It compares each bit on the cd at least twice to ensure that they are the same. Thus you get high quality but at the expense of speed.

 

Once on the harddisk, I play them back using digital out of my soundcard to a DAC. For playing of cds, I either use a external NEC 602 cdrom or a denon cd player as a transport into the same DAC. Of course, the transports do not sound the same. But they are to me very similar with the main sound signature attributed to the DAC. In fact, the soundcard sounds better.

 

I use my headamp to etys.

Edited February 17, 2005 by evil-zen

[fuwen 0]

Now I see. Your ripping of CD is quite elaborate. I do not think I am able to rip the way u did. EAC does not support Mac anyway so I guess I will just live with whatever I do for the time being. Thanks for the info.

[dreamie 0]

I got my Shuffle from Apple last night... barely 24 hours after placing the order.

 

First thing that irritated me somewhat is the hissing sound during silence passages of tracks, and the mechanical noises during changing of track. The 'Next' function is also retarded by a few seconds... Song still continues being played for about a second or two after the button is pressed.

 

Bad things aside, the Shuffle is a very good player for something compact and simple. There is some memory work to be done for some functions though. It is seriously lightweight and can be easily slotted into your pockets without detection. One of my friends is shocked to find that the Shuffle is actually in my pants...

 

Regarding the issue of the Shuffle getting scratched easily, I think there's nothing to worry about. My Shuffle do not have any scratches at all, after being abused (literally) by friends in school today! Amazing!! I thought the poddie's surface is gone! The only scratch I detected on it is caused by me cleaning the poddie... ... Must learn not to clean by fingernail...

 

Sound wise, I must say it is quite good. There is presence of soundstage and imaging is also quite good. I thought that the sounds will all be coming from the center of my head... There is also some punchiness and some life in the music. I particularly like it for something on the go. I did compare with my friends' iPods (both 4G and Mini) and they are quite similar... except for the hissing sound!

 

Earphones used is Etymotic ER6i. Both the earphones and poddie look cute !!

[Boggy 0]

i've got an iPod 4G 40GB, an iPod mini and a 1GB Shuffle, love 'em all

 

seriously, if Creative had such a good headstart on the low-end market, 5 yrs to be exact, then they should've dominated that market right? but nooooo, they waited that same amount of time to be whipped by the new kid on the block, whipped big time. hoo hoo hoo, how wong, how wong.

[Absolute0 0]

i've got an iPod 4G 40GB, an iPod mini and a 1GB Shuffle, love 'em all

 

seriously, if Creative had such a good headstart on the low-end market, 5 yrs to be exact, then they should've dominated that market right? but nooooo, they waited that same amount of time to be whipped by the new kid on the block, whipped big time. hoo hoo hoo, how wong, how wong.

What's the point of this post? It's fine proclaiming yourself an Apple fanboy, but you should at least take pride in Creative being a local company that has been considerably successful in the international arena, though not necessarily as much as Apple.

[wil 0]

Yep. This is kinda...well..out of point.

 

I have both an i-pod shuffle and a zen touch and find both of them excellent products.

 

Agreed that Apple has a larger slice of the pie, but both apple and creative has their selling points.

 

Perhaps you did like to take note that Creative is local and being a local company having a reputation world-wide, surely that's something to be proud of?

 

If u dont really fancy creative, at least give them credit for that ( and their sound-cards too. )

 

So there.

[weebinator 0]

Basically Sim wong hoo shouldn't have made those remarks in the first place, he should have just concentrated on getting a better product out. While sim was saying the shuffle was a been done product, jobs just rolled out the other piece of his plan, the mac mini. If you believe some of the stories that are being told, apple has plans to shift their products into a lifestyle niche centered around cheap computing, something that creative isn't even in the business of.

[fuwen 0]

I am a supporter of Apple and also very much respect Sim Wong Hoo. No matter what Sim is the first Singaporean that made it so big to the world and I felt that all Singaporean should be proud of him. But ironically Sim actually made it big first in US and then came back to Singapore home ground. I certainly was quite disappointed at his remarks on the shuffle. I think he need not to be so harsh. I am actually also quite disappointed when Creative teamed up with Microsoft as I really do not like Bill Gate for 1 reason or another. But I have to say in terms of business decision Sim is most probably correct.

 

Anyway, I am seeing lots of Shuffles around selling in various shops. Just Causeway point alone 7-11, Courts, a hifi shop and a computer shop are selling Shuffles. Not as fast probably but I think still going strong. I remember seeing the computer shop stocked around 15 of them and few days later (not hours anymore) left 2 512Mb models.

[dreamie 0]

Have any of you updated your Shuffle? I updated it and noticed that though the clicks and pops between tracks have greatly been reduced, there is still the hiss! The hiss continues for seconds after the unit is turned off... Any one with similar findings?

[Mackie 0]

Do U mean there's a software update? If so, is it available on the Apple website? Please elaborate, thanks.

Edited March 3, 2005 by Mackie