Steve Jobs was an audiophile

my thoughts exactly.

 

I just recently saw a photo of Jobs from the 80s sitting in presumably his living room - EDIT: oops, post #13

 

2006: Steve Jobs introduces the iPod Hifi, talks about sound quality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3MvnKOb5Ko

The product is listed among his most notable failures: http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-Steve-Jobs-most-notable-failures

 

Cost-benefit analysis of millions of units...most of the production costs of an Ipod are in the screen and the drive...

Sennheiser doesn't have the production capacity on that scale.

 

I have one and it is not great sound quality wise.

The iPod itself however is a remarkably good sound quality device for the price in my opinion. It won a product award from Stereophile.

 

I was actually talking about the music store but I agree. If you are interested in sound quality it's easy to rip your music at and put lossless files on your iPod. For the majority of users however, quality probably doesn't matter. That's probably why they got rid of the Wolfson DAC, most users didn't care.

Chad

 

Steve Jobs has been well known as an audiophile for decades. This isn't news. Witness the photo posted earlier in the thread.

 

I'm a little scared myself when I look at him.

 

When the ipod was introduced, 128 was an absolute must from a standpoint of actually downloading from the itunes store. Everything since then can be described as path dependence.

 

Exactly. That photo is famous. Case closed.

 

The new iPod Classic is not bad on sound quality. It's not as open as my 5G but quite good, especially when attached to my portable ALO amp.

I'm hopeful that as bandwidth improves, higher rez files will show up. One force fighting that is that consumers get too comfy with "good enough" ALAC, etc. But if there is a market why wouldn't Apple want to do it...?

 

that work right out the box without any fiddling.

 

Jobs was an audiophile long enough to pose for the picture and that's it.

Stereos, cars, planes... clearly didn't hold his interest much except as tools. All he really focused on was making seamless technology. If he cared about audio he would have a heavy duty system in every place he dwelled and gone to many more concerts, because he clearly had the money.

That's what my scratch and sniff says.

 

The way he poses on that picture, in an empty living room with just the stereo set on the floor, makes it rather look like a Yuppie housewarming gift

 

Was he not a hippie ?
'Imagine' his mantra
No possesions

As for Apple Sound quality, the drivers are OK, just needs a decent pair of Senny Cans.
Apple lossless is fine
Tunes, a marvelous cataloging device
My Kuro tele has no speakers...

 

I think the term "audiophile" has all kinda meanings really.

Some its listening to music, some its obsessions over equipment, some its simply huge speakers, some its spending a lot, some its good sound and practical amounts spent. I dont think there is no such thing as simply an "audiophile"

 

Good point. I also think that it's silly to use the SQ of the iPod earbuds as an indicator of whether or not Steve Jobs was an audiophile.

 

It's a ridiculous notion to pass adverse comment on the quality of the earphone accessory that comes with the iPod as evidence of anything other than it looks and sounds like a cheap earphone.
I would have preferred the iPod was without such an accessory and saved 25 cents but wasn't too put out by its inclusion. I would not have bought an iPod if it had forced me to buy another expensive earphone as part of the package.

 

To me it has always meant "caring about the reproduction of music and sound" with no further conditions or clarifications. It's not necessarily or exclusively about equipment, or room, or money, or ears, or any of the other qualifications that often bandied about. It's more of a philosophy, a way of thinking and approaching how you listen to and enjoy music, the specifics of which can only be specific to you.

Which is why marketing terms like "audiophile grade" drive me nuts, because it's impossible to qualify or quantify in such a fashion.

 

Steve Jobs was an audiophile, no argument there. But was he a toob guy or solid state? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

Why the guy obsessed over every detail of every product. If he cared about sound quality he would have included better earbuds.

 

i've got a time magazine special that shows him sitting in the middle of an empty room with a bunch of records aroung him and some type of audiophile turntable set up on the background. i don't have the picture with me at work or i'd scan it.

 

That photo shows a Mitchell Gyrodec turntable, a Threshold or Klyne preamp, and Acoustat speakers. I can't tell what else he's got in there. The Acoustats are self-powered, so maybe the device under the preamp is a tuner?