Is the iPod for me?

I'm not sure I want an i-Pod. I like to record compilations from both CD and LP, so it's not of much use to me, there's no D/A converter. I have a lot of fun recording to MD and cassette decks. Not sure if there's still 10,000 tunes I still want to hear. And even if I got 10,000 tunes on it, the machine would likely burn out and die before I got to the 4000th. That's something most people do not take into consideration.

I DO like the fact that you can choose uncompressed, but for me, HiMD seems a better choice for me since I can record from whatever source I want, and re-record on the disc as many times as I want. I hate sitting in front of a computer to record music. I prefer amplifiers, recorders, CD players, turntables. Easier on the old eyes!

Another thing, imagine getting 10,000 tunes on it and losing the damn thing on the bus?

It was sure a popular item this past Christmas. I do fear that the trent does contribute to dumbing down of the hi-fi industry. Great listening/recording gear will become obsolete, and you can forget about any future hi-rez. People will be content with their iPods and earbuds, the way they are content with s****y government and fast food. People are too "on the go" now and don't take time to sit back and enjoy music played back properly in a proper environment. Hence the iPods quick success. Even the so-called Audiophile hi-fi mag reviewers are using them. Magazines that used to be on the cutting edge of the industry are now reviewing these fad gadgets.

Yes, we've come a long way from the little transistor radio and original Walkman, but I fear we are headed in the wrong direction as far as sound quality and mass consumption go.

So I'm not sure if I should join the iPod club. Having described why and how I like to record, can anyone give me a viable reason to purchaseth one of these neat iPods at $600 CDN?

 

I use a Karma instead of an iPod and I like it a lot.

The 'gaps' between songs that should segue (Pink Floyd, Zappa, Classical, Dead, etc) drives me nuts with the iPod.

 

Go down to the nearest Apple Store and play with one to find out. It's fashionable, trendy and priced higher than comparable products from Creative, iRiver and others. Whether you want one or not solely depends your needs and how you want to use it. I opted for the smaller 20gig because I knew that could never fill the bigger iPods with my CD collection and my very sporadic shopping spree at iTunes Music Store. If Mr. Morita of Sony(the inventor of the Walkman) were alive today, he would probably smile at the iPod. I know non-audiophile iPod users who have upgraded their Apple earbuds to much better Shure or other brands. I got a pair of Grado SR60s for the iPod. It has integrated itself into my stereo system with the other components. The iPod only handles 2 uncompressed formats: WAV and AIFF and there are minor drawbacks to using those formats on the iPod. Sound quality and mass consumption have never gone hand in hand(though we almost had it with the introduction of the compact disc)-that's why we're here. One last thing: by this time next week, Apple should be showing off its rumored flash memory based iPod and it should be priced lower than the iPod mini.

 

Plus, who the heck has time to listen to MUSIC?! It would interfere too much with their friggin' cell phone conversations!

 

I've heard about those gaps before, I'm also looking into mp3 players, please explain what are they!

 

Gaps are what you would think they are....breaks inserted between tracks. A bit annoying if you are listening to music that does not already have them like Dark Side of the Moon, or most classical music.

To say that iPod does not allow gapless playback is incorrect, although a few users have said that they do not like the solution.

iTunes lets you do something called "join tracks" when you rip. Music ripped in that fashion plays back continuously, no gaps inserted.

But (there is always a but, right), the down side is that joined tracks are said to consume battery life faster, although I have never seen it quantified. Secondly, you loose the ability to access individual tracks...its treated like one continuous piece of music (which it is, right?).

I suppose I would argue that having individual track access is not required when what you want is continuous playback, but thats for the user to decide.

So, iPod does support gapless playback, but there is a trade off that perhaps other players avoid. You need to decide is thats a showstopper for you or not.

BGL

 

Thank you very much!!, that is a nono to me since I have several "gapless" albums and I wouldn't like to lose the ability to skip to the next track.
So Ipod is not for me, gotta check on the Creative Jukebox Zen Xtra now.

 

The only gapless players I know of are the Karma and the Sony VGF-AP1L (which now does standard MP3, too - not just ATRAC3plus). The iAudio is near-gapless (it's like .1). My Karma died, otherwise I'd still own it - great player. Rio seems to have gotten quallity control down now.

 

The larger files increase disk access activity which lowers the battery life. You do lose access to individual tracks but you can "scan" through the track to get a particular portion of the track.

 

Ipod. Ipod. Ipod.

You will want one...


Ben

 

Hmmm...

 

I have a 10 gig model. It seems to have just taken a dirt nap. I love the damn thing but I'm PO'd that it only lasted 20 months. Dummy me did not buy an extended warranty from Best Buy. I can't afford to replace it right now, but I do want to get another one.

For me, it was a great tool for my commute on the train (about a 45 min ride) and in the car.

My suggestion for whatever player you buy is to get the extended warranty.

Joe

 

The iPod has a hard drive in it that is relatively expensive, uses a lot of battery power and, being a mechanical device, will eventually fail. A number of the other devices, such as the iRiver, are less expensive flash memory devices that are less likely to fail but do not hold as many songs. If huge storage capacity is not important to you, perrhaps you should consider one of the flash memory devices.

 

After getting some info and pictures about the electronics show I think I'll wait a few months before I get my mp3 player. There's a lot of them coming our way, probably a lot better than the ones round right now!!!

 

I love my iPod... get one!

 

My GF Kirsten has an iPod and we use it on a semi-regular basis.
It's been reliable so far - never had a problem or issue with it since
she got it in 2002.

