Vote

I've been considering purchasing a portable device for some time, but the nastiness of encoding has always been a deterrent. Although most of the devices seem to use some form of compression there are now a few units with humongous storage capacity that also support uncompressed audio. Now, to me, that would be something worth listening to.

As toys go, it's a lot cooler than a stinking tube amp!

I may get something along this line. It will be mainly a device for storing/transporting computer files. I am looking at a flash memory device with USB 2 interface. A small, mating, battery powered docking station with headphone jack that plays the appropriate type of files on the flash memory device would then be used for CASUAL music listening.

On mine, I have stored, in compressed form, all the music that's ever come into my possession. Most of this music was copied right off my CD, although quite a bit has come from my library of LPs and cassettes (which have been improved greatly by noise reduction programs.)

I don't even have a fully functioning portable cd player. It just isn't a need I have. If it were, though, I would seriously consider something like an iPod, knowing I'd be giving up some sound quality for a lot of convenience in an environment where I'm probably somewhat distracted in the first place.

Digital audio, and analog recordings are compressed enough as it is. Do I really need to dimish the enjoyment I recieve from music listening by further reduction of the dynamic range of recorded music?!?!

So far, no MP3 player offeres the level of capacity required for a truly large collection stored at high sampling rates. I am waiting for a player that has a capacity of more than 250GB.

I've got a Rio Riot 20Gb hard-disk audio player. I've converted a large percentage of my CDs to MP3 for 'non-critical' listening.

It's great for the road, and with a good pair of headphones it sounds great.

What is an iPod? Does someone who cares about sound quality needs to know about it? If not, why is Stereophile talking about it?

This is Stereophile, right? Quality-driven pursuit of all things audio? If your readers actually do listen to an MP3 device, what is the point of having multi-thousand dollar equipment to extract every nuance from a recording? This is a "real men don't eat quiche" thing. Real audiophiles don't listen to crappy software. If you like the sound of compressed MP3, why not just comb the hock shops for an old 8-track player and some tapes? How about getting a pre-Dolby cassette deck and get into hiss. Low bit-rate audio is a big step backwards. As it is, I still have records that can sound better than CDs. Why would anyone want to listen to a source that is worse than a CD? You can compile a CD of your favorite music on your CD burner and get much better resolution.

Don't understand what I did before getting the iPod. I use it daily.

The iPod is a great convenient easy to use device. Now if they could make one that sounds good too, they'd really have something.

No MPEGs for listening Music, but I have a MP3 Player for listening radio plays. It's a space/Storage problem here.

Another backward step in sound quality? Go wash your mouths out with soap!

Use an Archos Ondio as my digital source for my workbench/cellar system. w/x-cans pre-amp,sound valves vta70i amp (kit) ,tivoli fm tuner and some outdoor speakers mounted on the ceiling of course.

Got a new iPod and it's great!

The iPod is the device for tunes on the move. What I'd like now is a SOTA home equivalent: a high-end, hard disk music server that supports lossless compression.

I wouldn't own one of those things if you gave it to me.

It's great, all my favorite music in my car, office, or anywhere.

I'd love to have an iPod but I don't have the funds to buy one. I'm currently listening to iTunes on my iMac...

This poll is rigged, five questions for yes of some sort and one for an absolute and rather rude no. Why bother to give a no option at all?

Portable and Auto are MD, I record from CD to MD via Optical Toslink therefore I get a full digital lossless/non-compressed 44.1Khz copy and have what I consider the best for my MD format.

internet radio, hurrah!

Silly rabbit. iPods are for kids.

I have the 60GB Nomad Jukebox Zen. Anyone who really believes that it is the music that matters may well want one of these. How else can I take a great amount of music with me on long trips in SE Asia? Hundreds and hundreds of CDs fit onto one portable. I can take the complete Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra and a lot more. Admittedly, when I return home, I spend extra time in front of my beloved Thiels.

I know that the fidelity isn't quite there, but it is much more convenient than carying around 200 CDs. Also, since I travel for business, fidelity really doesn't matter as much when in an airplane, bus, etc.

I use my iPod to listen to uncompressed WAV files. There's no need to compress to MP3 when you have 10G+ of storage capacity.

No thanks, the missuse and misguided use of compression has ruined more of my CDs than I care to think about. Compression is one of those frustrating things in life that you can't avoid, along with death, taxes, flies, mosquitos, and bad rashes. I sure as hell will not go looking for more.

I listen through the PC to find new music to buy on album or SACD/CD (and I only buy hybrid SACD's, just in case...).