I recently bought some new headphones for use with my iPod. After a bit of research on the internet, I decided to go for the Sennheiser PX100's.
At £24 from Amazon, they're an absolute bargain. They're an 'on the ear'
type 'phone and are much more comfortable than the 'in ear' type that came with the iPod. They also fold up very neatly and come in a case which protects them nicely if you're travelling. Sound quality is fantastic. Bass is instantly improved aswell as overall warmth and clarity. In fact, a friend of mine recently bought the Bose Triport 'phones that retail for around £110 and I could hardly tell the difference. If you're on a budget and want to improve your listening experience and get the most out of your iPod you really can't go wrong with the PX100's. They're also available in white.
I've also invested in some scratch protection for my iPod with the purchase of a PowerSupport crystal jacket. This is a clear case which also comes with clear plastic films which are applied to the actual iPod. There's no adhesive involved, they stick via static. Once on, you can hardly see it and it protects the iPod from scratches. Sweet.
As a side note, I also had one of those CD wallets that hold a dozen cd's or so.
I took out the sleeves and it now holds my iPod and headphones (folded up) perfectly. Ideal for carrying out and about, or into work.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
My ipod
My iPod arrived while we were away in Barcelona, so I had to wait until we got back before I could get my hands on it. It's a 30gb black iPod with video. I also ordered some Sennheiser earphones as I've heard that the standard Apple 'phones aren't too good, plus they're white. I didn't want a black iPod with white earphones. I really don't understand why Apple doesn't make black accessories to go with the black iPod. I put off buying a dock purely cos it's white. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, Apple will offer black accessories. I guess it all depends on the ratio of black iPods sold to white iPods.
Anyway, the iPod itself is fantastic. I installed the latest version of iTunes and iPod software from the cd that came with it and then set about transferring my iTunes music over to it. At that time I had just over 900 songs in iTunes, mostly all of them with artwork. The entire library took around 12mins to transfer via USB. Not bad I reckon. I've always liked the visual aspect of the album artwork, and the colour screen displaying the artwork and track information looks great. The sound quality is excellent and it doesn't take long to get used to the operating method. It's pretty easy to find the songs you want, but you can make it easier by defining playlists for different genres or artists or moods. Almost anything really. I say almost anything. I have around 100 different artists on there and I wanted to make playlists to split them up into sections. For example, Artists A-E etc. But, sadly it can't be done cos iTunes lists by songname and not artist. Maybe there is a way to do it, but I haven't found it yet.
Since then, I've downloaded a couple of video's from the iTunes music store and was quite impressed with the video playback quality. Also, photo's look good. On top of that, I can sync it with my contacts and calendars. I found out that I can download calendars for all kinds of things into iCal. I've downloaded Southampton FC fixtures and the World Cup fixtures for this year.
One disappointment I have of the iPod so far is it's ability to use as a portable disk. Apparently, cos I've formatted it for mac use, I can't use it on a windows machine. That means I can't connect it to the pc at work to use as a disk device. Again, there may well be a hack for that but I've not found one yet. It's a shame cos as I said, I hoped to use it to update this blog a bit more. I've got around this problem for the time being by simply emailing text files to myself, which I can then pick up at home on the mac and copy into my weblog.
Anyway, the iPod itself is fantastic. I installed the latest version of iTunes and iPod software from the cd that came with it and then set about transferring my iTunes music over to it. At that time I had just over 900 songs in iTunes, mostly all of them with artwork. The entire library took around 12mins to transfer via USB. Not bad I reckon. I've always liked the visual aspect of the album artwork, and the colour screen displaying the artwork and track information looks great. The sound quality is excellent and it doesn't take long to get used to the operating method. It's pretty easy to find the songs you want, but you can make it easier by defining playlists for different genres or artists or moods. Almost anything really. I say almost anything. I have around 100 different artists on there and I wanted to make playlists to split them up into sections. For example, Artists A-E etc. But, sadly it can't be done cos iTunes lists by songname and not artist. Maybe there is a way to do it, but I haven't found it yet.
