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Latest iPod Configuration -- Any New Hope?

I know there are several threads on the pieces of this question, but I hope this will be a convenient all in one place update for iPod users who really care about the sound.

I was an early adopter for iPod with great hopes for portable, audiophile sound. I know they are fine for convenience, working out blah blah blah, but that was not my main goal. Rather I wanted truly portable and truly high end sound for traveling. And even 20 or 30 uncompressed CDs would be wonderful and -- maybe Im weird - but more than enough for most plane flights!

In the end, I got frustrated and kept hitting dead ends even with the so called experts, so at this point, I have two iPods, several sets of headphones, some noise cancellation headphones, one of the original top of the line Headroom portable amps, circa 1996 with D Cell outboard battery pack, a 9V battery powered Grado headphone amp, and expensive custom earpieces gathering dust in my drawers.

I have tried the Apple lossless scheme and for me, it is unacceptable, not to mention the devious tricks which apparently limit the number of times the files can be copied.

Maybe some of you have cracked the code, but I have had nothing but problems trying to easily "tag" uncompressed files.

In addition, it seems WAV files drain the battery life and cause brief skips in the operation of the hard drive.

Taking my iPod for the first time for months today on my motorcycle, I was reminded that the Etymotics high end headphones DO NOT play well with the wimpy internal amp of the iPod.

I was so disappointed, that I thought I should somehow velcro the Grado amp into my bike jacket or something, but aside from the geeky complexity of this there is no line level out?!

You get the idea...

Dont get me wrong, its a great little gadget for casual listening.

But WHY isnt it so so so so so so much better?!?!?!?!?

Or have I missed something?

Thank you.
cwlondon

Showing 1 response by the_smokester

the_smokester
174 posts
 
I haven't listened critically to an iPod and don't own one. However, I own and have traveled extensively with a Creative Zen Touch and an iRiver iHP-120. Both these players support uncompressed WAV.

I use the Zen to drive Etymotics ER-4P's and with a Headroom Total Airhead portable amp to drive Sennheiser HD-650's. The iHP-120 drives both transducers directly. Of these two, the iHP-120 has better sound but it is still not audiophile quality.

Recently I purchased a Overture limited edition transportable DAC from Headroom.com. It's about the size of the iHP-120. The Overture has an optical (Toslink) input and this can be driven with the optical line out from the iHP-120. The Overture DAC is very good. If you put the Overture's output into a Ray Samuels SR-71 portable amp (about the size of an iPod) driving Ultimate Ear UE-10 Pros, Senn 650's or whatever your flavor of earphone is, you get a three box solution that is probably going to do about the best that can be done in the transportable department until someone (Headroom?) comes out with something more integrated.
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