ipod and dac?

Thanks guys for putting the proper perspective on everything. Like anything I guess, it all comes down to smart usage and good file management.

Onhwy61, using your scheme of mass copying and deleting, fragmentation should be quite minimal. And, if it does happen to occur, Stefh42's advice oughta clear things up.

One thing I will avoid though, is the practice of combining music files and high traffic data files on the same iPod. I see some people doing this, and this is an instance where fragmentation could easily rear its fractured head.

Thanks again!

The iPod is a wonderful device and using an external DAC is a great idea, but here are two other problems I have had with mine:

Even using a cable into my car stereo in a fairly noisy Porsche convertible, the difference between WAV files and LAME compressed MP-3 files were clearly audible to me.

The MP3 file sounds, well... COMPRESSED. Honking and fatiguing in the midrange, and lacking in dynamics.

Another thing I realized -- even with my car stereo -- was that the MP3 files create a vague, wandering image compared to the WAV files on my iPod.

So I would also rather have 20-40 CD quality WAV files than a zillion MP3s.

On the WAV files, however, I seem to get a "skip" on every song and I also have not been able to grab the tagging information from the web, so the files are not categorized like MP-3s which is one of the main reasons to use the iPod in the first place.

Or am I missing something?

So please do let us know when WAV files can be easily tagged, they dont skip, and an output on the iPOd will handle a high end D/A.

Nonetheless, a very cool toy.

Gunbei, File fragmentation should be the least of your worries on an iPod. The unit has a 20+ minute "skip protection" buffer, and even at 10MB/minute, reading uncompressed audio shouldn't be that much of a challenge for the on-board hard drive.
That said, I'll second StefH's comment that if it's an issue for you, you can always delete and re-sync your iPod.

Here's a competitor to the i-pod that has a digital out ---

http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/iriver_e.html

It has 20 Gig capacity, but it says a 40 Gig unit is coming soon.

Cwlondon, do you have the latest firmware and software updates? Downloads are available at this site.