Take THAT Ipod!!!

nooshinjohn

Even your creator was a dark-sider!:cheesygrin:

Neil Young: Steve Jobs listened to vinyl
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 3:58pm
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DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) ? Legendary rocker Neil Young has taken his campaign for higher-fidelity digital sound to the stage of a technology conference. He says a giant of technology was on his side: the late Steve Jobs.

Young says the Apple co-founder was such a fan of music that he didn't use his iPod and its digitally compressed files at home. Instead, Young says, Jobs listened to vinyl albums, which are well-known to have better sound.

Young told the "D: Dive Into Media" conference Tuesday that he spoke with Jobs about creating a format that has 20 times the fidelity of files in the most current digital formats, including MP3.

He speculated that if Jobs had lived longer, he might have tried to create a system that used this higher-quality format.

SolidSqual

How is the iPod any different that a tabletop boombox from the 80s? Most people do not want a massive and expensive system like we have. I hate posts and articles like this because the underlying implication is always that the iPod is somehow responsible for the downfall of High End audio. The reality is that High End audio is just not a concern of most people in the same way I will never buy an expensive car to tweak. Most listeners just want background noise and distraction as they go about their activities. The iPod hits that market perfectly.

In addition, I will stand by the fact that the iPod is the last great hope for the high end. It is a relatively inexpensive device with enough power to drive an upgraded set of headphones to listen to uncompressed or lossless hir rez files. Point being, iPods are a major point of contact whereby small upgrades or tweaking can lead to exponential upgrades in overall sound quality. You can choose to ridicule iPod users or attempt to bring them into the fray. Either way, High End will always be a fringe group.

Mike

PS

California sucks.

PSS

How are the maggies?

PSSS

Give my regards to the wife.

Drenis

Believe it or not, I always thought that 320kbps MP3 was CD quality. So naturally I always thought the iPod, Zunes outputted CD quality sound. I built my library on it.

Then I learned about flac... $@&*!

BeefJerky

SolidSqual wrote: »

How is the iPod any different that a tabletop boombox from the 80s? Most people do not want a massive and expensive system like we have. I hate posts and articles like this because the underlying implication is always that the iPod is somehow responsible for the downfall of High End audio. The reality is that High End audio is just not a concern of most people in the same way I will never buy an expensive car to tweak. Most listeners just want background noise and distraction as they go about their activities. The iPod hits that market perfectly.

In addition, I will stand by the fact that the iPod is the last great hope for the high end. It is a relatively inexpensive device with enough power to drive an upgraded set of headphones to listen to uncompressed or lossless hir rez files. Point being, iPods are a major point of contact whereby small upgrades or tweaking can lead to exponential upgrades in overall sound quality. You can choose to ridicule iPod users or attempt to bring them into the fray. Either way, High End will always be a fringe group.

Mike

PS

California sucks.

PSS

How are the maggies?

PSSS

Give my regards to the wife.

I agree. I've owned multiple iPod's, and currently own two 160GB iPod Classics. They have their limitations, but they serve me well for certain uses. I keep one hidden in the car which I control with my Kenwood head unit, and it works fantastic for that purpose. In addition, compressed files sound just fine for me in the car. The noise level in a car is just too high to take advantage of higher quality sound formats in my opinion. In addition, music is not my primary focus when driving, the road is (as it should be).

My second iPod is used with a Logitech S715i speaker dock (excellent sounding dock BTW). This one is used as a shower radio (placed on the opposite side of the bathroom), as well as for when I want to listen to music outside of the car or house. It works well for these purposes and sounds miles better than nearly any other iPod speaker dock. In fact, iLounge agreed that the S715i was the best sounding speaker dock until you move up to the $400+ B&W Zeppelin.

No, the iPod isn't as good as a higher quality source/DAC, and I rarely use it when listening to music at home (aside from the bathroom). However, I can't take my LSi HT system with me everywhere that I go, so the iPod wins for that!

EndersShadow

Drenis wrote: »

Believe it or not, I always thought that 320kbps MP3 was CD quality. So naturally I always thought the iPod, Zunes outputted CD quality sound. I built my library on it.

Then I learned about flac... $@&*!

I learned the same thing, thankfully I had most of my CD's still and got them all converted to FLAC via dbpoweramp's 30 day free trial. Got some new CD's over christmas so now I need to buy the full version so I can add them.

Gone back to buying CD's rather than downloading files. :eek:

BlueFox

The point to the article is what everyone already knows. Lossy (MP3, etc.) files are not as good as lossless (CD) files. Also, higher resolution (Blu-ray, 24/128, etc.) files are better than CD quality files.

The iPod when used with a Wadia iTransport makes an excellent music server for CD quality files. Of course, you have to rip those files yourself. Before Jobs died there were rumors iTunes was looking into selling lossless and high-res files.

BeefJerky

EndersShadow wrote: »

I learned the same thing, thankfully I had most of my CD's still and got them all converted to FLAC via dbpoweramp's 30 day free trial. Got some new CD's over christmas so now I need to buy the full version so I can add them.

Unless you do a lot of converting, you don't really need to buy dbPowerAmp. If you just want to rip CD's, use Exact Audio Copy with the normal FLAC encoder. They are free and will do the same thing.

SolidSqual

I've even spoken to mega digital engineers like Gordin Rankin and Steve Nugent who believe iTunes alone can rip an excellent copy so long as your CD collection isn't scratched to ****. Of course, this is iTunes for Mac not Windows. My CDs are perfect. I just used iTunes with no hiccups at all.

EndersShadow

BeefJerky wrote: »

Unless you do a lot of converting, you don't really need to buy dbPowerAmp. If you just want to rip CD's, use Exact Audio Copy with the normal FLAC encoder. They are free and will do the same thing.

