iPod/iPhone Audio Quality

There's no simple answer to your question. It's like asking what's the audio quality of vinyl.

The iPod can store CD-quality audio files, as Tarsando said, or compressed files that trade off audio quality for convenience in degrees according to the amount of compression.

The limiting factors in the audio quality of the iPod itself are the quality of the amplifier and digital-to-analog converter inside the device. You can bypass the amplifier by using a line-out connection from the dock connector but bypassing the DAC is, at this point, an expensive proposition.

Sorry...I meant the quality of the player itself. Assume that all of my music is in some sort of lossless format, which it is ;-)

And this is for the player itself, not connected to a stereo.

Assuming lossless or uncompressed files and a good set of headphones, you'll get very good, but not great, sound out of the iPod. I do agree with Sfar that the iPod's DAC and amp are the limiting factors in its sound. I know I must be in a small minority considering how many people use the things, but I find the iPod's sound very fatiguing, even at low volume. I've used Etymotic ER4Ps, Grado SR 60s, Sennheiser 280 Pros, and AKG 501s with mine, plus the stock earbuds, and it's the same. I've spent a year wishing I enjoyed it more, but right now I'm planning on selling my 30G.

I should note that some iPod modders exist out there and that a good headphone amp can help, so you might pursue those routes. If you can, borrow one and see how you like it--it is convenient, and that can be a big selling point, especially if you travel. Re the iPhone: it doesn't have much disc space, so you won't fit many lossless songs--if you want good sound quality, go for the storage space of the iPod Classic.

Red Wine Audio offers the i-mod. You may want to check it out.

Chuck

I find the sound of the nano and shuffle on anything but rock and roll to be fatiguing. But the 80 gig classic with lossless sounds great to me on classical.

One key is that I use Westone 2's which are NOT hot in the treble, definitely offer a more natural treble. I had a chance to test a variety of high end in-ear phones at a show and I found several of the high end ones, which did sound wonderful to me, might not be the best match for a iPod in that they were too revealing in the treble. For example I felt that way about the Shure 420 and 530 (but not the sure 210 and 310). This is based on just a few minutes testing so take it with a grain of salt, but, I'd rephrase your question to be not just about the iPod itself, but about teh full package: iPod, earphones, choice of music, bit rate, etc.

Art