iPod Classic sound sucks

[naglfar 0]

Hey guys,

After resisting the iPod camp a long time, I finally took a dive and bought the iPod Classic. Reason? Great battery life, great capacity, video and price! I was previously using the Sony NW-HD5.

 

So here's the disappointing part - the iPod sound sucks. On certain songs, I can hear distortion when volume is slightly raised. Soundstaging is poor, and treble is very harsh. The sound isn't anywhere near my trusted Sony.

 

I'd like to find out how the bros here dealing with the crappy sound (if any...probably none as the DAC is crappy) ...

 

Thanks.

[feather 0]

I don't think it's that bad for something that is part of the iPod family.

[mrhobbit 0]

earphones, encoding, lineout dock,amp

 

no one ever said the ipods had great sound quality from the headphoneout. and certainly there are many who believe that the sony's headphoneout is one of the best on the markets.

 

amp+lineout dock should do the trick....

[alleggerita 0]

Yeah, very true. I think Creatives sound much better than iPods.

 

My iPod touch don't even sound as nice as my previous iPod nano 1st-gen.

 

Probably because the Wolfson WM8758 chip is the same as in the iPhone, and it's not a very good soundchip.

[kevyan 0]

Yeah.... iPod doesn't really has good SQ.

 

For me, after owning the iPod Classic (80GB) for about 3 months or so, I sold it away yesterday and got myself a Cowon D2. Not looking back AT ALL. Very pleased with my D2.

[sghound 0]

Hey guys,

After resisting the iPod camp a long time, I finally took a dive and bought the iPod Classic. Reason? Great battery life, great capacity, video and price! I was previously using the Sony NW-HD5.

 

So here's the disappointing part - the iPod sound sucks. On certain songs, I can hear distortion when volume is slightly raised. Soundstaging is poor, and treble is very harsh. The sound isn't anywhere near my trusted Sony.

 

I'd like to find out how the bros here dealing with the crappy sound (if any...probably none as the DAC is crappy) ...

 

Thanks.

 

dude it's no secret that the SQ from ipod headout sucks. almost every other current kimchee player in market like Samsung, Cowon, iRiver, LG thrashes the ipod for SQ from headout. even Wong Hoo's Creative Zen player sounds better. the new Sonys are also awesome sounding from the headout plus as an added bonus, Sony rightly dumped the useless SonicStage software, making them nice to use now.

 

for your ipod to sound decent, u really need to have some kinda mods done to it like the iMod. but this will cost u an arm and a leg, and thus take away some of the fun. you can also use an outboard amp with the signal from the ipod lineout. this should improve things, but then u gonna have added weight and luggage, thus taking away some of the fun again.

 

that's why increasingly, many users are turning to other quality DAPs with awesome headouts and just by adding a great pair of IEM's like the Shure 530, Westone UM2 or Ultimate Ears TF10, will give you unbridled joy.

 

so the compromise is that u abandon iTunes for other dragNdrop methods or proprietry ones in place of superior SQ. those who are rigid on iTunes have no choice but to stick to the inferior headouts.

[ZhiX 0]

Hey guys,

After resisting the iPod camp a long time, I finally took a dive and bought the iPod Classic. Reason? Great battery life, great capacity, video and price! I was previously using the Sony NW-HD5.

 

So here's the disappointing part - the iPod sound sucks. On certain songs, I can hear distortion when volume is slightly raised. Soundstaging is poor, and treble is very harsh. The sound isn't anywhere near my trusted Sony.

 

I'd like to find out how the bros here dealing with the crappy sound (if any...probably none as the DAC is crappy) ...

 

Thanks.

 

 

are you using any of the ipod EQ? the ipod has seriously one of the worst EQ i have ever heard ... try to listen without the EQ

 

 

[alleggerita 0]

And after so long, iPod's EQ still can't be self-preset. It's such a bother.

[vjbab 0]

I recently bought SE530 earphones to pair with my ipod. Though most of my music was encoded at 320 kbps, I felt that the increase in sound quality is not much. This is partly attributed to the poor sound quality of my 4th gen ipod headphone out. Later, I have added a headphone amp to the setup and now I feel OK with the SQ though not spectacular.

[naglfar 0]

Great input bros. Thanks. Even before buying the Classic, I already know rhat it is not a great sounding MP3 player. My wife has a 4th gen - and the sound is nowhere compared to my Sony. With the new Wolfson chip on the 6th gen, it is not helping at all.

 

But is there any other player in the market that can offer this for ~s$350?

-80gb

-~30 hrs battery life on music

-~6hrs battery life on video (tested and proven!)

 

And not to mention the look...though that's really secondary..

 

[Sean 0]

I recently bought SE530 earphones to pair with my ipod. Though most of my music was encoded at 320 kbps, I felt that the increase in sound quality is not much. This is partly attributed to the poor sound quality of my 4th gen ipod headphone out. Later, I have added a headphone amp to the setup and now I feel OK with the SQ though not spectacular.

Should try encoding with ALAC format. (Apples Lossless). Less distortion heard. The Shure SE530 is too good.. it picks out poor encoding too, especially for violin solos.

[kevyan 0]

Interesting..... any what player will that be?

 

Great input bros. Thanks. Even before buying the Classic, I already know rhat it is not a great sounding MP3 player. My wife has a 4th gen - and the sound is nowhere compared to my Sony. With the new Wolfson chip on the 6th gen, it is not helping at all.

 

But is there any other player in the market that can offer this for ~s$350?

-80gb

-~30 hrs battery life on music

-~6hrs battery life on video (tested and proven!)

 

And not to mention the look...though that's really secondary..

 

 

[radioactive28 0]

Great input bros. Thanks. Even before buying the Classic, I already know rhat it is not a great sounding MP3 player. My wife has a 4th gen - and the sound is nowhere compared to my Sony. With the new Wolfson chip on the 6th gen, it is not helping at all.

 

But is there any other player in the market that can offer this for ~s$350?

-80gb

-~30 hrs battery life on music

-~6hrs battery life on video (tested and proven!)

 

And not to mention the look...though that's really secondary..

 

 

Wah best, want the best of everything for the lowest price in the market

 

For 80Gb at $350, you're looking at an old HDD player, but 30hrs life is out of the question (you'd be lucky to get 10).

If you get a HDD player, swap out the HDD for an SSD, you might get 30hrs life, but a 64Gb SSD costs about $2000.

Last option is to tack on a second (big) battery pack, but this means modding your player to maybe about 2cm thick.

 

In short, there is no magic bullet.

Edited April 1, 2008 by radioactive28

[ZhiX 0]

I recently bought SE530 earphones to pair with my ipod. Though most of my music was encoded at 320 kbps, I felt that the increase in sound quality is not much. This is partly attributed to the poor sound quality of my 4th gen ipod headphone out. Later, I have added a headphone amp to the setup and now I feel OK with the SQ though not spectacular.

 

sounds quite close to the cowon D2 specs

[vjbab 0]

Should try encoding with ALAC format. (Apples Lossless). Less distortion heard. The Shure SE530 is too good.. it picks out poor encoding too, especially for violin solos.

 

 

I have a few albums in that format and the SQ is good. After adding amp in between, now my earphones pick up a bit of hiss. I guess it is due to the gain.

 

sounds quite close to the cowon D2 specs

 

 

Didn't get a chance to test D2. Does it have a audio out line to amp?