How to improve ipod sound quality?

I thought I remembered seeing some sort of attachment that you could smack onto the ipod that improves sound quality? any way to improve my ipod's sound quality?

how about this simple acoustics a1?

http://www.simpl.com/products.html

Well if your MP3's sound like crap, nothing will improve that.

So first, rip your MP3's at a high bitrate...like 192 or above.

Second, are you using the stock headphones? If so, pitch them and get a good set of in-ear phones.

Not sure if iPods will play WMA's yet, but to me ditching MP3's and going WMA made a huge improvement also.

Please do not feed the trolls. 1 post. Says there's a problem. Posts a link with a fix in the same post. Troll. Its an amplifier. It will give you the same sound only louder.

Ahhh..didn't even notice.

I didn't want to seem rude and say "that thing is a useless pile of crap" in so many words...but yes..that thing IS a useless pile of crap.

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Originally Posted by N. Abstentia

Ahhh..didn't even notice.

I didn't want to seem rude and say "that thing is a useless pile of crap" in so many words...but yes..that thing IS a useless pile of crap.

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The piece is NOT a "UPOC". It actually serves a pertinant need, as an standard Ipod will NOT drive a set of Senheiser 600's or any other 300 ohm headphones. If the post was done correctly I would have moved it to the news & rumor forum, but as it is I'm just going to leave it. Info about new products is not spam.

Sounds like you have one...how does it work? Better than a standard headphone amplifier? Does it actually improve the quality of MP3's?

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Originally Posted by N. Abstentia

Sounds like you have one...how does it work? Better than a standard headphone amplifier? Does it actually improve the quality of MP3's?

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Got a good set of sennie's though. A clip-on headphone amp sounds like a neat thing though. Perhaps we can get one for review? Eric, you listening?

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Originally Posted by Geoffcin

The piece is NOT a "UPOC". It actually serves a pertinant need, as an standard Ipod will NOT drive a set of Senheiser 600's or any other 300 ohm headphones.

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I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 650s, and the iPod drives them just fine.

Robert Harley from The Absolute Sound talked about ways to improve the performance of iPods. One of the items talked about was this device. The performance was not that good from what he reports and not worth the cost.

The biggest performance enhancer in his opinion was ripping in Apple Lossless.

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Originally Posted by Mike Anderson

I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 650s, and the iPod drives them just fine.

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Cool, most people I know with these swear by headphone amps.

Were you able to play them at a good volume? Last time I tried some 600's without a headphone amp was with a portable CD player and it's amp ran out of gas before a decent level. It also distorted (clipped) pretty badly even before that.

i am definitely not a troll. i posted that item because it seemed the closest to what i thought i saw before. it looks pretty cheaply made to me, and i wouldn't drop $99 for it. i do not work for that company. i am about to buy my first ipod 5g 30gb and i was just wondering if there was any way to improve my ipod's sound quality. sorry if i sounded like a troll. i was not advocating the product. just curious if anyone had used it before. sorry for the mix up.

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Originally Posted by Geoffcin

Cool, most people I know with these swear by headphone amps.

Were you able to play them at a good volume? Last time I tried some 600's without a headphone amp was with a portable CD player and it's amp ran out of gas before a decent level. It also distorted (clipped) pretty badly even before that.

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I can play it at quite high volumes (probably ear damaging if prolonged).

It's one of the newer iPods (5G), by the way; perhaps the older ones are different.

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Originally Posted by anamorphic96

Robert Harley from The Absolute Sound talked about ways to improve the performance of iPods. One of the items talked about was this device. The performance was not that good from what he reports and not worth the cost.

The biggest performance enhancer in his opinion was ripping in Apple Lossless.

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I've also tried the Headroom Bithead amp, which is probably of significantly higher quality than the above product. However, I found the improvement (if there was any) minimal at best, and returned it.

Just using the headphones alone is fine, even with 300 ohm cans. Really, the limitations are in the iPod itself, and no amount of juicing it up is going to get around that.

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Originally Posted by Mike Anderson

I can play it at quite high volumes (probably ear damaging if prolonged).

It's one of the newer iPods (5G), by the way; perhaps the older ones are different.

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Most "lesser" cans than yours are 50-120 ohms. This means that they can play even LOUDER at the same volume setting. No wonder people are taking Apple to task for creating the next generation of hearing impared.

Most of my headphone listening has been through my receiver, so I'm very interested to hear your report on the Bithead. Perhaps you can elaborate a bit more on it.

My Sandisk Sansa (I won't touch an iPod with a 10-foot pole) drives my Sennheiser 580's just fine. Sounds great actually. Was not impressed with any of the iPods.

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Originally Posted by rvlmtfnk

i am definitely not a troll. i posted that item because it seemed the closest to what i thought i saw before. it looks pretty cheaply made to me, and i wouldn't drop $99 for it. i do not work for that company. i am about to buy my first ipod 5g 30gb and i was just wondering if there was any way to improve my ipod's sound quality. sorry if i sounded like a troll. i was not advocating the product. just curious if anyone had used it before. sorry for the mix up.

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I extend my apologies and a welcome. Welcome!

FWIW, I have an iPod shuffle (new to me) dangling from the cord of my Senn 570's. It sounds pretty good, looks silly. BUT, the shuffle doesnt support Apple Lossless and I haven't tried ripping to WAV yet. I'm listening to the CD 20bit remaster of Mile Davis 'Kind of Blue' for the umpteen-zillionth time. I can hear the lack of quality of a 256 VBR rip. I'd withhold judgment on iPod source quality until I try lossless. I can't see the point of more amplification. But, once you've established that your bits are of good quality, then I think it might be worthwhile looking at amps.

