The Whole iPod Thing

I don't know what got me thinking about iPods today. It would be nice to have one but alas, no cash for that at the moment. If I had an iPod I wouldn't be participating in downloading music from the internet. If I were to do that I would do it legally through the iTunes store because not infringing on someone's copyright is important to me. However, I won't download music from the internet because of it's inferior sound quality. I'm not a total audiophile snob but being a schooled audio engineer - sound quality is important to me. You lose quite a bit of audio information in the compression to either mp3 or AAC formats. If you're using an iPod and listening to the original CD aiff format for example, with a decent set of headphones the sound quality would be pretty decent. Unfortunately the majority of the general public I think doesn't realize that the are basically being duped. That is, the people that are legally downloading music. I think most people aren't really aware that when they download from a place like the iTunes store they aren't getting the same sound quality that they would get if they went out and purchased the CD. Most people are probably using mp3 or AAC formats and listening to them through the cheap earbuds that they iPod comes with. This may be a bit of an overstatement but unless you're listening to the original CD file format on the iPod with good headphones it's like you're listening to an 8-track tape. So in the mean time, I'll keep buying CDs and listening to them on my system I have at home with my Grados.