4g nano sound quality vs classic

[pufftissue]

Hi,

I just got the 4g nano, 16 gb, and I was absolutely happy with the sound quality of the 5g 60gb ipod that I have. However, it's now 3 years old and I wanted something more portable.

The new 4g nano doesn't have that background noise you can hear with high-end headphones during pauses in music, but the sound doesn't seem as nice as the 5g. What small nano player (or perhaps even a non-apple player) sounds closest to my 5g classic. I'm just happy with the sound quality of the 5g classic but really want to move to something smaller.

[paranoidxe]

I think the 4G Nano sounds better than the 6th gen classic it sounds more full. Usually nanos disappoint me with the flat sound, but this year it is better. Nothing tops the 5th Gen Video yet in terms of iPods I think.

[crispy136]

I bought a 4th gen Nano and found the sound a little flat until I discivered the equaliser. This improved the sound a lot. But unfortunatley it also introduced some crackle on high notes.

[Amnesiac32]

I found that at least for my ears the only 2 eq setting worth using on the nano are treble booster or off. I tend to use the off setting when hooking my nano to my amp and listing with a pair of grado sr80s but with my reg. earbuds I use the treble booster eq setting. When I plug my grado sr80s directly into my ipod I get good sound with treble booster but only get about 75% of the volume that I want with the earuds I get all of the volume I want but not all of the sound quality.

[madmaxmedia]

I like the 4G Nano sound quality better than the 5G iPod, and I liked the 5G iPod back when it was current.

They definitely have different sound signatures though. Your ears get used to one player's sound, and switching to a different player can be an adjustment.

I recently listened to a 5G iPod, and the sound was not nearly as clean to my ears. The 4G Nano has a very crisp sound to me in a good way, without being harsh.

[jasoncordelle]

I don;t actually think there's any appreciable difference in sound quality between the Nano and the Classic.

[kevin40]

4GNano sounds better.

[Code Monkey]

They use the same family of decoder chips and the same "quality" $1.98 DAC and headphone jack, you do the math.

Any perceived differences in the range of human hearing are placebo.

[sebulr]

I would agree with that. I can't tel the difference betwen my 160GB classic and 4th gen 8GB nano in terms of sound quality. I CAN tell you that most of the eq settings distort the bass so are unusable. But interestingly the treble booster does not distort, but I find high treble grates on the ears after a few songs.

[kornchild2002]

They use the same family of decoder chips and the same "quality" $1.98 DAC and headphone jack, you do the math.

Any perceived differences in the range of human hearing are placebo.

Thank you. Additionally, RMAA tests (which measure the results coming out of the headphone port) show that all current generation iPods are pretty much on par with each other and on par with 2007 models. Any differences heard between comparing these iPods is caused by the placebo affect. Unfortunately websites have not conducted RMAA tests on the 5G/5.5G iPod and compared them with the newer models but still, anyone would be hard pressed to spot the 5G/5.5G iPod in a blind test.

[Code Monkey]

Unfortunately websites have not conducted RMAA tests on the 5G/5.5G iPod and compared them with the newer models but still, anyone would be hard pressed to spot the 5G/5.5G iPod in a blind test.I don't know about that, I could certainly pick the two apart, but it doesn't mean one is *better*, they're just different. But for the current models, they aren't even different. The touch, iPhone, nano, and classic are all based off of the same family of sound chips, whereas the 5X iPod was a different decoder, and the 2G nano was yet another decoder. Apple finally wised up and and just found one decoder that can serve all their iPods, which you would think would put to rest these "my iPod sounds better than your iPod" threads, but, unfortunately, you'd be wrong ;)