The iPod and the Audiophile

Also for real music junkies a large i-Pod is a gift from the heavens.

Of course a lot of Audiophiles are not THAT interested in music.............
:-)

I think the iPod is great for what it is. For traveling, hotel rooms, and for work it is very functional. Paired with a good set of headphones, it is what it is and sounds decent. iTunes is also a great interface which makes organizing music farily easy.

The fact that I can whip up a playlist of choice songs on my laptop with not limitations for listening or entertaining is great. Then Stream it wirelessly to my Apple Airport Express which has a digital output and is connected to my Electrcompaniet DAC is even cooler..

Chris

I find a big need for portable audio on long flights, trains, airports, hotels etc.; so trying to make it as quality as possible....

Using apple lossless on 5g, through SIK Ram Din portable line out cable to Headroom Total Airhead portable headphone amp to either my Etymotic ER4S, or even better sounding my Grado 225s; IMO this sounds pretty good, and is as good as portable audio comes if you have not tried it.

A 60g Ipod will hold approx. 150 lossless cds, so it sure beats carrying around a PCDP and 24 CDs for your travel audio. Ipod sounds about 90% of good PCDP with line-out to same rig, but convenience puts it over the top. You get as close to audiophile as you can hope to get within the very limiting confines of portable audio; but no it is not going to beat your home rig.

If you have not run across them, there are plenty of portable audio boards chasing the latest greatest sounding portable players amps and headphones with the same style arguments as here.

Convenience and sound quality are the two factors that strike my mind when it comes to iPod. You have to couple with the right earphones --- Audio-technica model ATH-Ck7 with Titanium housing is by far the best to my ears. EQ sets at Acoustic and that is......this sound, to me, rivals my reference setup. This is the reason why Creative's MP3 player is destined to be a doom!!!!
For a neophyte, this could be a good start as your reference of sound reproduction in the world of HighEnd audio.