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ipod sounds great,surprisingly!!!


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Hi folks.

Since this forum holds

discussion of the ipod and the

likes ,I d like to post here my query.

I have been using an ipod look alike

from another cheaper brand XPOD.

Its been just a day at it,and while

I'm getting deeply impressed and

satisfied by its sound through a

quad 33 pre amp and marantz 2230

power amp,I cannot understand

why I did NOT Get this kind of good

healthy rich sound with bass and

oomph from my stock sony x33ES

cd player. Plz don't mind but its

mp3 format that I am playing.and

when I play the same songs after

burning a cd for the cd player , the

sound is ,well, not as exciting. Is it

that a cd player is not used to mp3

format playback? Or is it that the cd

player is more accurate ,and

distortion free than this poor/

cheap xpod. And the added

distortion adds that pleasure to

lows and overall grams. In the

sound ????? Please comment .

tc,

dr sherry

RF 3s

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I find my iPod performs adequately through my car's 3.5mm auxiliary input; it sounds OK through my system at home to my Fortes (and my outdoor Klipsch speakers), but only for casual listening. It cannot compare to a well-recorded CD or DVD-Audio, especially for the "you are there" experience.

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I think it's most likely that the MP3 player has some kind of EQ built into it and it just happens that you like the effect when you put it through your mains.

I agree, this is very likely, many personal mp3 players have a built in EQ, sometimes they are defeatable, sometimes they are not.

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Files- MP3's recorded at lower bit rates will sound increasingly horrible based on the size of sound systems. I use AIFF Apple Lossless for stuff I want to sound HI-FI, especially if it'll be played over a sound system at public venue.

EQ- The MP3 device may very well have it's own eq built in. I've heard talk that even the iPhone has limited LF on purpose so as not to blow up speakers and such, therefore listening to music on it hooked up to systems will sound poor compared to the earphone experience.

Amp- remember when using the headphone jack and adapters to your system to turn up the Pod volume all the way (do not use volume locks). The voltage output is very low (meant to drive only small headphones) and signal-noise ratio will be severaly compromised at lower volumes on the Pod.

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I'm assuming this question is directed at me; the best my system has sounded for music listening, just prior to expanding it to include home theater 5.1, was when I had a McCormack DNA-1 Deluxe amp, McCormack TLC passive preamp, a pretty simple (yet solidly built) Sony CD player, feeding my Klipsch Fortes. The bass was enhanced with the very musical HSU TN1220 subwoofer. (I won't bother with mentioning my interconnect and speaker cable choices on this forum - I heard the differences, 'nuff said).

The McCormack amp opened up the Fortes like I had never heard before, and there were many times when I felt like I was in the performance venue. Sadly, when I expanded to include HT, I ditched the McCormack amp and preamp and downgraded to a Rotel 5 channel amp. It was like night and day for music listening - the Rotel was competent, but not musical.

I have since gone back the the McCormack brand in the form of the DNA 0.5 and the HT1 3-channel amp, but I am still not hearing the purity of sound I had previously, especially when using the (otherwise excellent) digital processing in my Anthem AVM20.

I had the opportunity of hearing 60th Anniversary Klipschorns a few years ago, and that experience has haunted my acoustic memory ever since. I have never heard musical instruments - especially brass - reproduced as live and real as I did with these beautiful beasts.

I love the sound I get from my current system - especially with DVD and Blu-Ray material (and DVD-Audio, what few I own).

I suppose it might be unrealistic to expect the "live sound" at all levels of gear, but it is way closer to realization with uncompressed media such as CD and DVD-Audio than with a portable digital music player.

Just my $.05...

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I bought my current McCormack amps used - the 2-channel DNA 0.5 is 125 wpc for around $700 and the 3-channel HT-1 is 100-150-100 wpc and cost me a little over a thousand - I go them both for about half their original MSRP. The 185-watt DNA 1 Deluxe of which I was so enamoured retailed for around $2500; again, I bought it on the used market for a little less than half that amount.

It's some pretty significant coin, to be sure, but I have found that the Klipsch speakers I have heard seem to be very sensitive to quality components, and stay pretty well ahead of the upgrade curve. On the downside, they are so revealing that gear that is not quite "up to snuff" displays its own shortcomings pretty brutally (to my ears).

As far as cosmetics go, the current McCormack line looks a lot sexier than the older stuf that I own, which looks a little "industrial" - just perform a search through Google images, and you'll see what I mean... the newer models are lighter-colored, with a diagonal slash across the front. The older models sport a little small dip along the bottom faceplate - sort of a bottom tab - and are darker in color, almost a purplish-gray. I like their looks just fine, but they I can see how some might find them off-putting.

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I find my iPod performs adequately through my car's 3.5mm auxiliary input; it sounds OK through my system at home to my Fortes (and my outdoor Klipsch speakers), but only for casual listening. It cannot compare to a well-recorded CD or DVD-Audio, especially for the "you are there" experience

I've got a preamp input line already setup for my Ipod to feed my Jubilee's.

Since we all agree it's about the music I agree that it performs adequately enough to enjoy. I also agree it does not compare to a well recorded cd.... perhaps even a poorly recorded cd either lol....BUT.... in those times when you want to have your entire collection available and want to hit shuffle.... it comes in handy and plays background music well enough.

I know there are no gear heads on this forum, consequently, I know that everyone will agree with me, right?

(hears crickets.....) [:P]

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I too went through the ipod set up on my system. I ended up re-ripping my cds into AIFF Apple Lossless format

and ditching the ipod. I use the ipod for my car, but I bought an Apple Airport Express and an Apple TV.

The Airport Express is feeding my Bottlehead mono block amps which in turn feed a pair of Lowther Acoustas or Cain & Cain Abbeys.

I found this worked but was lacking the nice rich sound we all try to achieve. What really made this system click was

adding a Cambridge Audio Magic dac. The dac was the missing ingredient. Now this system sounds wonderful.

My other system has an Apple TV, I use the digital out to my Sunfire TGIV which feeds three Lascalas and a pair of Hereseys.

I usually listen to the Lascalas in stereo but I also get the sub added in in this set up.

I use the audio out on the Apple TV to feed a Sophia Electric Baby amp. It's a little 10 wpc tube amp and this system feeds a pair or Epic CF-3

or KG 4s. I like switching speakers around a lot. They both sound awesome on the Sophia Electric. I really have never heard my KG4s sound so nice. I was considering selling both the CF-3's and KG 4s but now I'm thinking I'll hang on to them. I'll probably add a Magic DAC here as well to see if it makes a difference but it may not be needed.

I can sit at my computer and put a play list together in itunes and select which system it will play on. I'll probably add an ipod so I can sit in my lazyboy and select songs for the Airport set up. The Apple tv has an HDMI port which puts video on my TV. I can use the Apple tv menu to control that system.

I really hated spending the money on the apple tv and airport express and the DAC, but it was well worth it in the end. I have access to my entire music library and I don't have to get up every 45 minutes to add a new cd

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