Originally posted by audionewbTrue audiophiles are not going to use a compressed format such as mp3s anyway.
I find this statement flawed and only meant to single out those few of us who still hold quality of the reproduction in high regard. First off, correct me if I'm wrong but aren't both the Phatbox AND Ipod capable of playing back unlossy file compression formats? I know first hand that the Phatbox is. You're the one that's chosen to listen to a second rate lossy reproduction of the original music through an Ipod.
And lets say that MP3 is the chosen format. When talking about audio reproduction in the car, there are already certain shortcuts that have to be made to even make the experience possible. Now with that said, there is no way that even the most trained ear will be able to discern a carefully ripped and encoded high bitrate MP3 from the original recording while in a car. You could sit yourself down and listen to the song through a nice set of headphones with absolutely no background noise and I highly doubt you'd be able to tell the difference from the original recording.
I am extremely picky when it comes to sound quality, yet I have no problem listening to any number of MP3's ripped from CD's as long as they've been ripped and encoded properly.
The ipod is not perfect, but if you use the dock connection output vs the headphone output, the audio quality increases. You are talking about a price/per sound quality issue.
Now this I will agree with you on, the Ipod is far from perfect. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif
Using the docking connection output still utilizes the same crappy DAC that the headphone output uses. No matter what, if you start with crap, you end with crap, it will never sound better than what the Ipod is capable of reproducing.
And as far as price vs sound quality, the Phatbox wins in both situations if you're careful and smart enough not to buy the first thing you see on the store shelves. Bang for the buck? Brand new or lightly used Phatbox's can be found for well under $200, and 120 gb laptop hard drives can be found for less than $150. Yet doesn't a 60 gb Ipod go for nearly $400?
And even if the Ipod were a better deal, I wouldn't recommend investing your money in such a crappy device made by such a monopolistic company such as Apple. If you want portable, definately go with the Creative Zen. Down with Itunes and the Ipod. lol //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif