Plenty of input in the archives and over at AudioAsylum (PC Asylum) on this subject.
Who cares if you're offending anyone with your choice of gear?! If you like the iPod and it brings you closer to the music you love...well, it's all good.
If you want better quality sound and higher resolution from your digital files, go back and rip everything in either Apple Lossless or WAV (the latter will take up more space). Your iPod can handle those files as well, you'll just get less of a selection (about 5 days worth of music in Lossless on your 60gb iPod as I recall). Per the previous post, first find out if you can hear, and or care about the difference between Lossless and MP3's. If not, don't bother. I certainly can.
Yes, use the line-out of your iPod (as opposed to the headphone jack) to feed your signal if the iPod's all you got. But doing that is still using the so-so DAC in the iPod to convert the signal, and leaves much room for improvement to my ears. Better to go to a hard-drive based system using a USB DAC, or convertor like the Waveterminal U24 + a good DAC. In WAV or Lossless I doubt you would hear much of a difference, if any between your CD player and a well-designed PC front end system offered by say a good USB DAC spitting out a signal to your integrated amp. You may find the computer front end sounds better.
Marco
Who cares if you're offending anyone with your choice of gear?! If you like the iPod and it brings you closer to the music you love...well, it's all good.
If you want better quality sound and higher resolution from your digital files, go back and rip everything in either Apple Lossless or WAV (the latter will take up more space). Your iPod can handle those files as well, you'll just get less of a selection (about 5 days worth of music in Lossless on your 60gb iPod as I recall). Per the previous post, first find out if you can hear, and or care about the difference between Lossless and MP3's. If not, don't bother. I certainly can.
Yes, use the line-out of your iPod (as opposed to the headphone jack) to feed your signal if the iPod's all you got. But doing that is still using the so-so DAC in the iPod to convert the signal, and leaves much room for improvement to my ears. Better to go to a hard-drive based system using a USB DAC, or convertor like the Waveterminal U24 + a good DAC. In WAV or Lossless I doubt you would hear much of a difference, if any between your CD player and a well-designed PC front end system offered by say a good USB DAC spitting out a signal to your integrated amp. You may find the computer front end sounds better.
Marco