 

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but I've got 3200 songs on my 40gb right now, and I got it at Christmas. The Ipod's not going to "burn out and die" - and if it were to do something this rare, it's covered by warranty for the first year and you can always get an extended warranty. The likelihood of this happening? About as likely as your hard drive in your computer doing the same thing. Do you worry about that?

I'm the "picky listener" among everyone I know and I cannot, absolutely cannot tell the difference between a 192kB/s mp3 file and the original. In fact, so good is the sound that for most things I'm using Apples AAC format at 128kB/s (which has the sound quality of a 160kB/s mp3 at the 128kB/s mp3 file-size.) I can't imagine ever needing to waste the tremendous amount of diskspace for uncompressed files.

I liken this to losing anything expensive - if you're that worried about it, don't buy it. You'll be happier in the long run not having to worry about it.

I think that's a pretty blanket statement, and pretty defensive sounding, too. Why are you even considering an Ipod if you feel so negatively about it? For one, don't even bother with the Apple earbuds. They're just not very good. As with any portable device, whatever comes with it is likely not going to be very good. Just keep in mind that you'll want to get something better. I chose to go the affordable route and got a set of Sony Fontopia EX51 earcanal headphones - a much, much higher sound quality route than earbuds, plus they block out much of the outside noise because they basically seal your ears off from the outside world. $40 (US) at Best Buy, a great investment, and I know there are more expensive versions by other companies that are even better.

These magazines are using them because they ARE cutting edge. The use of these players by hi-fi mags should be an indicator for you - they're good-enough quality for them, so why not you?

And "fad gadgets"? No, not by a longshot. Were it a "fad" it would have disappeared pretty quickly after it was introduced. The Ipod and its ilk are here to stay and I'll tell you why: they change how you listen to music. I used to lug around dozens of CDs to fill my listening needs, whatever they may be, everyday at work. And I never could anticipate what I might want to listen to, so I was perpetually longing for something sitting at home in my CD rack (I have about 2000 CDs.) In the past three weeks since getting my Ipod, I have come to realize what an amazing, wonderful item it is - I now have 3200 songs (dozens of albums) and a lot of space left for a lot more, and I simply cannot fathom going back to carrying around CDs all the time. It's a wonderfully liberating machine, easily the best electronic item, toy, that I've ever owned. It's just plain fun. I've had more fun listening to music the past three weeks than I have in a long time. If I want to hear an album, I just pick it out and listen, if I just want to listen to what I call "the best radio station I've ever heard," I put the Ipod on shuffle and let it randomly choose from among those 3200 songs. You can set up playlists to play things based on very specific criteria. For example, you want to hear only songs you haven't already heard? Set up a playlist with "songs with number of plays equal to 0" and you'll only hear new stuff.

I used to think that way too, until I actually listened to an Ipod. Once I did, and realized that it sounds basically identical to a decent stereo, all my objections melted away. You really should check one out before you just jump all over it for being what you only think is a low sound-quality device. It's anything but that.

And while I'm at it: gaps. Yes, there is a tiny fraction-of-a-second gap between songs. You can either let it get to you or you can just deal with it. I have chosen to deal with it, and this was one of my biggest concerns. Sure it's kind of mildly annoying, but it's really a pretty minimal entry in my "Ipod negatives" list. The positives are so overwhelming that the few negatives I have are very minimal.

I think, simply based on what you said at the beginning of your post, that your enjoyment is very based on the recording process and not as much on listening. If that's really the case, then no, there's no enjoyment to be had in an Ipod for you. The Ipod is about listening, not recording, and, in fact, I find the ripping of CDs into Itunes to be tedious. I have, however, spent an inordinate amount of time in front of the computer over the past three weeks doing just that, so maybe it's just the dreariness of repeating one task over and over and over.

Personally, I think I felt as negative toward mp3s and mp3-players as you do right now, and now I can't imagine life without one. No joke, no exaggeration. I was on the defense about them, too, feeling as if the integrity of the album as a music format was at risk of dying because of these things. When I came to grips with a couple things, that "artists" are still going to create "albums" of music regardless of the format (while "entertainers" like Britney Spears are going to create singles for the quick buck,) and that the mp3, or something like it, is here to stay, most of my objections drifted away, especially once I actually listened to one and heard that the sound quality is very high. I was left eating a serious amount of crow to all those whom I'd complained loudly and prolifically to about the crappiness of the Ipod and compressed-music files in general. If you can approach the Ipod with a truly open mind, I honestly think you'll probably find you'll enjoy it.

 

Has anyone tried the Dell version...?

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/dj?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

Good post tcj. You answered a number of my concerns.

 

Some questions for ya!

What do you use to rip?

Do you create Ogg's?

How many CD's have you put into it? (on average)

How is the software for transferring into the device?

Sorry for so many questions, but I'm going to have to replace my iPod and I want to make the right choice.

Thanks Ken.

Joe

 

Well, the 10,000 songs would still be stored on your hard drive at home. Remember the first step in getting the songs on the iPod is to put them on your PC's hard drive.

So, if you lose your iPod, you have to go out and buy a new one, then you plug it into the dock attached to your PC, and in 1-2 hours all of the 10,000 songs are magically restored onto your iPod. Even better the process is totally automatic. The iPod will automatically update when you connect it.

This happened to me a few months ago. I lost my 40GB iPod at the airport. At the time I had about 4000 songs on it. It sucked that I had to buy a new one, but loading it was not a big deal.

 

For the past 2 years Ive been flying between Seattle and LA. I leave on Sunday nights and return on Thursdays and if it wasnt for that purty little white box Id have lost my mind by now. I love my Ipod and Etymotic ER4 headphones they silence the loudest conversations and crying babies. Try it you might like it!

 

The Karma, iAudio, and the Sony Vaio Pocket are all better units than the iPod IMHO