Hardly a fashion statement, more like two years ago it was. Now that every loser,grody person, hippy has one, it's hardly a fashion statement since you look like the rest. It's a fashion statement when it's either not very common at all but looks really good or it's agian not very common but looks like shiet hence being a "statement" and not really the "must have look"...
alkemyst
No Lifer
- Feb 13, 2001
- 83,769
- 19
- 81
I can't say I understand what you are talking about, but in the world of music players iPod > * still with impressing [women]. I am not talking the college beatnik walking around with an iPod strapped to his waist, I am talking the guy in the Infinity G35 with an iPod holder as he takes his 'date' home.
*edit posted too soon*: still I don't get that...using a car jukebox > iPod and less visible/clutter.
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
i'd rather not throw more money at the virtual pc audio monopoly stifling any innovation there is left
And yet you'd buy an ipod :laugh:
now, i've seen some people spreading mis-information on the internet before, but this dude takes the cake. a sound engineer? maybe degreed by pheonix online.
126 bit encoding? hopefully you're off by an order of magnitude or 3.
virtual sound? is this junk science term even worth shooting down?
iPod sound quality is inferioir to that of other options because of a cheap DAC and a high-passed headphone amplifier (to conserve the mediocre battery).
There's no option for RIO products. My vote would be for the Karma due to the current prices.
Unfortunately I had to actually choose between an iPod photo 30g, iRiver H10 20gb, and a zen touch. I had a Karma 20g but the hard drive was failing. Fortunately I had the 2 year replacement plan. They don't sock karmas anymore so I tried the above three out. The zen actually has improved a lot, the touch interface is decent. I'd place it second to the ipod in ease of use (excluding karma). I was considering the iRiver despite my negative feelings about the company, but the physical controls were just terrible. Seems like they've gotten worse since the previous model I tried, though they are still better than my iRiver slimX cd player. The H300 seems like it would be better, too bad they didn't stock it.
The vertical scroll strip on the H10 was awful. It's similar yet significantly worse than the zen's scroll strip. The indentation makes it awkward to use, and it's not sensitive enough. The buttons were somewhat poorly placed - the main two buttons weren't too bad but the play and track skip buttons on the side were kind of a nuisance. The zen had somewhat awkward buttons but the strip was just right and it seemed "quicker" to do what I wanted to do.
So it was the zen or ipod. The 20g ipod's sound quality was a little worse than the zen and 30g ipod, but it could have been the tracks. I have previously owned creative mp3 players (nomad jukebox 3 and original zen) so I knew what to expect from them (merely adequate). I decided to go with the ipod knowing I could take it back if the sound quality or itunes turned me off.
So far it seems like the Karma is the best value in an mp3 player, if you don't mind the fact that it is now abandoned by rio and won't ever have the mass storage support in windows. And as long as you are willing to buy an extended warranty (comes only with 90 days and their support is GOD AWFUL, the worst of all these companies). The interface is almost as good as the ipod, and the sound quality is excellent. If I had the patience to purchase one online and trust an internet warranty vendor, I'd probably have gotten another one.
The iPod seems ok so far. The sound quality is better than I expected, a little less crisp than the karma but louder (the Karma had to be at almost full volume most of the time, the ipod's at about 60%). There is plenty of bass, more in fact than the karma (at default settings, anyway). iTunes is ok, about as good as the rio software, in other words merely adequate.
Unfortunately I had to actually choose between an iPod photo 30g, iRiver H10 20gb, and a zen touch. I had a Karma 20g but the hard drive was failing. Fortunately I had the 2 year replacement plan. They don't sock karmas anymore so I tried the above three out. The zen actually has improved a lot, the touch interface is decent. I'd place it second to the ipod in ease of use (excluding karma). I was considering the iRiver despite my negative feelings about the company, but the physical controls were just terrible. Seems like they've gotten worse since the previous model I tried, though they are still better than my iRiver slimX cd player. The H300 seems like it would be better, too bad they didn't stock it.
The vertical scroll strip on the H10 was awful. It's similar yet significantly worse than the zen's scroll strip. The indentation makes it awkward to use, and it's not sensitive enough. The buttons were somewhat poorly placed - the main two buttons weren't too bad but the play and track skip buttons on the side were kind of a nuisance. The zen had somewhat awkward buttons but the strip was just right and it seemed "quicker" to do what I wanted to do.
