Sinal digital a partir de um IPOD?

Paul gets an iPod
This year, for our company holiday present, we sprang for iPod Nano's for everyone. Each team member's name is engraved on the back of the iPod. I think it was a great present for a company committed to music. I know, I know, it's not all that high end, but it does foster the enjoyment of music.

I have had several short interludes with iPods in the past and while they're cool, I haven't been too impressed with their sound. The little Nano's we got for Christmas aren't half bad as long as the music is either lossless or uncompressed but I am struggling with the earbuds. The ones that come with the unit sound decent (if I press and hold them in my ear) but they won't stay in my ear.

So, as any good Audiophile does, I went out and bought an aftermarket pair of earbuds that fit in the ear canal and set me back as much as the iPod itself cost. Wow, these aftermarket ones sound a lot worse than what the iPod comes with in the first place!

Sigh. I am taking them back to Apple today for a refund and have started the search for something high end sounding if that's possible. I believe it is. In fact, my friends tell me I can spend an easy $1K on a set of headphones for the thing and frankly, since I am mostly using this at the gym, that's a lot of money!

Part of the problem I think is also in the power output of the little Nano as well as their DAC. On the stock earbuds I hear audible clipping on some of the music when the dynamics and bass gets loud. I am tempted to put it on the scope and see if that's really true or just the earbuds bottoming out.

Also, it gets me to thinking. If we accept the fact that digital audio sounds better stored and played back on a hard drive or solid state memory, vs. an optical disc (and it does), then these little portable drives should be a killer app for us high end guys. Problem is, you can't take the audio out in digital format - you must rely on their internal DAC.

Our webmaster Codey turned me on to a couple of programs that allow you to take the data on and off the iPod in digital format, so it's clearly possible. Hmmm. The wheels are spinning!