Shuffle's Got a Secret: Quantifying Digital Audio Player Pe...

[MacBytes]

Category: Tunes
Link: Shuffle's Got a Secret: Quantifying Digital Audio Player Performance (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20050315013612)
Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)

Approved by Mudbug

[Mudbug]

this is a bit more in-depth than the average home user is going to get, but interesting nonetheless.

And the graphs look really cool if you look at them with 3d glasses on like I did. :)

[PlaceofDis]

that was an interesting look at the ipods, and competitors

now i wonder if they type of recording, WMA/AAC what have you will alter these types of tests

[24C]

...><..now i wonder if they type of recording, WMA/AAC what have you will alter these types of tests

If AAC/WMA can model a square wave accurately, like his test sample, then it shouldn't make any difference in his tests, but music isn't a square wave.

There are documented differences between raw music waveforms and the compressed varieties like AAC WMA etc somebody else will have links, but after reading this, it's no wonder I thought my iPod shuffle sounded good :D

[Blue Velvet]

I've heard a few people here saying that their Shuffle sounds better than their iPod...

[Neuro]

I always thought my iPod Mini sounded pretty crappy (and people on here said I was 'too picky'...). Here's the proof! Hmm, I may have to get a Shuffle instead.

[billyboy]

As someone who knows nothing about th eintricacies of sound and wishes he had a more scientific brain, that seemed to be a really good objective article. Sounds like the shuffle is the way to go on so many levels.

[topperdog]

I have purchased two IPOD shuffles (one for me and one for my best friend in Florida), and I thought that the soudn output was quite good for the size of the player. It is interesting to see the differences between loaded and unloaded circuits. Here at my work we often have to hook up "dummy" loads on circuits we are troubleshooting and often see many differences between loading as opposed to unloading. I found this test to be quite interesting and helpful.

[MacBandit]

I always thought my iPod Mini sounded pretty crappy (and people on here said I was 'too picky'...). Here's the proof! Hmm, I may have to get a Shuffle instead.

Is this with other brands of headphones or just Apples? I got a pair of Sony MDR earphones and it made a world of difference. I'm guessing they draw a lot less power then Apples earphones.

Also a lot of my audio is ripped at 320KB/s MP3 which to me sounds quite a bit better then 128KB/s AAC from Apple.

[topperdog]

I have two sets of headphones, and the apple ones do sound better. The others are a pair of Sony's that I bought for $9.99 that I use for running since they hook to your ear. I notice the bass in the Sony's to be a little on the low side compared to the Apple headphones. It would be interesting to see the same tests performed with different varieties of headphones.

[miloblithe]

I never would have guessed that. Maybe I should get a Shuffle...

Unfortunately, my job gave me a 1GB jump drive, eliminating one of the reasons to get a Shuffle. However, if they want it back when I leave, I have an excuse...

[pgwalsh]

I use a pair of Bose QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones and it sounds good. However these headphones use a AAA for power. However, IMO most files I've heard encoded in 128 bit, sound thin to begin with. If they're 160 bit, they sound quite a bit better.

[Neuro]

Is this with other brands of headphones or just Apples? I got a pair of Sony MDR earphones and it made a world of difference. I'm guessing they draw a lot less power then Apples earphones.

Also a lot of my audio is ripped at 320KB/s MP3 which to me sounds quite a bit better then 128KB/s AAC from Apple.

I'm using the headphones that come with the Apple remote. I encode my CDs at 192KB/s AAC or MP3.

I think my main gripe is with the EQ on the Mini, - it's actually hopeless at handling bass. My frame of reference is comparing it with my Sony Minidisc player. The bass on the MD was solid/chunky when playing electronic music and could really be cranked up with no distortion. The Mini's bass distorts very easily and not in a 'nice' way. I tried the Sony MD headphones on the Mini, but it was no better (just less crisp than the Apple headphones).

I do like the Mini, but it was a big let down after being using to the MD sound. I'm also not a great fan of the clickwheel as I find it fiddly. Also, you have to take it out of your pocket to change anything.