Since then, I've downloaded a couple of video's from the iTunes music store and was quite impressed with the video playback quality. Also, photo's look good. On top of that, I can sync it with my contacts and calendars. I found out that I can download calendars for all kinds of things into iCal. I've downloaded Southampton FC fixtures and the World Cup fixtures for this year.
One disappointment I have of the iPod so far is it's ability to use as a portable disk. Apparently, cos I've formatted it for mac use, I can't use it on a windows machine. That means I can't connect it to the pc at work to use as a disk device. Again, there may well be a hack for that but I've not found one yet. It's a shame cos as I said, I hoped to use it to update this blog a bit more. I've got around this problem for the time being by simply emailing text files to myself, which I can then pick up at home on the mac and copy into my weblog.
Gone Digital
Last week I ordered some goodies from the Apple online store; A Belkin Tunesync and a Monitor Audio i-Deck.
The Tunesync is an iPod dock and usb hub all in one. I'd been thinking about getting a hub for a while, not that I really needed one just yet but connectivity is just easier with a hub. The same goes for an iPod dock. The fact that this unit offers both was the clincher. It has 5 usb ports on the back and connects to the iMac via usb. So with 3 ports on the iMac and 5 on the hub, that's 8 in all. Although really it's 6 cos the keyboard uses 1 slot and the hub uses another. It also has a stereo out jack so I could listen to the iPod with headphones or through the stereo if I wanted to. It charges and syncs the iPod while docked. It's fairly small, it looks good, and it does the job. No more messing around with cables.
The i-Deck is something else. There are several (probably hundreds) iPod speaker units on the market. The Bose Sounddock seems to be the popular favourite, but it's small, and the speakers are fixed. The i-Deck came out recently and I immediately liked the fact that it was more like a mini hifi in that the speakers were seperate from the main unit. I already knew the Monitor Audio brand was a top name in hifi. Their loudspeakers are highly rated. So as I expected, the two speakers are excellent.The i-Deck's main unit has an iPod dock, a built in amp and it's own digital to analog converter. The i-Deck's superior DAC takes over from the iPod's as soon as you dock it. Then you choose your playlist and away you go. Volume, tracks and power can be controlled from the remote control. It also comes in black, which looks great, far better that the white/grey version. Once I saw the black one in the Apple store in Regent Street, I wanted it, but I didn't want to lug it around London, so I ordered it when I got back home. It's pretty cool.
The Tunesync is an iPod dock and usb hub all in one. I'd been thinking about getting a hub for a while, not that I really needed one just yet but connectivity is just easier with a hub. The same goes for an iPod dock. The fact that this unit offers both was the clincher. It has 5 usb ports on the back and connects to the iMac via usb. So with 3 ports on the iMac and 5 on the hub, that's 8 in all. Although really it's 6 cos the keyboard uses 1 slot and the hub uses another. It also has a stereo out jack so I could listen to the iPod with headphones or through the stereo if I wanted to. It charges and syncs the iPod while docked. It's fairly small, it looks good, and it does the job. No more messing around with cables.
The i-Deck is something else. There are several (probably hundreds) iPod speaker units on the market. The Bose Sounddock seems to be the popular favourite, but it's small, and the speakers are fixed. The i-Deck came out recently and I immediately liked the fact that it was more like a mini hifi in that the speakers were seperate from the main unit. I already knew the Monitor Audio brand was a top name in hifi. Their loudspeakers are highly rated. So as I expected, the two speakers are excellent.The i-Deck's main unit has an iPod dock, a built in amp and it's own digital to analog converter. The i-Deck's superior DAC takes over from the iPod's as soon as you dock it. Then you choose your playlist and away you go. Volume, tracks and power can be controlled from the remote control. It also comes in black, which looks great, far better that the white/grey version. Once I saw the black one in the Apple store in Regent Street, I wanted it, but I didn't want to lug it around London, so I ordered it when I got back home. It's pretty cool.
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