Ipod classic yes or no

Has anyone experience of the new Ipod classic version 6 against the earlier 30G ipod version 5 or 5.5 ? I have read quite a few reviews re the sound of one against the other. All down to the change of chip set apparently. The borrowed 30G sounds a little different from my sons nano, but not that much, is this the same chip set as the new classic ? I am after the most sound for pound, but do want as much storage as possible e.g. Classic 160G. I have tried 192 v 320 v apple lossless and will use stax electrostatics when at home. What I really want to know is; is the classic a good buy or does it suffer
serious audio problems, if so what should I be looking at. Thanks in advance.

 

Hi, I have a 160 gig classic running Apple lossless files. It certainly doesn't suffer "serious audio problems". If you're using them with your earspeakers, then I'd strongly recommend taking a line out from a dock rather than using the headphone out of the iPod. The 'phone amp in the iPod (and iPod) is decent enough for its intended use, but you will definitely notice "serious audio problems" using the Stax via the headphone out.

BTW, the classic I currently own is my sixth iPod (I've left them on planes, dropped them down stairs, corrupted the hard drives, you name it ) and I've not noticed a material difference between any of them used via a dock.

 

I have an Ipod classic, about 2 months old max.

I bought it because it had an 80 gig hard drive which I thought I needed.

Reality is, my favourite albums take up about 10 gig max!

I'm now suffering with shitty sound quality, and a portable music device with lots of spare capacity.

Ipods really do sound like shit, and I won't try to 'water down' that comment to please apple fans or anyone else.

I now have an external amplifier and an Ipod line out device. The sound now is pretty much on par with a Sony discman I had 15 years ago. Better than standard, but still not that hot.

If you want a massive hard disc capacity, really cool screen, great usability and really cool cover flow - go for an Ipod classic.

Just dont expect portable audiophilia...cos you won't get it!!... or not easily, and not without spending loads more. That's my rapidly developing conclusion.

....chris, who has been fannying on all week with different headphones and head amps on his Ipod Classic.


NB
I have *yet* to try £100+ headphones, so I may get some redress there.... (but I have tried 5+ pairs of £20-£50 phones)

I'm just baulking at the price of even dearer cans......

**edit - best try to get to hear an ipod classic..there's an apple store in M/Keynes and another in London if you are close. You can demo them there..

 

Buy some more music then!

I have a 60GB unit and have run out of space. If I'm forced I'll admit to having a lot of crap on it as well as some of my favourite music.

 

cheers dev

I have loads on the PC, but I tried to stick to my favourite albums of the moment with portable music.. I always think of portable music as a bit like ''in the car music'' .. you know, just favourites for travel..

NB
I might have been a bit harsh on the Ipod... I'm buying some dearer cans to try with the CMOY amp/line out device (see PFM), so will soon know if I can get a sound out of it I'd call high quality..

 

I like to have my entire collection on it. So when I'm travelling I can listen to whatever the mood desires. I find the sound quality is fine for listening in the car and in the office.

 

For me, that's the key benefit of the ipod - access to all my music wherever I am. I tried smaller ipods with just a selection of tunes (and before that, tried burning compilation discs), but always found that what I fancied listening to was invariably not what I'd ripped. I now have everything on there, bar the stuff I don't like very much!

 

bottleneck, they just sound shit , get used to it.

thats why i suffer in silence with a 20gig Sony NWA3000, crap interface, crap uploading software, but it does lossless and the sund qualiyt is sublime with a decent set of those metal sony buds.

 

Well personally I think that's a bit harsh, I have just been listening to to 'the Dry Cleaner from Des Moines' Joni Mitchell; Mingus & 'Sunday kind of love' by Renee Olsted.
Ripped at 320 & Lossless. Using a borrowed 30Gig ipod. In my opinion not in the least excremental. Through my Gamma Pro's it sounded very good indeed, not in the same league as my home system but very enjoyable never the less.
Another massive bonus is my Tom tom has a dedicated ipod lead and then transmits to the fm radio in whatever vehicle I happen to be driving, not ony that, but I have full control of the music from the sat nav and it sounds bloody good. No more pissing about attempting to change cd's at 85 on the M1.
I have now auditioned the version 5 against the new classic and ipod touch, yes the earlier unit does have a better tone, but like most things you could very quickly get used to any of them. The new touch is simply stunning to use, I believe the soon to be released updates should allow it to control a music server. So for a few hundred quid you could have a very good portable music player, an excellent in car music player and a sexy remote control for your music server, imagine being able to search your complete collection by genre, artist, album etc along with the added benefit
of cover flow and all played at the same quality as your cdp.

 

It's not harsh, it's just my strongly held opinion. If you haven't heard the Sony in comparisson then it might seem harsh.

I do also own, as of yesterday, a 160gig ipod, which has been purchased solely for putting with the new Wadia Dock and then plugging into the new John Westlake dac when he gets his arse in gear.

Then i can dump the cd player.

I'll still use the Sony for mobile music until it dies. I don't doubt the IPOD will sound as good as a cd player with the right DAC, but asa personal music device using the headphones it's outclassed by others.

 

Yes I have heard the Sony players and I agree they sound better.
However if you look at the whole package, they just don't make the grade.
I trust you are aware Wadia are talking out their arse when they say they bypass the Ipod's dac There is no digital out on the Ipod so you are paying an aufull lot of money for a dock with a dac the ipod doesn't use and an amp and how will yet another dac help with the analogue ouput ? or am I not understanding your post.

 

The 6th gen ipods are alledgedly able to output digital after having received the correct 'handshake' from an accessory component.

This functionality was widely discussed at the Apple developers conference last time round. Without the corrrect handshake the output pins on the IPOD remain configured in the standard way.

This can only be bullshit if Apple started this rumour to deliberately deceive accessory developers. Both Wadia and DLO claim product with this functionality ready for immediate launch with the DLO HD dock having HDMI and toslink output.

Checking bit parity from source to output will be trivial, so there's no point anyone lying about it.

I guess you were just unaware of this.

 

Sorry i don't have any links to the presentation from the ADC.

I guess most people on the web thought the same, i did until i saw the paperwork.