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Well, I finally did it... I went and bought myself something apple.

An iPod Nano.... I got tired of swapping music out of my piddly 1Gb Sony MP3 player, and went for the 16gb Nano...

I've never been a big fan of apple hardware... I've always said that in the past (my sony 1Gb stick was smaller than the 1st gen nano, and had 50 hours of playtime vs 11 of the old nano-- 24 of the new nano).

But nobody makes an MP3 player that just does a good job of playing music. They all have to support video and other things like that it seems. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

I was tempted to go Zune, but then again, while the hardware is better...they don't have the same market penetration as apple -- and that's the understatement of the year.

So I figure, if I'm going to get greater capacity, I might as well go with the apple. I already use iTunes as it's simple to use and does a decent job... so having almost my entire music collection on a device not much bigger than my old sony wouldn't hurt.

So that's the story of how I ended up with apple...

but what do I think of this new toy?

well, it plays games nicely, has a nice interface, and is rather shiny... But here's the thing... it's not a great music player.

I have a $200 pair of reference in-ear headphones... and they pick up a lot of clipping from the Nano's diminutive amp... and I can't trim any of the levels in the EQ. Even with soundcheck enabled it's ok, but not great.... nowhere near how nice my MP3's sounded on my sony.

However, the little Nano does do a better job with AAC files. I've been known to download a single or two from the iTunes store, and they sound fairly decent much more full throughout... but still... the Nano favours the highs, clips on the lows, and while I know I'll get used to it's particular sound, I can honestly say that only the MPIO MP3 players have sounded worse.

Of course, now I know why you can hear everyone's music on the subway... if you want bass, you need to turn the EQ off and turn the volume up until you go deaf in the higher frequencies.


So there you have it.... I went to the darkside... it's a little treble heavy, but it's not bad.

hehe, thats why i got the 120G classic. Got tired of carrying CD's in the car. Now all i do is plug the ipod and i'm done :)

DP,

Have you noticed any difference in playback quality with higher bitrates?

I'm debating on using my Airmiles for one of the things for workout purposes (I need to drown out the sound of my own huffing & puffing, NVM the machine :P :lol:)

NefCanuck

NefCanuck,Feb 10 2009, 11:37 AM Wrote:DP,

Have you noticed any difference in playback quality with higher bitrates?

I'm debating on using my Airmiles for one of the things for workout purposes (I need to drown out the sound of my own huffing & puffing, NVM the machine :P :lol:)

NefCanuck
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The higher bitrates are much better.. .if you can rip everything to AAC, you're much better off. I might go and re-rip my library...

I just wish there was a user-definable EQ on this thing since the apple software seems to over-drive some of the frequencies and under-drives others.

darkpuppet,Feb 10 2009, 10:39 AM Wrote:

NefCanuck,Feb 10 2009, 11:37 AM Wrote:DP,

Have you noticed any difference in playback quality with higher bitrates?

I'm debating on using my Airmiles for one of the things for workout purposes (I need to drown out the sound of my own huffing & puffing, NVM the machine :P :lol:)

NefCanuck
[right][snapback]280831[/snapback][/right]

The higher bitrates are much better.. .if you can rip everything to AAC, you're much better off. I might go and re-rip my library...

I just wish there was a user-definable EQ on this thing since the apple software seems to over-drive some of the frequencies and under-drives others.
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Hrm, well, AAC is off the table unless I want to re rip my music twice because AFAIK my Denon can't handle AAC files, MP3 and WMA only :(

None of Apple's other 'pod models have a user defieable EQ curve? Seems a rather glaring omission...

NefCanuck

I just use the 8GB Micro M2 capacity in my W580i phone with my Escape's aux jack, my workout room mini system's aux jack and one of my myriad aux ins on the Sony home theatre amp I have. I have 4.5GB of music right now, and about 2GB of which is what I really listen to, depending.

NOS2Go4Me,Feb 10 2009, 10:54 AM Wrote:I just use the 8GB Micro M2 capacity in my W580i phone with my Escape's aux jack, my workout room mini system's aux jack and one of my myriad aux ins on the Sony home theatre amp I have. I have 4.5GB of music right now, and about 2GB of which is what I really listen to, depending.
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Heh, I've tried using the music capabilities of my cell phone as a workout tool, "pa" and "thetic" about covers it :(

The Denon I have is a music geek's wet dream, fully networkable over ethernet I can stream my entire music library through the thing and control the whole shooting match from any PC that is connected to my network in addition to being able to stream internet radio :P

...and then I went and bought an internet radio streaming capable alarm clock, dear god I am such a geek :ph34r: ([i]though oddly the alarm clock's net feed is *ahead* of the Denon's feed, both using the vTuner service but the alarm clock is connected wirelessly :blink: )

NefCanuck

Cool, when I plug mine in my car the with the EQ on the Ipod turned onto a setting it sounds like hell too much bass for some songs and not enough for others. So I just keep it off and presset my Clarrion EQ to make the sound so much better.