So it was the zen or ipod. The 20g ipod's sound quality was a little worse than the zen and 30g ipod, but it could have been the tracks. I have previously owned creative mp3 players (nomad jukebox 3 and original zen) so I knew what to expect from them (merely adequate). I decided to go with the ipod knowing I could take it back if the sound quality or itunes turned me off.
So far it seems like the Karma is the best value in an mp3 player, if you don't mind the fact that it is now abandoned by rio and won't ever have the mass storage support in windows. And as long as you are willing to buy an extended warranty (comes only with 90 days and their support is GOD AWFUL, the worst of all these companies). The interface is almost as good as the ipod, and the sound quality is excellent. If I had the patience to purchase one online and trust an internet warranty vendor, I'd probably have gotten another one.
The iPod seems ok so far. The sound quality is better than I expected, a little less crisp than the karma but louder (the Karma had to be at almost full volume most of the time, the ipod's at about 60%). There is plenty of bass, more in fact than the karma (at default settings, anyway). iTunes is ok, about as good as the rio software, in other words merely adequate.
- Feb 8, 2001
- 7,040
- 97
- 91
Ok, I've seen some post about Ipod's dock.... imho, it sucks, the bose speakers, which wear out faster than most of the cheaper speakers I have have, are not the best. Iriver has a craddle that you can buy, it comes with a line out wire that can hook directly into your home entertainment center, also it charges not only your iriver, but an extra battery if you have one.
Encoding at 126kb? WTF!!!! 128kb I can see, but not no 126kb. Go back to school kid. I may not be a "sound engineer" but I also can tell the difference between 128kb and 320kb. 320kb is as close as you can get to CD quality, go compare your CDs (ones bought in the store preferrably) to your ripped songs at 128kb.
IMHO Ipod's wheel sux0rs, too touchy but hey, you like what you want.
My $20 sony headphones play the difference between the audio devices. heck, the headphones that came with a creative muvo that I bought can register the difference. please go back to the hell hole from which you came.
Encoding at 126kb? WTF!!!! 128kb I can see, but not no 126kb. Go back to school kid. I may not be a "sound engineer" but I also can tell the difference between 128kb and 320kb. 320kb is as close as you can get to CD quality, go compare your CDs (ones bought in the store preferrably) to your ripped songs at 128kb.
IMHO Ipod's wheel sux0rs, too touchy but hey, you like what you want.
My $20 sony headphones play the difference between the audio devices. heck, the headphones that came with a creative muvo that I bought can register the difference. please go back to the hell hole from which you came.
Hmm... my experience is that cheaper headphones give false impressions of the quality of sound of various sources. Certain frequencies are accentuated too much and the instruments meld together. Yes, some devices will sound better than others with cheap headphones, but once you get nice headphones and an amp, the picture might be totally different. The nomad jukebox 3 sounded pretty good on some average headphones, better than my karma in some cases. But once I hooked it up to my home theater or some etymotic earphones, the karma outclassed it by far.
Mo0o
Lifer
- Jul 31, 2001
- 24,227
- 3
- 76
Ipods and minis seems to offer agood balance of form/function/price. Other players excel over the ipod in one area but it ends up falling short in others. A 20 gig player thats cheaper tha nthe ipod will look like ass and be built like a tank (zen touch). smaller players that beat it in form will be way over priced (iriver h10s) . But whatever, personal preferences.
Don Vito Corleone
Elite
- Feb 10, 2000
- 30,029
- 67
- 91
I've been using my first-gen 10GB iPod for nearly three years without problems, and I get 22+ hours of continuous play since I replaced the battery. I don't doubt some of the other players are as good or better in certain areas, but I like the iPod design and see no persuasive reason to jump ship. In fact, I recently supplemented it with an iPod Shuffle.
- Feb 8, 2001
- 7,040
- 97
- 91
the iriver h10 is not that far above the ipod mini in cost for the functionality that you get.
but yeah, personal preferences will finally dictate what you get. One of my coworkers got an ipod mini 4GB, then I got my iriver h10 5GB and he is looking to return his ipod to get the iriver. I guess functionality can weigh more, but, iriver isn't as well advertised here in the states, so I can see how ipods sell well. Heck, apparently they were advertising it back in the 80s, anyone got a link to the picture from back then with the girl dancing with an ipod on her hip?
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