How to improve sound quality from an Ipod?
First, remove the battery, then carefully take out the case screws and set them aside. Remove the printed circuit board and place on a static free mat. Next take a de-soldering tool and remove all the solder on the board and carefully remove all the electronic components, placing them in individually numbered bags. Gather all the bags and case pieces and place in static free box and get in your car. Drive until you find the backside of a large mall, place a bag in each trashcan you come to and continue until you are out of bags. Get back in your car and drive home secure in the knowledge that whatever happens, THAT Ipod will never assault ANYONE else again!

get serious guys. one of our members is looking for help. shouldn't we offer up something? if not, then don't post, esp. that trashing ipod stuff. c'mon would you want someone to post that in your thread when you are looking for help?

anyway, the turbodock or the sik ram din is supposed to give out a clear sound, thus improving the sq. you may wanna check those out. they aren't expensive. but if you crave more, then you should look into amplifiers.

A Yugo will only deliver the quality of ride that a Yugo can. Don’t expect it to ever equal the performance of a Ford or Chevy, it won’t. Let alone the fact that it will never DREAM of being a Porsche or a Rolls Royce.

Perhaps the original, presumably non-troll, poster would like to offer up some comment on how they feel the sound of their iPod is compromised? Then, there might be some ideas to address that. hmmm?

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Originally Posted by Cal Blacksmith

How to improve sound quality from an Ipod?
First, remove the battery, then carefully take out the case screws and set them aside. Remove the printed circuit board and place on a static free mat. Next take a de-soldering tool and remove all the solder on the board and carefully remove all the electronic components, placing them in individually numbered bags. Gather all the bags and case pieces and place in static free box and get in your car. Drive until you find the backside of a large mall, place a bag in each trashcan you come to and continue until you are out of bags. Get back in your car and drive home secure in the knowledge that whatever happens, THAT Ipod will never assault ANYONE else again!

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Um, dudes..... I have a really cool rig, so I don't really have to listen on my pod too often;
dont shoot me for asking, but why so much resentment against the Ipod? Mine works just fine. I've never had a prob with the battery, it lasts as long as Apple says it will, and I think its a very cool little repository for my tons and tons of music.I have about 15,000 songs on my 60gig(5th gen), a lot encoded in apple lossless and the rest between 320kbps and 128kbps plus a whole host of movies, that would ordinarily take up the space of approx 2000 cd's.I use software to get my music free, which, living outside the US, is not a problem, and so i dont rely on the itunes music store, and i find the itunes user interface complicated but indispensible after a while.
theres actual work gone into its creation unlike the drag and drop crap that other players provide. It is the only software which i find effective for categorising my loads of music. The drag and drop interfaces make sorting through my files a nightmare.
the 5th gen(i dont know about the others) is the coolest looking peice of hardware on the planet and i dont really mind the scratches. It is also the best portable source for driving expensive headphones. even the gurus at headphone.com say so, and I consider their verdict to usually be final and binding.
So where's the problem?
enlighten me brothers, enlighten me.
p.s.-as for improving the sound quality.....
1.Make shure you encode your tracks in apple lossless.
2.Make shure you have good headphones so you can tell the difference.
and 3. make shure you're using a good amp if you want to use cans with a very high or very low impedence(+/- 32ohms on the ipod) and to improve resolution and imaging greatly(as with the crossfeeders headroom uses in its amps).
That should be enough to get you an almost audiophille setup on the go.
I'm using grado rs1's with the headroom desktop amp and its nothing short of amazing. When Im on the go, my ety's are really good even without the amp.
Rock on dude.
and no, I don't think you're a troll. Dude, whatever happened to love thy neighbour. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.

...get a real stereo be out of bounds...

jimHJJ(...although the village smitty's suggestion is a thoughtful and creative one...)

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Originally Posted by Resident Loser

...get a real stereo be out of bounds...

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Sure. And then lug the whole thing with you into the gym, or your car, or an airplane. And don't forget the generator you'll need to power it all.

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Originally Posted by Resident Loser

...get a real stereo be out of bounds...

jimHJJ(...although the village smitty's suggestion is a thoughtful and creative one...)

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RESIDENT LOSER?Need Ireally say More?

What I'd really like to see is a DACamp attachment for the iPod since the Video iPod now is capable of outputting a (non SPDIF) digital signal to drive a codec. That aside, the analog sound quality isn't any worse than many other supposedly superior (but only in the eyes of the ignorant "won't touch an iPod" brigade) players... that is, unless you see things like badly-done BBE or the infamous "bowl curve" EQ as an increase in "quality".

One thing that's undoubtedly true is that the iPod's EQ needs a lot of work, but this has no bearing in any discussion about the ultimate SQ that the iPod is capable of since it won't be used.

Personally I think for portable use, 320K AAC or MP3 (for compatibility) is perfectly OK even when used with high-grade headphones. If you must have the unsullied original, knock yourself out with Apple Lossless but it'll kill battery life due to the greatly increased hard disk access frequency.

Amping the iPod via the Sendstation or Sik (not sure why you would choose Turbodock or any of the DIY efforts when these provide a more consistent build quality and the same audio capabilities) will improve the perceived sound. I recommend the Fixup Supermini as an amp which is still very portable (and smaller than the Simpl) and offers significantly better ability / features.

Sitting here with an audio switch and the Supermini attached to the Line Out vs directly listening from the headphone out, the Fixup amp provides a noticeable increase in dynamic ability, an mid / treble clarity increase and an increase in the presentation of low bass (which can be further tweaked up by switching on the well-done bass boost).

With that set-up you're free to attach the high quality headphone of your choice. That's another discussion entirely of course.