Markus

I finally took the plunge and purchased an iPod yesterday (Big thanks to Jason @ Carbon Computing). I've been thinking about one for a while, but I was hesitant, party due to not having the money, partly due to needing an iTrip, and I wanted to make sure the iTrip would actually work.

What did I purchase?
1 x Apple 40GB 4th Generation 'Click-wheel' iPod
1 x Griffin Technologies iTrip FM Transmitter
1 x Apple In-ear earphones

Initial Impressions
First things first, the packaging. I was very impressed indeed. Apple is well known for the design of it's equipment, operating systems and software. This is carried through to the packaging.

After removing the sleeve from the iPod box, I was presented with a cube, which hinged in the middle, opening this revealed the manual, on one side, and the iPod itself on the other. Removing the manual gave access to a well which contained the ear buds and connection cables. Underneath the iPod itself was the Dock connector.

Exquisite is the word that I think best fits this. I think the only comparison I can think of is that of my brother's B&O setup, which came boxed like some fine piece of jewelry.

Onto the iPod itself, well, it's a nice little device, looks rather good. I had it setup and copying over my music collection within 2 minutes of getting out of the box, so it's simplicity itself.

The In-ear headphones are also rather well packaged, a lovely little case with see through lid. They also perform very well indeed.

The iTrip, ah, a thing of beauty. Why is this a coveted item for me? I'll tell you why. When I got my car I purchased a rather nice single CD head unit, I didn't go for an MP3 compatible one, maybe I should have? Anyway, I digress. The disadvantage of the head unit is twofold. Firstly, Input methods, it does not have an input on the front, as most do these days, so a connection via a 3.5mm jack would not be possible, nor could I use a cassette adaptor. The second is that, I don't think the head unit has any AUX support, and to be honest, I could not be bothered to wrench it out of the car to have a look. Another fact is that stores tend not to stock Audio items you'd find in even Halfords. For example, try getting a pair of 'DIN Keys' to remove a stereo, something that you could walk into any halfords and obtain, and I don't even want to think about trying to get a 3.5mm to twin aux connection cable (though maybe the one i use for my Digital Camera might fit, digression again however ). Plus of course, I'm lazy

So what to do? well, this is where the iTrip comes in. It's an FM Transmitter that plugs into the top of the iPod, the idea is that you find a blank FM station, and the iTrip tunes into that frequency and broadcasts the music from the iPod to the stereo. I believe you can get a similar type of item to connect a CD changer to a head unit that does not have changer support.

Now, I'd not used an iTrip before, and I had done some research on the internet and there was sketchy information as to whether it would work in my area, hence one of my reasons for not getting an iPod for a while. A quick post on TSC resulting in a reply from Tristan, who said he used his sisters iTrip with no problem at all. So, based on this, I got one.

Does it work? Hell yeah! I'm very impressed with it. What's the quality like? well, it's pretty good. To be honest, it's nearly as good as CD quality, ok some music purists will no doubt scoff, but for me, it's very good indeed. I even setup my AV Receiver when I got home to interface with it, and no problems at all, lovely quality sound.

Is there anything I don't like about the iPod? Yes, there are a few things.

1) Metal rear scratches far far to easily. i had my iPod for less than 2 hours and the rear had a small scratch in it. I'm not overly fussed, as I've ordered an iSkin case for it.

2) No way to change font size for viewing of lists. This is a pain. I've made my own playlists (as I'd burnt them to CD), me being me, they are known as "The Warped Collection" and i've got TWC 1 thru 14. Problem is, on the iPod, it truncates the name of the file, so I have to guess which one I'm selecting. Yes, i could rename the playlist, but that's not the point.

3) Without additional software, you have to "convert" your iPod should you wish to move from a Macintosh to a PC (something I'm doing at xmas, as I want to rip my remaining CD collection, rather than carting 100 CD's back to Toronto from the UK). Conversion essentially means, reformatting the iPod, thus losing the music that is on it. OK, so I have the music in Canada, and I can use PodWorks on the Mac to copy the 'new' music over and merge it into my existing collection, but I want my existing music intact on there, *plus* my 'new' cd's. Now, if I'm wrong about this point, and I could be, I'll eat humble pie. However, from what I've read, I really need a copy of 'XPlay' on the PC.

4) Dock connector to firewire cable required for charging the iPod without a dock. OK, so I can get a car adaptor and I will, but for home use, I'd need to take my FW cable from the office home with me, or purchase an additional one as the AC Adaptor uses the FW cable. Why not have an AC cable? thus I could have my Dock at work, connected via the FW cable, then for 'home' or somewhere else i could use the AC cable to charge the iPod.

Conclusions
I like my iPod. I no longer need to carry around CD's with me, and i have my entire music collection in one place and with me all the time, should I wish to carry the iPod everywhere with me. It's also a hard drive too, so that's great for me, as I can move files between machines. very handy. I'm impressed.

