Invasion of the iPod people

Knight Ridder ^ | 5.4.05

[ambrose]

Not calling you a liar, but I'd love to subject you to a blindfolded ear test. Same CD played via CD Player, Mp3, AAC, and Cassette tape, and then have you rank 'em in order.

[papertyger]

where my only contact will be with Nature, and, of course, eventually, the ATF guys... ;)

Thanks for the "gusher."

[cyborg]

Yeah *lol*

[cyborg]

I wish it was free.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I don't know what "gusher" means? (My remark was a joke.)

Northern Wisconsin is stereotyped as having lots of gun-toting survivalists. Well, there are a few. I don't plan on being any more heavily armed than a .22 for plinking off supper, or protecting the chickens. ;)

[papertyger]

Google the term "podcasting."

[Squeako]

I'm ultra-persnickety. I'd hear the difference. The quality issue is the only thing keeping me from being interested in the iPod.

Me too. I am the exact opposite of most "music fans" in that I want the quality to be as high as possible, not just cram as much in there as I can. IMHO, the .mp3 craze of mass storage, low(er)-fidelity is what is stopping 24-bit DVD audio from taking-off. Can anyone imagine moving away from HDTV and saying, "Hey, why the hell would I want one giant screen with fantastic resolution when I can have a tiny TV with ten 'near NTSC-quality' pictures?"

Just give me a nice hand-wired vacuum-tube amp with some flat, efficient drivers. When the idustry gets around to re-issuing all those fantastic jazz albums in 24-bit (not dropped back to 16-bit CD), I'll replace my music collection .

[GRRRRR]

$325 approx. I've had it since Feb. I can record episodes of '24' on my PC and then transfer them to my Archos and watch them when I want. It has a 2.5 inch screen, which I thought would be hard to view, but with headphones, it's actually quite good.

[papertyger]

Can you recommend any good meditation music? Here or private message. Thank you.

Y'all need to check out some of the live streams available directly in itunes.

[ambrose]

Let me guess, you think vinyl records sound better than CDs...

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

Thank you!!

[papertyger]

I don't know what "gusher" means? (My remark was a joke.)

As in "milk through the nose."

;o>

[sd-joe]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like a pretty good deal.

[discostu]

Well maintained vinyl does sound better than CDs, especially the early CDs before they figured out how to get the bottom end in there (around 92 or so). Vinyl has a fuller and more complete sound, and it's also much more enjoyable in a ritualistic way to play than a CD (take it out of the sleeve, give a quick dusting, get it on the player, get the player moving, grab the needle and place... it's a great way to prepare your ears to listen to music).

[Kozak]

"Some questions, I see the iPod folks w/little ear buds.
I use a walkman, have a long bus commute, and am subject to a lot of bus noise. I bought high end earphones (big suckers) to drown out some of the outside noise so I wouldn't go deaf turning up the volume on the walkman.

1. Can I use other earphones w/it? I've never seen anyone w/anything other than the little white earplugs.
2. I listen to a lot of talk radio (hence the FReepername). I don't suppose they make an iPod w/a radio? I haven't seen one, but the young people I know who have iPods don't listen to talkradio, so they wouldn't be looking for this function.

I wear my walkman all the time, but until I can get something small, like a walkman, that has radio, I don't see me switching over to an iPod. I don't even use a portable cd player cause they don't fit in a pocket."


You can use any kind of earphones. On airplanes I use sony noise cancelling ones, most days i use some soft gel ones that fit in my ear and are very comfortable.

You can record talk radio from the internet using software, I use "Replay Radio", and listen to it the next day. It will automatically sych with your iPod if you want.
also a big audible fan, have dozens of full length audio books. Love it.

[Proud_texan]

They don't have much in the way of Shakespeare in audio other than Midsummer and some sonnets but you might want to check out the Project Gutenberg Audio for freebies if the iPod can do MP3:

http://www.gutenberg.org/audio/

[PJ-Comix]

The wife bought me a 60 GB iPod. I listen more to audiobooks than music, but I have tons and tons of each on it.

Is there a place where the audiobooks can be downloaded cheaply?

[ambrose]

www.audible.com

[RightWinger]

...and my old 8-tracks are still up in the attic...

Then, I doubt if they will still play. They will probably pop in two should you try.

[Squeako]

Let me guess, you think vinyl records sound better than CDs..

Depends on what you mean by "better". The CD has to "sample" the original audio at certain rates/bit-depths, which can't be as high as the constant analog, which doesn't. But, vinyl (not specifically all analog media) suffers from physical wear, as CDs obviously don't so you have that trade-off, and at some point that same worn-out record will sound "worse" than the CD just because it's old.

If you were to sit down in a studio with professional gear (not micro-A/D/A converters) and listen to an analog master then to a 16-bit file recorded off it, you would hear an obvious difference. Now, put that analog master up against a 24-bit file recorded from it and one might be quite inclined to abandon the tape.

But, since most people don't have even "pro-sumer" gear, it doesn't even make much difference in that a small device will often make a high bit-depth file sound just like a lower bit-depth one. So, listening to a .mp3 and .wav file on a device that isn't that great makes no discernable difference to the listener, except that both are degraded in fidelity. At this point, some other reason, maybe economic, mass storage, convenience or random access are the key selling points.