The shuffle sounds much better suited to my taste, as you can FF/RW and change volume in your pocket. Although, as there's no EQ, it depends on the default bass response.

[jimsowden]

My son took the 15GB iPod back to college with him before I could run the pink noise tests.
That says it all.

[WinterMute]

Apple's earphones are terrible, they are very difficult to drive with anything, the headphone output on my Mbox sounds crap with those in, but fine with Sennhiesser MX500's.

I'm not surprised the shuffles output is better, no display, no drive, no heavy processor load for EQ, it's a very simple, clean audio path.

[shamino]

Is this with other brands of headphones or just Apples? I got a pair of Sony MDR earphones and it made a world of difference. I'm guessing they draw a lot less power then Apples earphones.
Any headphones/speakers that don't have their own power supply will have to draw some amount of current.

Higher impedance will result in a lower current draw for a given voltage, putting a lower load on the amplifier. But if that output device doesn't have its own amplifier, that higher impedance/lower current will result in lower volume levels.
Also a lot of my audio is ripped at 320KB/s MP3 which to me sounds quite a bit better then 128KB/s AAC from Apple.
This may well be true, but that would be true on any player that properly decodes the files. This article is testing the amplifier stage of the device, which is separate from the data-decoding stage.

[shamino]

I'm not surprised the shuffles output is better, no display, no drive, no heavy processor load for EQ, it's a very simple, clean audio path.
As the article mentioned, the Shuffle uses push/pull transistors and no capacitors in its amplifier.

Any other player, with or without a fast processor, display, hard drive, EQ, etc., would perform similarly if they had that kind of amplifier.

[madmaxmedia]

The first time I heard my wife's Shuffle, I was surprised to pretty much instantly notice that I liked the sound better (than my Mini.) Now I own a Shuffle myself!

The Shuffle has a fuller sound to me, these test results seem to explain why (at least to my ears.)

[Timelessblur]

looks like not having to power a hard drive help it out quite a bit. It does not need a capitor because the power needs from the battery can not be over drawn by both the hard drive and some head phones so no need for them.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I've been migrating from a large spread of different bitrate mp3 files to just aac@128 the last year... man, that's a large re-ripping job, still got about 100 CDs to go, but let's get to the issue at hand:

I got the original mini last February and the first thing I did was to throw away the Apple headphones and replacing them with a pair of (cheap) KOSS SportaPro headphones...

Now, I'm no audiophile, but I think the sound is great, and specially in the bass range (no eq set). For the first time in a portalbel player I'm actually hearing bass, at all (and I've had fairly good portable players since I got my second one, a Sony WM-3, I had a crappy one first to see if those "new things actually was something", and never looked back... ;))

The longer I get in the re-ripping, the better the sound gets (except for Metallica's ...And Justice for All, but that's another story). The best example I can remember off the top of my head is Avril Lavigne's Sk8er Boi - yeah, yeah, I know... :rolleyes: - in that song there is a bass sound repeating during most of the song which I didn't even notice when playing over the home stereo, first when I played it on the mini (after re-ripping) with my KOSS headphones...

So, my humble non-audio-pro opinion is that, maybe it has something to do with the encoding as much as the player itself...?

That said, this doesn't exactly discourage me from my earlier decision of replacing my mini with a shuffle, when the time comes... but that decision was made on usage pattern and not sound quality... ;)

[madmaxmedia]

looks like not having to power a hard drive help it out quite a bit. It does not need a capitor because the power needs from the battery can not be over drawn by both the hard drive and some head phones so no need for them.

That's a pretty good point, maybe that's why the Shuffle is unique compared to even the new iPod Minis.

So, my humble non-audio-pro opinion is that, maybe it has something to do with the encoding as much as the player itself...?

That said, this doesn't exactly discourage me from my earlier decision of replacing my mini with a shuffle, when the time comes... but that decision was made on usage pattern and not sound quality...

In general, encoding has a significant effect on sound quality. But in this case, they were using pure test tones, not compressed music.

The good thing about the shuffle is that it is relatively cheap, so maybe you can eventually add a Shuffle to go along with your Mini... :)