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I need help choosing an iPod.

which ipod?

  • iPod Classic

    Votes: 5 19.2%

  • iPod Touch

    Votes: 18 69.2%

  • iPod Nano

    Votes: 3 11.5%
  • Total voters
    26
  • Poll closed .
sahni130

sahni130

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 25, 2008
677
416
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
I am looking to purchase a new iPod but I have a few questions. Which iPod has the best sound quality/sound chip? I ask this because I know from experience that my ipod video 5th gen. sounds much better than my iPhone and my friend's ipod nano 3rd gen. I have about 9 Gb of music but that might grow to maybe 16 gb but not soon, and portability is not an issue. I have good headphones already ( Bose and Etymotics) so I won't be needing new headphones. Once again, sound quality is the most important thing for me, all of my music is in apple lossless format and price is not an issue.

Thanks,
Jay
 
sahni130 said:
I have good headphones already ( Bose and Etymotics) so I won't be needing new headphones.
Click to expand...

Bose are expensive, not good. Note that just because it costs a lot does not make it a good speaker.

Aaaaaaanyway. From what I can tell your perception of better sound is just the placebo effect at work. Only the new iPod shuffle has inferior sound to other iPods. The others all sound the same.
 
If you're saving your music in the Apple Lossless format, a bigger iPod is probably the way you'd want to go. After easily filling my 30GB 3rd generation iPod, I upgraded to the 160GB iPod classic. At the moment I've got over 40GB of music on it, and with the way I buy music that number is climbing every day. Unfortunately the 160GB version was available only a short while; I think the biggest one now is 120GB.

With regards to sound, I find the quality is great!
 
KelchM said:
The best sounding iPod isn't an iPod. ;)
Click to expand...

mhmn. If sounds quality is the most important factor in choosing an MP3 player I would look elsewhere. The iPod is for people who prefer ease of use and looks and value good sound quality, but not necessarily the best.
 
I find the sound quality of my ipod to be fine. Very few people would really notice the differences.

If you only need 8-16 gigs I would recommend the new nano or the touch. It depends on if you'll use the apps on the ipod touch or if you would value the small size of the ipod nano more. And definitely go for at least 16GB. You never know when you might get more music, especially if you use lossless.
 
J&JPolangin said:
... statements like these and no recommendations to back them up:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I was just making a point.

If you want proof pick up a Sansa Clip for 30.00. Easily one of the best sounding MP3 players around.

Personally, I'm quite happy using my iPhone with some Sleek SA6's.
 
well i will need more than 16Gb. so it's between the touch or the classic. which one has better sound quality? is it just me or my 5th gen sounds better than my iphone? does anyone else notice this?
 
Personal preference from a music lover, the new nano + V-Moda Vibe or with an iPhone Vibe ii.

Ear phones I've gone from Bose in ear, through all 3 series of the Shure's, and then the Vibe's and I wont go anywhere else again. V-Moda's set me in.
 
I said classic without reading your posts, because that's what I bought over the touch. I wanted lots of space for music, movies, and several seasons of The Office and Arrested Development. I got the 120gb Classic & it's barely half full right now.

However, if money isn't a problem just go for the Touch. They're pretty freaking cool.
 
I can't remember the site but iI read somewhere that the iPods do in fact have different sound chips and therefore different sound quality. this may sound silly but sound quality is important. also, does lossless really make a difference?
 
If you need more than 16GB, get the Classic. If you need less space, get the touch.
 
sahni130 said:
I can't remember the site but iI read somewhere that the iPods do in fact have different sound chips and therefore different sound quality. this may sound silly but sound quality is important. also, does lossless really make a difference?
Click to expand...

okay... so sound quality isn't a real issue for you. I'm 100% sure that if you don't know the difference in sound quality between lossless and compressed MP3, then you CANNOT tell the difference between iPod sounds.
 
You are acting like sound quality is important to you; buy a iPod Classic, change your whole collection to the higher quality and use LossLess on CDs imported. You will take up like four times the drive space and will use like 60 GB on a standard 16 GB folder of music. Assuming mostly CDs imported. I think if you downloaded from iTunes, don't get same quality... not 100% sure there.

I would go with Classic if your main point is Music and sound quality. If you want games, apps, and Internet access, go with the Touch.
 
I say get the touch. I find it hard to be without either a touch or iPhone.
 
sahni130 said:
Once again, sound quality is the most important thing for me, all of my music is in apple lossless format and price is not an issue.
Click to expand...

I hear the wiring within the iPod Classic are very danceable. They are a special alloy that has less impurities that gives clean voltage output to the headphones.........
Ok, seriously, I wouldn't trust anyone's experience about this question. And I am not talking about on MacRumors, but anywhere. Because sound quality is extremely subjective. So I say if you're music library is only 9Gb (very small) then get the Touch. I am nearly positive that you will not have any issues with the sound output. Cause if you were serious about sound quality and portability is not an issue then you would just buy a Denon or MacIntosh receiver and be done with it.
 
Get the touch, the music player causes very little difference between the sound quality; the headphones and the encoding of the music is much more important. Also, long gone are the days of very audible humming or buzzing when the iPods aren't playing music. They're all virtually on the same playing field nowadays.
 
sahni130 said:
I decided to go with the 120 GB Classic since I already have an iPhone and I can see my music library growing quite a bit. Good choice or bad?
Click to expand...

If you already have an iPhone I see no point to get a touch. Classic makes sense.
 
sahni130 said:
I decided to go with the 120 GB Classic since I already have an iPhone and I can see my music library growing quite a bit. Good choice or bad?
Click to expand...

Yes, I didn't read carefully enough that you had an iPhone, then yes, the obvious choice would be the classic.
 
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