*Official* iPod thread - all iPod discussion in here

[bignige]

with a pair of Senheiser MX500s it sounds better but the volume is too low.

Kirby, in itunes select all your tracks ("cmd a") then get info("cmd i") and change volume from 100% to "+100%" and update your iPod. This should be loud enough for you, may make your ears bleed!

[Kirby]

Surely ramping the volume up like that will distort my MP3s though? Especially when i have a large selection of differing music styles.

[marcus]

I use Sony Fontopia in-ear headphones with my Pod. After raising the volume of each track to 100%, it becomes simply too loud to listen to long before there is any sign of distortion. The volume meter is only about a third of the way up for me now on normal listening.

By the way, do you all use the standard iPod headphones or have you upgraded as well? The improvement offered by the Fontopia (about ?35) headphones over standard iPod ones is vast in my opinion.

[bignige]

Fontopia all the way! No distortion with them at all.
Had them since my 5gb iPod, now I got a 40gb.
I have to admit, the new apple headphones (similar to Fontopia) look pretty good. I'd like to know how well they sound though.

Another reason for Fontopia is apparently if you use the white headphones, it's like holding a sign above your head reading "I have an iPod, please mug me"!

[Kirby]

By the way, do you all use the standard iPod headphones or have you upgraded as well? The improvement offered by the Fontopia (about ?35) headphones over standard iPod ones is vast in my opinion.

Like i mentioned, i bought the Sennheiser MX500s and am not really impressed and they have pretty **** bass response. Yes they sound better than the standard Apple earphones, but that's not hard.

What i've found personally is the iPod seems to have a really average dynamic range and no matter what i use to listen to it the sound is very flat.

I also tried a pair of Sony Fontopia (MDR-E238?) and they sound awful in the iPod. Pure treble and nothing else, almost unlistenable, but they sound awesome in my MD player. So no idea what's up there.

Anyway i'll try that volume tip, but will that affect the actual MP3 files on my HD too, or only iPod settings?

[AllYourBase]

I caved in and bought a 20GB iPod the other day!!

Please can someone advise, what are the best budget speakers I can use with it?

Also can I just use any audio out cable to connect this to my stereo amp?

Advice on best places to buy appheciated

thanks

[stroppa]

could someone point me out some retailers that sell iPods?

I went out looking for one today and all sold out, tried PC World and John Lewis, couldn't think of anywhere else.

[Junko]

Virgin in Brighton sells them so I would imagine that other Virgin stores would stock them too.

Just out of interest,is there any point of a PC owner without a firewire port thingie owning an i pod as Ive been interested in them for ages now ?

Cheers Pete

[Blu3Flame]

Quite frankly I'm rather dubious as to the spurious claims about brilliant sound quality. With the Apple earphones it sounds pretty ropey, with a pair of Senheiser MX500s it sounds better but the volume is too low. Plus it seems to have really bad bass response on any headphones - quite a flat sound and the EQ is ****.

European ipod's had their volume restricted, but there is a handy app which doesn't touch your mp3s at all and allows increased volume effectively removing the restriction.

http://www.ringom.no/espen/ipod/

APPLE introduced volume restricted iPOD's for the European market some time ago. That's why I wanted to make a freeware tool to avoid this restriction so I could enjoy my new APPLE iPOD.

euPOD VolumeBoost is a small tool that alters something in the iPOD database so the output volume on the iPOD gets higher. Since this tool DOESNT touch your music files (if mp3gain is off), it is very fast and will update any iPOD database in a couple of seconds.
This tool also works with all iPODS, including US iPODS. However, they should need less boost than EU iPODs.

[Kirby]

oooh. That looks quite handy. Thanks!

[bignige]

Kirby, have you changed the EQ to "bass boost" in your iPod settings? My iPod dosen't sound too "trebly". Using Fontopia headphones, also gives it a massive bass sound, they're the only headphones I've used where I honestly can't hear anything else which goes on around me when in use.
+100% will only cahnge tracks on iPod if it's those you've selected, if you select tracks in iTunes then obviously it'll be those 1's. You'd need to manual update though, if you want to leave the iTunes songs at just 100%

[bignige]

Kirby, have you changed the EQ to "bass boost" in your iPod settings? My iPod dosen't sound too "trebly". Using Fontopia headphones, also gives it a massive bass sound, they're the only headphones I've used where I honestly can't hear anything else which goes on around me when in use.
+100% will only cahnge tracks on iPod if it's those you've selected, if you select tracks in iTunes then obviously it'll be those 1's. You'd need to manual update though, if you want to leave the iTunes songs at just 100%

[Hodge]

I saw dixons doing the 10gb 3rd gen one for ?199.99. They had the 20gb one in for 299.99 as well.

[bowser123]

For those that are unimpressed by the quality of the headphones that come with the iPod, I'm a little surprised. I've used other expensive headphones that my friends have for other stuff and none sound as good as the standard iPod ones IMO.

Are you guys using AAC with a high kbps import rating? If not then I'd recommend doing so. It gives a fantastic sound.

[Mayhem]

Read a report in today's Metro that the 3rd gen ones will only work with either the latest Mac OS X or Windows2000 or later. So if you've not got that, you could be in trouble...