Comments on: How to improve iPod sound quality

By: Sergei

Sergei — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 06:08:21 +0000

This article has nothing to do with iPods, notwithstanding that the author really likes them and has opinions on vinyl and sound compression. In essence, this is an ad for some brand of headphones, which is OK, because apparently they are really cool and independent and all. Thanks!

By: Soo

Soo — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:52:27 +0000

“As a musician I already know that all recored music sounds better on vinyl and nothing will ever change that.”

Oh dear, spoken like a true musician.

As an audio engineer i can tell you that ‘sounding better’ is a matter of opinion, fidelity is fact; the ‘more digitised’ the audio is the better it becomes, with even 96KHz/24Bit being VASTLY superior to vinyl.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 15:31:44 +0000

I agree with Pepper’s comment, In that you can use high bitrate audio to maximize the sound quality but in addition to this you need good earphones/headphones. Since iPod’s are primarily going to be used out and about on the go this makes full sized headphones a bad choice due to sound leakage and poor isolation – Which is why some good high end earphones will do a better job – And be easily drive straight out of the iPod or whatever player you are using headphone output.

If you just intend to sit around at home listening to high quality files out of a PC or something, Then some good full sized headphones and a desktop amplifier to drive them to full power would offer better sound quality than the iPod and earphones.

By: Pepper

Pepper — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:24:57 +0000

The reason why people get canal phones is because they can be better powered by the iPod. In fact, most large headphones sound like trash when plugged into iPods because the player doesn’t have the “oomph” required to drive them. Essentially, big headphones always have high resistance (in ohms) because they were designed to be driven by sound systems or boosted with separate amplifiers. I’m sure you know this, so I am not sure why you’re tweeting the big headphones with iPod line. Chances are, small canal phones that are easy to drive will sound better than big headphones that cannot be adequately driven. Let us not even begin discussing how you have to max out the volume to even begin hearing a peep out of those big headphones.

Try plugging in your Sennheiser HD 650s into an iPod, or even some high end AKGs, and you will get 20% of the performance you would get if you hooked them up properly.

I understand the argument put forth regarding large headphones, but when it comes to mobile players without additional amplification, canal phones are superior (not only in physical portability, but in audio reproduction as well). I don’t know what cheap canal phones you’ve been using, but I am not sure you’re apprised of the high end canal phones out there (e.g.: the renowned Shure SE530 [nearly half a grand $], among others). If you want to play in the bigger leagues, there are even custom fitted canalphones offered by a variety of companies, notably Ultimate Ears.

Intense listeners don’t settle for “above average” 99$ headphones. We’re talking minimum 450$ and up.