Picked one of these up on the launch day as I lost my 30gig Ipod a month before.

I dont understand the point of the touch. Although it looks cool, the functions are not relevant to my day to day needs........I just want to press play and listen to music.........and scroll to certain points of a song.

My deck has AUX settings. I can actually set it for the iPod.

Works great and sounds good too.

ANTHONYD,Feb 10 2009, 12:18 PM Wrote:My deck has AUX settings. I can actually set it for the iPod.

Works great and sounds good too.
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that's what I'm looking forward too.. my stang has an aux jack in the armrest along with it's own power... sure, a burnt CD full of MP3's is good for 12 hours, but the drive to TBay is 14.... who wants to listen to 2 hours of re-runs? :P

gonna be great in the summer, with the top down switching between Jurassic5, Billy Talent and Shiny Toy GUns on a whim...

Oh man, My 80g pod is awesome. I swear by it. I have music, movies, podcasts, files etc.... It makes a pretty wicked juke box at parties too. Almost EVERYONE has a pod jack these days.

ANTHONYD,Feb 10 2009, 12:57 PM Wrote:Oh man, My 80g pod is awesome. I swear by it. I have music, movies, podcasts, files etc.... It makes a pretty wicked juke box at parties too. Almost EVERYONE has a pod jack these days.
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that was another reason for going iPod...

I've heard the Bose Sound Dock for the iPod lastyear... HOLY CRAP is that thing amazing.

What I want is a home kit for my Sirius that I can split off of and run set of RCAs down to the mini-system (or use a transmitter) and the other set goes to the home theatre.

One headunit, 2 docks, 3 listening points. Should work. And everyone supports 1/8" aux jacks. It's a standard over 15 years old and it works. Why mess with success?

I find I have an easier time creating and working with custom playlists on my Sony Ericsson phone than most iPods I've used. Then again, it IS called the Walkman W580i for a reason :P

The Sony-side music player rocks. The Rogers one sucks cock for crack in back alleys.

EDIT - HAHAHHAHAHHAA! Time to update the filter, Steve-o! :rofl: :rofl:

darkpuppet,Feb 10 2009, 01:11 PM Wrote:

ANTHONYD,Feb 10 2009, 12:57 PM Wrote:Oh man, My 80g pod is awesome. I swear by it. I have music, movies, podcasts, files etc.... It makes a pretty wicked juke box at parties too. Almost EVERYONE has a pod jack these days.
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that was another reason for going iPod...

I've heard the Bose Sound Dock for the iPod lastyear... HOLY CRAP is that thing amazing.
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Oh man, stupid clear. My friends have one and that thing sounds unbelievable!

and a picture of my baby..



someone call me when they come out with an 80Gb version of this thing.

^ c'mon. you have to admit that's dope!

NefCanuck,Feb 10 2009, 12:03 PM Wrote:

NOS2Go4Me,Feb 10 2009, 10:54 AM Wrote:I just use the 8GB Micro M2 capacity in my W580i phone with my Escape's aux jack, my workout room mini system's aux jack and one of my myriad aux ins on the Sony home theatre amp I have. I have 4.5GB of music right now, and about 2GB of which is what I really listen to, depending.
[right][snapback]280839[/snapback][/right]

Heh, I've tried using the music capabilities of my cell phone as a workout tool, "pa" and "thetic" about covers it :(

The Denon I have is a music geek's wet dream, fully networkable over ethernet I can stream my entire music library through the thing and control the whole shooting match from any PC that is connected to my network in addition to being able to stream internet radio :P

...and then I went and bought an internet radio streaming capable alarm clock, dear god I am such a geek :ph34r: ([i]though oddly the alarm clock's net feed is *ahead* of the Denon's feed, both using the vTuner service but the alarm clock is connected wirelessly :blink: )

NefCanuck
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I use my LG VU and Motorola S9 bluetooth headset to listen to music on the go or while working out. And it's sufficiant as an mp3 player, I put a few gigs of memory into it and the phone works flawlessly.

But congrats on joining the darkside dp lol I too have a Nano, it's a first generation 1gb nano that seems to sit way more than it gets used... having more space than 1gb might render it useful of course! lol

The first iPod I had was the 20gb Photo and when that crapped out my lovely wife bought me a 16gb touch. I have the JBL sound dock and I love the little monkey. The only bad part about it was the remote. I lost it in Cuba. Dam that thing was tiny. I take it everywhere I go, business trips, vacations etc. I like the wifi option on my touch. Lindsey gets pissed off everytime I pull it out looking for an unprotected signal.

I"m on my 2nd Nano, my first one died in a week, it kept having issues, the one I have now I hardly use now...