[bonzoa]

remember, this is a speculation and rumors area -

I have a feeling we're going to see both a photo - specific and an audiophile - specific ipod. if not a purely audiophile quality, then close to it. a small company called 'red wine audio' has been doing 'imod's'. these are hardwired modifications to 4th generation ipods that, along with lossless files, produce audiophile-quality sources. all the mod really does is bypass the headphone amp with high quality copper so the signal passes from the dac to a dedicated line out. a simple mod, but they won't do it to a 5th generation ipod or any of the others because their dac's are inferior. now red wine has a notice on their homepage :
http://www.redwineaudio.com/
it reads at the bottom to say there's a new page coming in september... could be a coincidence, but also maybe not.... worth glancing at for the audiophiles that read this site... obviously the ipod's accesories (in-ear headphone, ipod boombox) are aimed at the higher-end listener (but poorly based on bose technology). let's see what happens...

[AWR]

I'm pretty sure Apple doesn't want to imply to 99% of their market that their iPod isn't perfect, which of course it is - for them - just to satisfy 1% of the market (which it already has).

It doesn't seem there'd be enough support to cover all of the hassles of launching and maintaining a product. I'm sure they're happy to leave this to Red Wine, et al.

Cheers.

[Ghost2]

I don't know if apple will produce an iPod specifically for audiophiles, but I the when the fancy OMG new true video iPod is released there is no reason why it could not have greatly enhanced audio quality.

[bonzoa]

i understand that. i'm thinking more along the sony walkman lines, though. a more diversified product line. not that many kids can afford a $400 ipod, but some of them do want video -how else can you divide up the line? that's not really the question here though, it doesn't have to add price. all there would need to be is an option to bypass the amp with a digital or optical out.

[Jason]

I can see this happening eventually. Maybe we'll have iPods and iPod Pros.
Apple know that a lot of their customers are well-heeled. I really think there will be a division at some point. Perhaps not this year - but sooner or later.

Regards

[Bryson]

I assume these Audiophile iPods are full of uncompressed music, right? Or 'tis all for naught.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by Bryson I assume these Audiophile iPods are full of uncompressed music, right? Or 'tis all for naught.

How good is Apple Lossless? I've never tried using it since all I've got to listen to are my computer and my iPod and I'd imagine that's not the best environment to use for it.

[dfiler]

iPods already have line-output which bypasses the headphone circuitry. I never use the 1/8" mini-jack socket at all because the line-output is so superior. Granted, I never use the ipod with headphones.

I consider myself an audiophile but am skeptical of this mod. The leads coming off the DAC cannot be enlarged and so I'm skeptical of throwing in bigger wire later in the circuit.

[edit]

Their testimonials are hillarious. Everyone is talking about how many hours they've logged with the mod. Best of all, one guy even talks about burn in. Ah... I love audiophiles. Crazy bunch we are.

[intlplby]

I cannot see this happening except as maybe a marketing ploy to up-sell to consumers who are audiophiles (like less than 1%) and then those who think that they are audiophiles but haven't a clue (maybe another few percent)

most audiophiles i think all really just want more hdd space so they can hold even more AIFFs or WAVs on their iPod.

As far as modding the iPod like RedWine, I am very skeptical. Maybe just maybe this works for the older iPods with lots of room relatively speaking for mods, but for the newer and smaller and more cramped iPods.

The only things I can see for improvement would be maybe improving caps and resistors, but this is SMT and there really aren't SMT audiophile components at the sizes the iPod is using (i'm assuming SOIC-4).... The only two things that would be upgradeable would be the Amp stage and DAC stage. Any audiophile would completely bypass the Amp stage and use the line out as stated above.

As far as the DAC isn't it all in one as part of the processor already used in the manufacture of the iPods. would this be replaceable?

If they do make an audiophile iPod, the only realistic change would be adding optical out like on the apple computers. If they did that, those audiophiles on the go could invest in a AOS Pace amplifier/dac combo.

http://aoselectronics.com/pace.html

[World Leader Pretend]

I would love to see an audiophile iPod, it would really make my day Of course, I'm not sure how many other people would benefit from it..

[bonzoa]

apple lossless is very good - often compared to $3,000 cd players in audiophile circles. straight clean data and with the battery there's no noise from wall current. cheap dac's and cheap quality silver/copper tend to degrade the sound, so it wouldn't cost much to take it to the next level but it would cost. battery power would be paramount, and audiophiles could give a crap about video. a cheap, small ipod (nano, shuffle), a video ipod, and a maxxed out clean audiophile ipod makes sense to me. not many people are gonna buy an 8-core mac pro, just as not many people would buy a class-A ipod (obviously the market is bigger for 8 core macs, however). it'd be the flagship 911 to sell those crappy boxsters. not that the ipod is crap, but they have the opportunity to truly excel. seems like a ripe opportunity.

[crazychester]

Lossless formats are primarily a space issue surely? Sure you can improve the sound quality of iPods but that will, in theory, improve all formats. What do you define as audiophile-quality sources? Or for that matter an "audiophile"?

Digital audio gives you a very accurate reproduction of the sound signals received by various pieces of equipment under, usually these days, very controlled conditions. This can produce marvellous results. At least until the novelty wears off. Is it what you would have heard through your ears in the studio? Not unless you've got a pair of condenser mics growing out the sides of your head. Is it a truer rendition of the musician's playing than your ears would give you? How accurate are they?

I find if I listen to digital audio conscious of what it is, a construction, it can sound unlike anything I've ever heard before - recorded or live. And that is not necessarily a good thing. I think the advantages of digital audio got lumped together and now it's taken as fact that digital sounds better.

Bleed like there's no tomorrow, I say.

[Eugene]

I want a LP based iPod with vacuum tubes. Retards.

[bonzoa]

awr, you do have a good point. that might be it right there. (sorry for the delayed response)

Originally Posted by torifile How good is Apple Lossless? I've never tried using it since all I've got to listen to are my computer and my iPod and I'd imagine that's not the best environment to use for it.

Except for size, all Lossless files are the same quality. By definition, they are identical to the original.

Steve

Originally Posted by bonzoa apple lossless is very good - often compared to $3,000 cd players in audiophile circles.

"Apple Lossless" is a file format. It can't be compared to a $3,000 CD player. It creates files identical to the original source.

Steve

[World Leader Pretend]

Transporter


:drool:

[bonzoa]

steve - we were talking about the ipod lossless being compared to $3,000 cd players - and yes, they are compared, and often. check stereophile magazine or audiophile websites.