IPODs hate bass!!!

[hoxie08 5,000+ posts]

thats why you buy a zune

 

[MrDave 10+ year member]

I try to tell people all the time, Ipods have terrible sound quality. It's fine for listening to little ear pods, but when you hook it up to real speakers you can hear the difference.

Kenwood used to make excellent SQ DAPs. If you want something now that will still retain more integrity of the music, go with the Creative's. Their sound quality is good.

From the start you are already down by one, seeing as how these are MP3's.

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

Would you think an IPod with lossless recordings would be better than a Creative MP3 player at 320Kbkps?

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Does anyone know the frequency response for an IPOD? Because I have found something interesting. I have an Alpine 9886 with the Alpine IPOD connector, and when I recently downloaded some bass tracks like Bassotronics-Bass I love you, whenever the really low frequency bass drop hits it would garble out everything and sounded completely like shit. I tried it on my other setup to make sure it wasn't the amp or install, and the exact same problem. So I took the track and burned it to a CD. Sure enough, no distortion, no garbling, just awesome-loosen-your-bowels-bass. I've also noticed this slightly with Three 6 Mafia - Late Night Tip. Anyone else have an IPOD direct connect with their head unit and have this problem? Try it out with Bassotronics and let me know I'm curious //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

After extensive testing with my 5g ipod and my Alpine 9887 HU... I can not tell any difference between my Ipod and CD's.

Check your connections and your settings (reset your Ipod maybe) or buy a new one...

I try to tell people all the time, Ipods have terrible sound quality. It's fine for listening to little ear pods, but when you hook it up to real speakers you can hear the difference.Kenwood used to make excellent SQ DAPs. If you want something now that will still retain more integrity of the music, go with the Creative's. Their sound quality is good.

From the start you are already down by one, seeing as how these are MP3's.

Please refrain from spreading lies. 5G ipods and newer have high quality DAC's (probably better then your current HU) and sound much better then Creative's lineup. This is assuming your using a deck that connects to the line out. If you using headphone jack to your stereo then thats your first problem...

And again with the lies... MP3's when encoded properly are just as good as CD's (at least to the human here tested with extensive statistical analysis from some of the most stern audiophiles out there). Please educate yourself before trying to give advice. Thank you.

Would you think an IPod with lossless recordings would be better than a Creative MP3 player at 320Kbkps?

yes and lossless is not required.

EDIT: Also head over to hydrogenaudio.org and learn how to properly rip and encode MP3's... VBR with joint stereo is better then 320kb/s encodes (and no different then lossless)

I also read that the OP solved the problem... GREAT! Yeah Ipod's EQ does ****... but you shouldn't be using it anyway.

 

[Mr.B 10+ year member]

the audio quality from an ipod will never be the same as a cd...i just found that out playing ipod tracks and the same songs off a cd. the mp3/aac/whatever encoding you use compresses the audio file. that could explain the distortion in the audio

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

the audio quality from an ipod will never be the same as a cd...i just found that out playing ipod tracks and the same songs off a cd. the mp3/aac/whatever encoding you use compresses the audio file. that could explain the distortion in the audio

They were poorly encoded files then. Unless you follow the guidlines set out in the FAQ's at hydrogenaudio.org on how to PROPERLY rip and encode Mp3's then your info is useless. Your no longer comparing Ipod to CD but poorly encoded crap to CD which of course is not going to sound as good. Properly done VBR joint stereo Mp3's are mathematically lossless with tons of statistical testing done to prove that people can not hear the difference between properly done Mp3 and other lossless methods (Flac, Wav, CD ect.)

Why do you think the owner of red wine audio is able to sell and use the Ipod as a source for his high end audio equipment? (Modded of course as the line out is a little dirty but nothing you would ever hear in a car and nothing but the xtreme audiophile would EVER hear)

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

That's the issue, though. You know ITunes and every other digital music seller out there doesn't follow correct ripping techniques for the songs they sell, so it still stands that they compared to original CD have a lower quality. But then who wants to buy a whole CD just for one song? I really wish Itunes would step up and sell lossless at a premium so we can then encode the 'as close to original' format correctly.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

That's the issue, though. You know ITunes and every other digital music seller out there doesn't follow correct ripping techniques for the songs they sell, so it still stands that they compared to original CD have a lower quality. But then who wants to buy a whole CD just for one song? I really wish Itunes would step up and sell lossless at a premium so we can then encode the 'as close to original' format correctly.

Well then thats your first problem... your paying for DRM crippled music...

I only rip from pressed CD's.

It would be nice if online music sellers would realize the potential of the digital age and remove all DRM and offer music in proper formats. Heck even step it up a notch and start offering 24bit variants as well. I bet that would really get people excited.

Sadly though we are still a ways from that but its in the works if you look at the news about Microsoft and Yahoo not selling music anymore and shutting down there DRM servers (and offereing refunds and unlocking previoulsy bought songs for customers).

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

I know. But I'd rather suffer the lower quality for .99 cents rather than $15-$20 for an album I don't care about. But I'd be more than happy to pay $2 for a lossless format. With the low cost of data storage these days I couldn't imagine that not being profitable.

 

[Mr.B 10+ year member]

They were poorly encoded files then. Unless you follow the guidlines set out in the FAQ's at hydrogenaudio.org on how to PROPERLY rip and encode Mp3's then your info is useless. Your no longer comparing Ipod to CD but poorly encoded crap to CD which of course is not going to sound as good. Properly done VBR joint stereo Mp3's are mathematically lossless with tons of statistical testing done to prove that people can not hear the difference between properly done Mp3 and other lossless methods (Flac, Wav, CD ect.)
Why do you think the owner of red wine audio is able to sell and use the Ipod as a source for his high end audio equipment? (Modded of course as the line out is a little dirty but nothing you would ever hear in a car and nothing but the xtreme audiophile would EVER hear)

all of the music i download are retail eac/LAME rips or scene released LAME rips...they cant be poorly encoded or they wouldve been nuked right? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif so now, is it the fact that my mp3's are rubbish, or the fact taht they are being played off an ipod...

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

all of the music i download are retail eac/LAME rips or scene released LAME rips...they cant be poorly encoded or they wouldve been nuked right? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif so now, is it the fact that my mp3's are rubbish, or the fact taht they are being played off an ipod...

Depends on where you download them. Plenty of fake scene releases out there.

What version Ipod are you using? I am only refereing to the 5g and newer full ipods (not nano's and other POS's like the iphone).

The only aspect in which there is any audible difference between my ipod on my Alpine CDA-9887 and its built in cd player is the SNR. With CD's you can crank it and there is virtually no noise in the speakers. however with my ipod hooked up there is some noise which is supposedly fixed with 6g (Classic) Ipod's.