Yeah, but I dont really feel like setting up another program on my computer lol. DBpoweramp is already configured to do exactly what I need lol. 40 bucks isnt going to kill me on this one.

SolidSqual wrote: »

I've even spoken to mega digital engineers like Gordin Rankin and Steve Nugent who believe iTunes alone can rip an excellent copy so long as your CD collection isn't scratched to ****. Of course, this is iTunes for Mac not Windows. My CDs are perfect. I just used iTunes with no hiccups at all.

Yeah I am on Windows and still very tenative about the whole iTunes thing. I am coming from a Zune HD which allowed me to manage everything via one Library.

mhardy6647

I am still wonderin' what "twenty times the fidelity" means...

heiney9

I despise iTunes. Couldn't get it off my PC fast enough. I loaded it because I had an iPod Touch for a short while. Once I got my Android based phone I got rid of the iPod.

H9

BlueFox

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I am still wonderin' what "twenty times the fidelity" means...

My guess is he means a high-res file sounds 20 times better than an MP3. Of course, being a musician, and not an engineer, he does not know that they only sound 18.573 times better.

Anyway, a few years ago I read an article about Neil Young, and he was saying that in his opinion Blu-ray is the only digital format that is good for music, and he was going to release all his music in Blu-ray format. While he has released Archives Volume 1, I am still waiting for the next releases with all his good albums.

DMara

BlueFox wrote: »

Anyway, a few years ago I read an article about Neil Young, and he was saying that in his opinion Blu-ray is the only digital format that is good for music, and he was going to release all his music in Blu-ray format. While he has released Archives Volume 1, I am still waiting for the next releases with all his good albums.

My guess is he's trying to advertise for his "new" product, pushing fans toward purchasing another format of his music. I mean, really, once you dig some particular rhythm and lyric, audio format becomes just a luxury, not something you can't live without.

gudnoyez

I dont purchase music off of Itunes but me and the Wife both have I-pod Touches, and there both crammed full of Neils stuff from our Collection being able to spin Neil On Vinyl, listen to Neil on Cd or on the go, I pods are a must for us, just got back from walking the dogs and listened to Chrome Dreams II on the way. I mean seriously who docks there I pods on a portable dock at home when they can listen to thier two channel rig. they are a conveince nothing more.

Drenis

EndersShadow wrote: »

I learned the same thing, thankfully I had most of my CD's still and got them all converted to FLAC via dbpoweramp's 30 day free trial. Got some new CD's over christmas so now I need to buy the full version so I can add them.

Gone back to buying CD's rather than downloading files. :eek:

Amen brotha... same.

ViperZ

I don't understand all the iPod haters. It's marketed to a completely different audience than home audio listeners, so what's the problem?? Maybe next time I'll go for a half-marathon run, I'll shove a turntable and a tube amp down my pants and pull a portable generator behind me??

BeefJerky

ViperZ wrote: »

I don't understand all the iPod haters. It's marketed to a completely different audience than home audio listeners, so what's the problem?? Maybe next time I'll go for a half-marathon run, I'll shove a turntable and a tube amp down my pants and pull a portable generator behind me??

Watch out, those tubes might burn some valuables down there!

Seriously though, I got a good laugh out of this; however, you have a good point.

Strong Bad

ViperZ wrote: »

I don't understand all the iPod haters. It's marketed to a completely different audience than home audio listeners, so what's the problem?? Maybe next time I'll go for a half-marathon run, I'll shove a turntable and a tube amp down my pants and pull a portable generator behind me??

Exactely!!! It's much easier to have several hundred songs on an iPod to listen in my car than to have all those CD's all over the place. It's the convenience factor! When I get home, the two channel rig comes on.

simm

SolidSqual wrote: »

I've even spoken to mega digital engineers like Gordin Rankin and Steve Nugent who believe iTunes alone can rip an excellent copy so long as your CD collection isn't scratched to ****. Of course, this is iTunes for Mac not Windows. My CDs are perfect. I just used iTunes with no hiccups at all.

What is the difference between iTunes on a Mac vs Windows?

mantis

Lets see , 90 billion in the bank , becoming one of the worlds largest companies , has more cash then anyone on the planet on hand , I think they are doing many things right. Our country could learn a lot from them.

I own several iPods and love them. They serve a purpose and do it better then anyone else. I could care less about haters trying to kick it. Go ahead kick away , it's not going anywhere.

BlueFox

mantis wrote: »

I own several iPods and love them. They serve a purpose and do it better then anyone else. I could care less about haters trying to kick it. Go ahead kick away , it's not going anywhere.

That's right. Also, when used with the Wadia iTransport, lossless files, and a decent DAC, the iPod is a fantastic source for the home two-channel system. I have two iPod Classics at this time. One is for classical, and the other is for more modern music. The classical iPod is a 120GB, and, at this point, has 3,389 'songs' in Apple Lossless. Being classical, the songs are 3 to 30 minutes in length. A few are even longer. Currently, there is still 18.3 Gb of free space left.

The Wadia/iPod is without a doubt the best musical device I have ever bought. I put the classical on random shuffle and it can play for weeks before it runs out of songs. It works so great I have made major investments in upgrading my system, and bought countless CDs to rip onto the iPod. I rarely use my SACD player anymore. Mainly it is used to audition CDs to determine if they are good enough to go on the iPod, and, of course, for the occasional SACD.

The biggest drawback to the iPod is that it does not play high-res files. At some point I will be buying the Bryston digital file player to replace the iPod/Wadia, but when that happens the iPod Wadia will simply move to the HT/surround/two-channel system, and still get used.