It's all about the headphones. Don't settle for the Apple earbuds... they blow out easily, have nearly no bass, and just don't get the job done, IMO. Throw down for higher quality headphones, and you'll be satisfied. The bass will be much crisper, and the listening experience is just much more satisfying.
It's not all about the headphones. It's about quality of the sound files as well as the power of the device itself. In my opinion the iPhone/iPod have mediocre sound quality, but I can deal with it.
People complain about how ****ty their music sounds, when they don't realize they're using those $15 earbuds and playing music from Limewire.
That's... Idiotic. The iPod loads the sound file into flash storage (temporarily if a Classic) and plays it from there. If your file quality is crap, so is your sound quality. If it's not good enough, use a lossless audio format or uncompressed audio.
Sound quality depends on many factors. Internally, the iPod is decent. But, you can get much higher sound quality with better files (FLAC), better headphones (with an amplifier if possible), and a better DAC. iirc, the iPod had the Wolfson DACs, but I'm not sure which one the current gen uses. The Zune HD and Cowon J3 are PMPs with good sound quality. For best sound quality, I use this, the Hifiman HM 602:
I never liked the EQ options on my Ipod - they all lacked decent bass (except for the bass boost which was boomy). But if I was walking my dog or hanging out in the park, I didn't really care that much.
Yeah, the DAC in the iPod is not all that good. Originally, they were pretty solid but they have gone cheaper and cheaper over the years. The power is pretty low as well but that is not as big of a deal as the DAC circuitry. MP3+iPod+any headphones is pretty craptacular to me. Lossless+iPod+good earbuds is good enough for portable. I had one phone (LG Dare) that was the worst audio experience ever. For whatever reason, no matter the setting, the sound was almost always shrill and overdriven in the upper registers. iPod never sounded so sweet.
If you're handy with a soldering iron, you can get a 5th gen IPOD and do a little something called the DIYMOD. It's the home method of achieving the same results as Red Wine's super expensive IMOD. But yeah source files are a big deal, as well as using lineout through a dock into a headphone amp, and then having a good amp.
Ipod 5th gen is better than the 6th gen in terms of sound quality because of a different chip. So I read
I recently decided to invest in some good headphones after blowing out earbuds left and right and there is a pretty substantial difference in the sound quality
The sound quality is good with good headphones. Not great, but perfectly acceptable, in my opinion, especially considering that with the iPhone, it's a bonus, and with the iPods, the price/software/quality is excellent, depending on the model, IMO.
exactly my thought. i have a classic ipod and itouch and nano for workout. I keep buying hoping that the newest version has better quality but they all the same. Even if I use it with my Lifestyle it's still mediocre. All my files are 320 bitrate. Glad I have a Blackberry which is a little better. I use it for my car via Bluetooth.
Try the sandisk players since they play flac and have card slots so you can just buy a bunch of microsd cards. Don't think you're gonna get great sound when you're playing from a phone over a wireless connection to a head unit that uses 1-2v preouts to send said weakened signal to a random 6-8 speaker system not designed for any actual superior listening experience.
