AC_S5

Grasshopper, grasshopper, grasshopper...you're so predictable.

Making bold statements...that are incorrect, and insulting people who have a view different than yours. Why must you be so angry...

Well, "rocket scientist" I can also use my iPod as a hard drive--it's a standard feature of iTunes...

Just like your opinions regarding waxes, glad you like what you're using--no need to bash other people's preferences...and make false statements in the process.

[/quote]

As per usaul reading obviously isn't one of your strengths! If you will notice, my "rocket scientist" comment was about the fact that people are paying the same price for 4GB as 20GB! In my mind that's a no brainer. But I guess you failed to comprehend that since your reading level is what...on a 3rd grade level? As for using your ipod as a hard drive try dropping mp3's on there and getting the ipod to recognize them. Ha.... (Before you open your mouth I have tried it and it doesn't work!) You have to use that crappy itunes program to load songs. That way apple figures they can protect copyright laws. And if you really want to argue that apple's not a proprietary system go ahead, it will be like boxing a man with no arms. Oh I guess you used to that by now, arguing with people much smarter than you. Wanna know why the ipod sucks? Try having someone read the following to you and explain all the big words!
Five Reasons Why Apple's iPod Sucks

1. Poor Sound Quality
First I should mention that everything I listen to is in 192kbps or higher mp3 format. I personally cannot even stand to listen to 128kbps or lower. That being said the Apple iPod (4G) is lacking heavily in the sound department. The Apple iPod when A/B tested with almost any other mp3 player (playing the exact same mp3 file) will almost always lose. The sound is not very dynamic; the highs and lows sound especially hollow and brittle. And who knows what the signal-to-noise ratio is? Apple will not publish this information. Even iRiver lists (and seems to be proud even) the iRiver h10's 90dB signal-to-noise ratio. So it seems to me that the iPod's could not be much higher than that, or not any maybe. Could it be that Apple is ashamed of the iPod's inferior sound quality? Also, it seems as if they brag quite a lot about how great their earbud headphones are. I have no idea why because my $10 pair of Sony earbuds I purchsed from Best Buy blow them out of the water. It also seems that they "leak" sound. In other words, they let a lot of sound out away from the ear. My cheap Sony earbuds don't do this and someone sitting beside me cannot hear any noise when I am using them, but the iPod earbuds let everyone around you know what you are listening to. Personally though, I would rather not use earbuds at all. Instead, I would rather wear a good pair of studio monitors (which is what I do unless I am walking across campus or running).

2. The Rediculous Price
They cost $299 dollars. They have been out for many years (through four generations of the player), yet the cost has stayed about the same. Although it is typical for Apple to screw customers over in product costs, it is ridiculous when compared with the prices of any rival company's players (which are either cheaper or offer more features, many times both).

3. Difficult Controls and No Features
No FM tuner. No voice recorder. All other players in this price range have at least one of these. And I know that know one is always going to carry both bulging attachments that enable the iPod to have this with them. Sure I'll admit the Apple iPod's click wheel is a novel idea. But it is not exactly something that can be used while you are jogging, or for that matter walking. It is useless when the player is in your pocket, and the menus are much more difficult to navigate than on competitors players. The volume control is also more difficult to access than on other players. And lastly, you can't bookmark a particular point in a track (very useful and a must if you listen to podcasts).

4. Longevity
The battery, if you are lucky, lasts 12 hours (only 8 hours on the iPod Mini), and after about 12 months of regular use the battery will start to lose its ability to hold a charge. So what seems to happen is just after the player is out of warranty the iPod is out of warranty. You can't change the battery yourself simply because Apple decided to force you to fork out over $100 to just replace the battery. You have to send it to Apple to do this, so you are out of a player for at least a week. On the many other players, the battery is easy to change, and cheap to replace. For example, the Creative Zen Micro has a cellphone type battery that you can purchase from Creative for about $40. Plus on long traps, you can carry a spare battery, and change the batteries in a matter of seconds when the first one dies. No tools required. Spend $300 dollars for something that will cease to work in a few years? I don't think so.