As for why i went with an iPod and not something else. Well, I'm a Macintosh Geek, so that's the first point. Secondly, I like the ability to autosync the library on my machine against the iPod and I'm not sure other players support that. From what I'm aware, most players are aimed at the Windows market and thus will have lovely windows software, which is of no use to me, a macintosh user.

ScoobyDoo555

Good write up

I can only echo all your comments - the only addition is regarding the ITrip. Even on my home tuner, there is an audible amount of background noise
I take on board yoru comments regarding music purists (I'm in the Industry!), but I'll back it up by agreeing. Bear in mind where it's mostly going to be heard - the car etc, background noise is a way of life (environment etc)
ITrip is a great tool - although illegal in this country

My only gripe is the using-whist-driving issue. It's getting into mobile phone territory with distracting use Apart from the Alpine system, there's not much out there to control your entire playlist remotely. I've got the wired remote, but you can't use it in conjuction with the ITrip, otherwise it would be brilliant.

Just me being picky I suppose....

Out of interest, what format are you ripping your CDs in? I'm doing mine using all options - so far, my opinions are -

Apple Lossless - really good sound, but quite big file sizes (in comparison to the rest)
AAC - jury's still out on this one I've been getting a phasing (loss of bass) using this
MP3 - at a high enough bit rate, it's OK (again, putting it into context with the surrounding environment). It's still sh1te, but better than a kick in the nads Sorry, I hate MP3.
MP3 (VBR) - as above, but you can vary the degree of poor sound
WAV - ok, but PC and big file size
AIFF - big file size
AA - haven't used this yet.....


Just my thoughts

Dan

class_A

Here's the way I would do it:
1. Reformat iPod now to FAT32, it will then be recognised by Windows and Mac OS.
2. Load existing library back onto iPod
3. [optional] Back up library/songs that don't fit on iPod to DVD or CD
4. Deauthorise old Mac from iTMS
5. Authorise new PC
6. Use a tool to allow music to be copied from iPod to new PC (plenty free ones about)
7. Et voila, iPod contents now on new PC so libraries match and iTunes is happy

This of course assumes your whole library will fit on the iPod, otherwise you're going to have to add songs from those CD or DVD backups you made. Still, a lot better than having to burn the whole library

Markus

hmm, ok, might reformat the iPod then. Assume I'd do this from a PC? and then copy the stuff on from the Mac?

Backup, no probs, have a "music" drive on my Mac, which is where all the music is actually copied from.

Markus

Here is what i'm currently doing, and it seems to work.

Taking your advice, I 'restored' the iPod on a PC. iTunes on PC sees it (as does Explorer) plus iTunes on Mac sees it. Lovely.

Now, of course, iTunes won't let me copy the music from the iPod to it's Library. However, pop in a copy of PodWorks, volia! complete Library of music on my Mac, and my iPod. Lovely, just what I want.

I should mention I'm being very crafty, I've got three machines ripping my CDs, one PC and two G4's the idea is that I'll end up with all my lovely music on my main mac, and my iPod.

Thanks for your advice.

Markus

Also, I do have to agree about the "using whilst driving thing". I could mount my iPod somewhere, possibly even on the steering wheel, but you still have to look at the small screen. I'd love it if there was an IceLink (or whatever they are called) for my head until, but alas, there is not.

rr_ww

Hmmm Good write up.

But maybe Im just being thick. Are there any headunits out there that you can plug an iPod into easily? i.e. without having to remove the unit every time.

Details?

ScoobyDoo555

There was somebody who'd reverse-engineered the code (apparently illegal ) - and has resulted in a remote that had a built in LCD......

Or how about the Mac voice-recognition software "next", or "back" etc.....

Dan

XRS

j.r-xrs bought one of these. If his experience (and that of a lot of other people with these) is anything to go by, the hard drive should be failing just about now.....

Markus

With regards to head units. well, depends how you want to connect the iPod. You can use an IceLink (by dennison) which means you just connect a cable to the iPod. You could get a 2 RCA to 3.5mm cable, and plug thr 3.5 into the ipod (the other end would be permantly attached to the AUX IN section of your head unit) If your head unit has a 3.5mm input jack on the front (some do) then you could use a 3.5 male to male cable to plug it in. Most, if not all of the above still require you use the ipod to change tracks, etc, in other words, you can't use the changer controls on the head unit (I think the IceLink does let you do this though).

New BMW's over here allow you to connect the iPod to the changer port, thus allowing changer controls to change tracks, and Alpine has relesed a new head unit which does the same, and it would not suprise me if other companies follow suit.


Trying to bait us iPod users are we? lol. Seriously though, what model of iPod has he got, and what exactly has he been doing with it? My co workers have iPods (one has either 1st or 2nd gen, the other has a 3rd gen) and they are not at all sympatetic about them, example; I get thrown their ipod to connect up so I can rip data from it. They've also dropped them more times than I can count and have never had a problem with them at all.

XRS

He has exactly the same model as you. I suspect (reading the above) that he was just too careful with it.
It's currently sitting next to me waiting to go back to him next week after it came back from being repaired in Holland!