iPod Nano...
 

"Signal" wrote
Anyone got one??

Opinions??

Yeah. The 4GB black one.

I haven't extensively road-tested it yet, but a couple of observations:

1) Not sure yet, but it seems you HAVE to use the included iTunes software to
upload music to it. When you do, the files are not .mp3, but some other weird
extension. I'd rather just bung mp3 files into a directory or directory
tree than ****ing about with their software. I feel like I'm being locked
in and made to jump through their hoops.

2) Overall, sound seems good, but it did have MAJOR problems with Marillion's
"Heart of Lothian". It didn't seem to have enough voltage available, I guess
because there must be very strong low bass on it, causing clipping and nasty
distortion, even below maximum volume.

3) There are "EQ" settings you can choose from, but they're all just named
presets like "Rock", "Voice", or whatever. There are settings called "bass
cut", "bass boost" (or similar), "treble boost" and "treble cut". I'd rather
have just had a defeatable graphic equaliser.


Martin
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=fleetie

iPod Nano...
 

"Signal" wrote
"Fleetie" emitted :
1) Not sure yet, but it seems you HAVE to use the included iTunes software to
upload music to it. When you do, the files are not .mp3, but some other weird
extension. I'd rather just bung mp3 files into a directory or directory
tree than ****ing about with their software. I feel like I'm being locked
in and made to jump through their hoops.

That I did not know. I did some googling and it seems that iPods do
indeed use their own filing system - bit of downer. My PDA shows
itself as a removable drive, I just drop in the MP3s.

I should qualify what I wrote. I am pretty sure you CAN easily use it as a
removable drive; just plug it in, drop in files, and next time you plug it
in, the files are on the "disk". In that respect, you can easily use it as a
portable HDD.

The only thing is, if you drop MP3 or other sound files on it, the music
player aspect of its functionality will not "see" the files, and they will
not be available to play.

2) Overall, sound seems good, but it did have MAJOR problems with Marillion's
"Heart of Lothian". It didn't seem to have enough voltage available, I guess
because there must be very strong low bass on it, causing clipping and nasty
distortion, even below maximum volume.

3) There are "EQ" settings you can choose from, but they're all just named
presets like "Rock", "Voice", or whatever. There are settings called "bass
cut", "bass boost" (or similar), "treble boost" and "treble cut". I'd rather
have just had a defeatable graphic equaliser.

They may be presets, but the EQ should be defeatable. Reading the
above I'm not sure whether you have discovered this yet or not? If
not.. it could explain the distortion you experienced with the
Marillion track as the EQ settings are known to cause the problems you
describe with some material.

There is an EQ setting called "Flat", which presumably effectively "defeats"
EQ, since I assume with that setting, no signal processing is applied to
modify the sound. Even the "bass cut" failed to ameliorate the problems with
the Marillion track to a satisfactory extent. I had to listen to that one
quietly. I might try it again, just to make sure it wasn't a glitch of some
kind.

Since I wrote my first response, I have also learnt that the shiny plastic
front scratches very easily. Be careful with it. I only have slight scratches
so far, so I'm not too ****ed off at the moment, but I hope I'll be even more
careful from now on.


Martin
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=fleetie

iPod Nano...
 

Fleetie wrote:
"Signal" wrote
Anyone got one??

Opinions??

Yeah. The 4GB black one.

I haven't extensively road-tested it yet, but a couple of
observations:
1) Not sure yet, but it seems you HAVE to use the included iTunes
software to upload music to it. When you do, the files are not .mp3,
but some other weird extension. I'd rather just bung mp3 files into a
directory or directory tree than ****ing about with their software. I feel
like I'm being
locked in and made to jump through their hoops.

2) Overall, sound seems good, but it did have MAJOR problems with
Marillion's "Heart of Lothian". It didn't seem to have enough voltage
available, I guess because there must be very strong low bass on it,
causing clipping and nasty distortion, even below maximum volume.

3) There are "EQ" settings you can choose from, but they're all just
named presets like "Rock", "Voice", or whatever. There are settings
called "bass cut", "bass boost" (or similar), "treble boost" and
"treble cut". I'd rather have just had a defeatable graphic equaliser.


Martin

Try EphPod and go into the settings in iTunes and make mp3 the default
instead of Apple's own algorithm. Any tunes you've already ripped from Cd,
you can right-click and convert to mp3.

Rolo

iPod Nano...
 

"Rolo Tomassi" schreef in bericht
o.uk...
Try EphPod and go into the settings in iTunes and make mp3 the default
instead of Apple's own algorithm. Any tunes you've already ripped from
Cd, you can right-click and convert to mp3.

If you want good sound, never transcode your music. It is much better to
recode the original CD.

gr, hwh

iPod Nano...
 

I had the same distortion issues you were talking about. I ended up
using MP3gain to reduce the dB of the songs. See
http://www.dapreview.net/content.php?article.133
for additional info. Written for the Ipod but I found it also applies
to the Nano.