iPod G5

I'm not very familiar with the previous iPod's sound quality, but recently found a writeup by iLounge on the improvements made with the 5G--

As the fourth-generation iPod increased in popularity, so did calls from serious music lovers for Apple to improve its audio quality. Despite praise for the iPod’s neutral sound balance, people eventually identified three different areas of audio gripes with the prior iPod: a static and hard drive noise that overlapped songs every time the hard disk was accessed, a general lack of bass power and related distortion when the “bass booster” equalizer was activated, and sizzling distortion that could be heard around the edges of notes on piano solos. So we immediately connected our most sensitive headphones to the 5G iPods, and were pleased to find that all three of these issues had been either reduced or eliminated. Here’s what we found.

The hard drive and static noise issue is gone. This problem was initially obvious in black-and-white 4G iPods, but thanks to some tweaking on Apple’s part, became hard to notice in color 4G iPods unless using high-end headphones. Now, even using $900 Ultimate Ears UE-10 Pros, the noise isn’t there. We’re thrilled.

Bass performance has been improved. In testing with a collection of lossless tracks and the UE-10 Pros, small but noticeable enhancements of the bass are definitely apparent, giving tracks an inoffensively warmer sound. With Bass Booster turned on, distortion is not absent in the 5G, but is definitely lower, and has a smoother, less mechanical edge.

Piano solos are now clean. Previously, in certain tracks, distortion (a light sizzling) could be heard around the silent edges of piano notes. Comparative testing with one of the sample identified piano tracks("Bladiator") provided by iLounge readers shows that this distortion has been completely eliminated.

All of these fixes make us considerably happier about the 5G iPod’s audio performance than we were before, and we’re thrilled to see that Apple has addressed them. That said, the iPod is still not perfect in audio. For instance, iLounge readers correctly point out that there’s a minor bug that occurs when you stop a video to play back an audiobook: the video’s audio track continues to play and overlaps with the audiobook, creating a messy, staticy sound. And we continue to wait for the company to provide custom dynamic equalization through graphic equalizers on the 5G’s screen, a feature found in many of the iPod’s best competitors, and still hope that Apple will add pro-friendly features such as crossfading, tempo and pitch adjustment.

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