The new ParentDish: helping raise kids of all ages

New iPod classic has "badly engineered" audio circuitry?

Continuing our theme today of possible problems with the new iPods, now it's the classic's turn. Personally, I doubt could hear the difference but there seems to be a number of people who think the new 6G iPod classic sounds noticeably worse than the 5.5G iPod that it replaced. In the words of Marc Heijligers the new iPod classic "sounds precise, crisp, but lacks 3D image and has an electronic haze to the sound... [which] becomes fatiguing after a while. The 5G sounds less precise, but its timbre contains more harmonic information and sounds less electronic." To back up these "golden ear" impressions Marc ran a bunch of tests comparing the 5.5G iPod and the new classic and has posted his results. His conclusion is that the 6G iPod Classic displays:
  • A slight uplift in treble.
  • A group delay that depends on frequency.
  • A strong modulation with 22.1k, causing intermodulation distortion.
Apparently the cause of this change is Apple's switching from a Wolfson (5.5G) to a Cirrus Logic audio codec chip. As I said before, you'd probably need golden ears (and good cans) to hear the differences, but if you do you may want to give the 6G a good listen before replacing a 5.5G iPod with a new classic.

[via Infinite Loop]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

TUAW Features


Mac 101 ask-tuaw
Mac News
WWDC (250)
.Mac (57)
Accessories (635)
Airport (74)
Analysis / Opinion (1329)
Apple (1637)
Apple Corporate (555)
Apple Financial (187)
Apple History (45)
Apple Professional (54)
Apple TV (160)
Audio (446)
Bad Apple (118)
Beta Beat (149)
Blogging (84)
Bluetooth (16)
Bugs/Recalls (56)
Cult of Mac (869)
Deals (214)
Desktops (115)
Developer (252)
Education (98)
eMac (10)
Enterprise (138)
Features (396)
Freeware (381)
Gaming (361)
Graphic Design (31)
Hardware (1281)
Holidays (37)
Humor (576)
iBook (65)
iLife (234)
iMac (184)
Internet (325)
Internet Tools (1309)
iTS (967)
iTunes (796)
iWork (21)
Leopard (367)
Mac mini (112)
Mac Pro (53)
MacBook (202)
MacBook Air (79)
Macbook Pro (220)
MobileMe (16)
Multimedia (439)
Odds and ends (1437)
Open Source (277)
OS (910)
Peripherals (208)
Podcasting (182)
Podcasts (89)
Portables (197)
PowerBook (135)
PowerMac G5 (50)
Retail (577)
Retro Mac (48)
Rig of the Week (42)
Rumors (629)
Software (4304)
Software Update (406)
Steve Jobs (252)
Stocking Stuffers (50)
Surveys and Polls (97)
Switchers (112)
The Woz (34)
TUAW Business (235)
Universal Binary (281)
UNIX / BSD (61)
Video (902)
Weekend Review (81)
WIN Business (47)
Wireless (83)
Xserve (39)
iPhone/iPod News
iPhone (1487)
iPod Family (2024)
App Store (17)
SDK (14)
Mac Events
One More Thing (27)
Liveblog (1)
Other Events (226)
Macworld (489)
Mac Learning
AppleScript (2)
Ask TUAW (101)
Blogs (85)
Books (26)
Books and Blogs (62)
Cool tools (443)
Hacks (459)
How-tos (482)
Interviews (43)
Mods (185)
Productivity (586)
Reviews (107)
Security (153)
Terminal Tips (58)
Tips and tricks (563)
Troubleshooting (166)
TUAW Features
iPhone 101 (26)
TUAW Labs (3)
Blast From the Past (17)
TUAW Tips (141)
Flickr Find (34)
Found Footage (80)
Mac 101 (88)
TUAW Interview (31)
Widget Watch (198)
The Daily Best (1)
TUAW Faceoff (4)

RESOURCES

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

Sponsored Links

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) bloggers (30 days)

#BloggerPostsCmts
1Cory Bohon862
2Robert Palmer6046
3Steven Sande5723
4Dave Caolo370
5Scott McNulty370
6Mat Lu358
7Erica Sadun282
8Mike Schramm222
9Brett Terpstra210
10Michael Rose1334
11Christina Warren1245
12Joshua Ellis54
13Lisa Hoover26
14Chris Ullrich12
15Jason Clarke11

Featured Galleries

Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Apple Vanity Plates
DiscPainter
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor
The Macworld Faithful in Line
iPhone First Look
AT&T 3G Coverage Map
MobileMe Guided Tour UI Changes

 

    Most Commented On (7 days)

    Recent Comments

    More Apple Analysis

    More from AOL Money and Finance

    Weblogs, Inc. Network

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: