iPod Best ipod for high quality headphones?

[WillMak]

My shure e4c sounds a lot better when I plug it directly into my ibook compared to plugging them into my mini. Is this normal? Does the mini's sound output pale compared to the output of the ibook or other ipods?

 

[Jay42]

First check your EQ settings both on the iPod and iTunes.


Yes, there is a difference in sound quality between the various iPod models. The shuffles were first noted to have improved sound quality over the other models. I believe all the current iPod models are pretty comparable now.

 

[kugino]

the shuffle does sound the best of the ipods...but the ibooks don't sound very good, either.

of the ipods with screen, the 4G ipod's DAC is considered the best-sounding (the wolfson DACs in the 4G and 5G are different).

here are some ways you can make your ipod sound better:

1. rip your CDs at better bitrates. Apple Lossless sounds better than AAC/mp3, and higher bitrate mp3/AAC are better than lower. also, you might want to use something like LAME for even better mp3 encoding. better headphones like your e4c will reveal bad rips and poor quality encodings...

2. use the dock's line out connected to a headphone amplifier for even better sound than using the headphone out. you can read more about headphone amplifiers at www.head-fi.org...sorry about your wallet.

good luck.

 

[WillMak]

well I get most of my mp3s from itunes...are those pretty crappy mp3s? This sucks, because my mini sounds so horrible with the e4cs compared to the ibook.

 

[WillMak]

Damn, my itunes mp3s are 128k encoding! WTF!