5. iTunes
I have heard many people rave about iTunes, so when a few weeks ago I wanted to listen to song (that wasn't available on Rhapsody), but I did not want to purchase album so I bought the track through iTunes. I downloaded iTunes which put icons on my desktop and quick launch taskbar everytime I turned on my computer. It also kept changing my default file associations, even after I set it within the program not to. I had heard from many people that the songs purchased from Apple's music store were very high quality, but the track I paid $0.99 for was encoded in 128kbps .m4a. Unfortunately, there is no way to know the bit rate of a song before you buy it. I was informed that this low quality was not typical. Yet, after another few weeks and many more iTunes purchases, I had seen no higher bit rates. I can't believe that people pay a dollar for such poor quality audio. iTunes thankfully, is no longer on my computer.

Conclusion
If you care about quality do not buy an iPod. Buy a Creative Zen Micro, or if that is not big enough for you buy another Creative Zen player, a Rio, a Sony, an iRiver, or for that matter any other brand because they are most always better than an Apple iPod. If you care only about style, buying into commercial hype, and you want low quality audio the Apple iPod is for you.
[/quote]

I know a Lexus is more comfortable, is reliable blah, blah, blah.... but I will still like my E60 period. Is just a matter of preference so don't over react.

And please try to talk more about the E60 on this forum, if I want to know more about the pros and cons of the ipod, I wouldn't look for the answer here

stream

Grasshopper, grasshopper, grasshopper...you're so predictable.

Making bold statements...that are incorrect, and insulting people who have a view different than yours. Why must you be so angry...

Well, "rocket scientist" I can also use my iPod as a hard drive--it's a standard feature of iTunes...

Just like your opinions regarding waxes, glad you like what you're using--no need to bash other people's preferences...and make false statements in the process.

[/quote]

As per usaul reading obviously isn't one of your strengths! If you will notice, my "rocket scientist" comment was about the fact that people are paying the same price for 4GB as 20GB! In my mind that's a no brainer. But I guess you failed to comprehend that since your reading level is what...on a 3rd grade level? As for using your ipod as a hard drive try dropping mp3's on there and getting the ipod to recognize them. Ha.... (Before you open your mouth I have tried it and it doesn't work!) You have to use that crappy itunes program to load songs. That way apple figures they can protect copyright laws. And if you really want to argue that apple's not a proprietary system go ahead, it will be like boxing a man with no arms. Oh I guess you used to that by now, arguing with people much smarter than you. Wanna know why the ipod sucks? Try having someone read the following to you and explain all the big words!
Five Reasons Why Apple's iPod Sucks

1. Poor Sound Quality
First I should mention that everything I listen to is in 192kbps or higher mp3 format. I personally cannot even stand to listen to 128kbps or lower. That being said the Apple iPod (4G) is lacking heavily in the sound department. The Apple iPod when A/B tested with almost any other mp3 player (playing the exact same mp3 file) will almost always lose. The sound is not very dynamic; the highs and lows sound especially hollow and brittle. And who knows what the signal-to-noise ratio is? Apple will not publish this information. Even iRiver lists (and seems to be proud even) the iRiver h10's 90dB signal-to-noise ratio. So it seems to me that the iPod's could not be much higher than that, or not any maybe. Could it be that Apple is ashamed of the iPod's inferior sound quality? Also, it seems as if they brag quite a lot about how great their earbud headphones are. I have no idea why because my $10 pair of Sony earbuds I purchsed from Best Buy blow them out of the water. It also seems that they "leak" sound. In other words, they let a lot of sound out away from the ear. My cheap Sony earbuds don't do this and someone sitting beside me cannot hear any noise when I am using them, but the iPod earbuds let everyone around you know what you are listening to. Personally though, I would rather not use earbuds at all. Instead, I would rather wear a good pair of studio monitors (which is what I do unless I am walking across campus or running).

2. The Rediculous Price
They cost $299 dollars. They have been out for many years (through four generations of the player), yet the cost has stayed about the same. Although it is typical for Apple to screw customers over in product costs, it is ridiculous when compared with the prices of any rival company's players (which are either cheaper or offer more features, many times both).

3. Difficult Controls and No Features
No FM tuner. No voice recorder. All other players in this price range have at least one of these. And I know that know one is always going to carry both bulging attachments that enable the iPod to have this with them. Sure I'll admit the Apple iPod's click wheel is a novel idea. But it is not exactly something that can be used while you are jogging, or for that matter walking. It is useless when the player is in your pocket, and the menus are much more difficult to navigate than on competitors players. The volume control is also more difficult to access than on other players. And lastly, you can't bookmark a particular point in a track (very useful and a must if you listen to podcasts).

4. Longevity
The battery, if you are lucky, lasts 12 hours (only 8 hours on the iPod Mini), and after about 12 months of regular use the battery will start to lose its ability to hold a charge. So what seems to happen is just after the player is out of warranty the iPod is out of warranty. You can't change the battery yourself simply because Apple decided to force you to fork out over $100 to just replace the battery. You have to send it to Apple to do this, so you are out of a player for at least a week. On the many other players, the battery is easy to change, and cheap to replace. For example, the Creative Zen Micro has a cellphone type battery that you can purchase from Creative for about $40. Plus on long traps, you can carry a spare battery, and change the batteries in a matter of seconds when the first one dies. No tools required. Spend $300 dollars for something that will cease to work in a few years? I don't think so.

5. iTunes
I have heard many people rave about iTunes, so when a few weeks ago I wanted to listen to song (that wasn't available on Rhapsody), but I did not want to purchase album so I bought the track through iTunes. I downloaded iTunes which put icons on my desktop and quick launch taskbar everytime I turned on my computer. It also kept changing my default file associations, even after I set it within the program not to. I had heard from many people that the songs purchased from Apple's music store were very high quality, but the track I paid $0.99 for was encoded in 128kbps .m4a. Unfortunately, there is no way to know the bit rate of a song before you buy it. I was informed that this low quality was not typical. Yet, after another few weeks and many more iTunes purchases, I had seen no higher bit rates. I can't believe that people pay a dollar for such poor quality audio. iTunes thankfully, is no longer on my computer.

Conclusion
If you care about quality do not buy an iPod. Buy a Creative Zen Micro, or if that is not big enough for you buy another Creative Zen player, a Rio, a Sony, an iRiver, or for that matter any other brand because they are most always better than an Apple iPod. If you care only about style, buying into commercial hype, and you want low quality audio the Apple iPod is for you.
[/quote]

Grasshopper, grasshopper, grasshopper...focus...focus... listen...listen...

As I said, glad you like what you like, just don't go bashing other people's opinions--it's a sign of somebody with an inferiority complex...as is your diatribe on the virtues of the iPod...

Now about these comments:
As per usaul reading obviously isn't one of your strengths!
The Rediculous Price
...as per usual...spelling...isn't your strong suit...

my530i

HPdrifter is partially right. Apple does not want to publish THD and SNR at all.
I'm currently having iPod 4G, and I'm not very happy with its sound quality.
Does anyone know which MP3 player is very good in terms of sound quality? I don't care much about complicate usage.

UUronL

Sony always does a good job on its devices as far as sound goes. They have announced the impending rebirth of the walkman - should surface soon. In the meantime, they have some nifty flash-based players. I especially love the battery life: 50 hours on a charge, and you get 3 hours of playtime off of a 3 minute charge!

We'll see what Microsoft comes up with - they've been making rumblings about entering the MP3 player market "Xbox style". Let's just hope the device isn't as big...

redondoman

Sound quality has more to do with headphones and the way songs are encoded. You should try the Shure Earbuds which are available online from Apple's site. BTW the poll is missing the 60gig video ipod which is the player I use.

stream

I rip my CDs with Exact Audio Copy w/ LAME encoder @ 256kbps VBR, and normalize using MP3Gain, and the sound quality in the car is excellent.

UUronL

I rip my CDs with Exact Audio Copy w/ LAME encoder @ 256kbps VBR, and normalize using MP3Gain, and the sound quality in the car is excellent.
[/quote]


I don't particularly care about sound quality on a portable - I figure it's going to be limited so I don't complain. I do however have a good friend who uses uber expensive headphones and he's an encoding nut. He can't stop bitching about the iPod (he has several other portable MP3 players), so I don't take the complaints about the iPod's audio section lightly.

Again though, it's a portable.

jmdhuse

Can we add a choice to the voting for "have a portable music player, but it's not an iPOD"?

I use a Sony minidisc player that uses the new high density (1Gb) minidiscs... I can get a lot (maybe 20 hours) of music on a single disc at pretty reasonable quality, and it suits my listening habits...

Jon.

simplepst

Don't have one yet. Sort of waiting for the new iPod with Bluetooth. What about a cell phone (+ digital camera) + mp3 + bluetooth + PDA? Will this make our lives easier?

ats77

I have Archos and prefer to Ipod mine. I can use its 20gb as usb drive too.

But my bets on is DVX-POD 7010 it has also 20gb but plays my movies and mp3s on 7" sreen