iTunes can't even do that....even when using Apple Lossless or AIFF files, setting the crossfader to zero still results in a pop and a brief pause. It's annoying enough that I've ripped all my Pink Floyd, classical, and The Who albums as single tracks, rather than individual ones.

CD's are the only things that play back gaplessly in iTunes, but why would I play a CD in iTunes to begin with? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of having a HDD-based software jukebox?

Your device obviously has a bad battery. This is unacceptable, indeed, but it is normal. The same thing could have happened to a Mini. If you are still under warranty, you should ask for a device (or battery) replacement.

which is exactly what i plan to do

This is the one thing that has changed my mind about buying an iPod.
You know, I had learned to "deal" with the lack of gapless playback on portables, but having read that Rio Karma supports LAME-tag-based gapless playback, I am definitely going that way.

It's a shame that we have this 'sliding window' way of selling products. They never get any cheaper but newer products just slide down and replace the older ones, often at higher prices. I was considering buying the 15 GB 3G iPod a few weeks ago but waited until they announced the new ones. Then I considered buying the iRiver H120, only to find out that it's been discontinued, replaced by the more expensive H140. And now the lowest 4G iPod at 20 GB has turned out more expensive than the one it replaced.

I guess the longer you wait, the more features you get, rather than prices falling.

It is official now

I must say it still looks interesting, but now I am waiting for the Karma 2 (or the original Karma to experience a price drop)

How's the amp and sound output of the 4G so far?

Also, I heard there was a new game (read on slashdot, I think)- anyone know what that is?

If games were a selling point for a DAP I'd buy a PDA. DAPs should play music and play it well. I think Apple should worry about supporting proper audio playback support rather than games.

Agreed, but I was curious none the less. The major question in my posting (about the output) was posed first

Well, as mentioned above, why not just rip a 'suite' of tracks into a single track using iTunes. Logically, it makes sense. Having several movements contained in a piece of classical music is theoretically still one piece of music. If they are assigned seperate track numbers, and shuffle is set on your CD player, they don't, ofcourse, play consecutively. I just don't think it is that big a deal, I think it is a bit 'nit-picky'

I am curious as to your definition of 'proper audio playback'? I sum it up this way . . . how many people out there can offord $1,500 ea Mission/Castle speakers, state of the art pre-amps, etc . . . the majority of the folks using iPods are using them as portable players, on the go, not as a plug in to a home stereo unit. I, on the other hand, AM planning on using it on my home system to replace my entire CD collection.

With that in mind, I have researched it a lot, and have found that the iPod is an extremely easy, quality, decent sounding device that, coupled w/iTunes, makes for a very easy, efficient, quality method of musical reproduction. I am planning on encoding all of my content at AAC 192 Mbps and feel that although not completely transparent by many audiofile standards, this will suffice for my Sony 250w surround receiver/Bose 301 Bookshelf home stereo configuration. I even plan to upgrade possibly to a pair of B&W D603's, replacing the Bose units, and I am not the least bit concerned of transparency issues at the above mentioned encoding rate. Should I be?

I'm in the process of going to FLAC, thus making a mass 160Kbps iTunes AAC encode easy in the future. I wish I could go higher, but I want to fit all of my CDs onto a 40 GB iPod... Hopefully Apple releases a true VBR AAC codec in the next few months, so that I am encoding the most efficient way.

A $25 portable CD player can play an album correctly, while a $400 Ipod cannot. I'm talking about gapless playback.

This kind of logic may work for classical music, but what about, say, a trance CD that's composed of a bunch of different songs by different artists that are mixed together continuously? Also, the slightest gap in this sort of album is very annoying.

Not really. Direct access to different tracks is necessary. Even "purist" are shouting when a CD comes without any track (it's very rare, and that's why all editors are using tracks, sometimes more than 100 for one lyrical piece).

I can't understand why manufacters are so negligent about gapless playback. All audio devices before MP3 players were able to do that: vynil, tape, CD, and even MD! Since the beginning of the 80', consumer has the possibility to switch with precision and very quickly from one point to another (CD, MD). Mono-file ripping is just a 25 year regression. Even for classical music listeners (and maybe especially for them).

Probably because 99% of people who buy mp3 players don't care about gapless playback.

I guess that's the same with portable MD players... nevertheless Sony thought and made gapless and real audio players.

Apple are currently selling iPods at a rate faster than they can make them. Obviously "proper audio playback" isn't a priority at the moment because 95% of the population don't care that there's a 1 second pause between tracks. And if it bothers them that much they can just encode the whole CD thing as a single track

I'm sure it would be possible to add, as would vorbis/flac/mpc/wma support, but why bother - the only thing that may increase is the "days to ship" time at the Apple Store. The amount of people who would buy an iPod over another device because of these features is probably not enough to offset the costs of development and support anyway.

Does anyone have further information an the "speed adjustment" feature, I've heard of?
This seems to be interesting and how good it really is - because it's usually a trade-off between complexity and quality. Does it change the pitch?

Fortunately, there's enough of us who do care that a company who makes a better alternative at a lower price can still make money.

* hugs Karma *

I think the concept of mp3 players (in many people's minds) may be been so they can make compilations of their favourite music, which for there would be no theoretical use for gapless playback (unless you're making trance mp3 cd's where gapless is usually a must)

Nothing wrong with that, people can buy MD players then. Everyone who wants an iPod will buy an iPod.

Well said....well said.

Supposedly it doesn't change the pitch, but it only works for audio books.

But you can change the extension from .m4a to .m4b (at least with the older generations) and "create" an audiobook.

My new 20 GB iPod arrived today. Damn nice looks But when I peeled off the protective plastic that covers the clickwheel, it left a lot of sticky remnants. I had to clean with some methylated spirits

hmm...so far so good though. It comes up as a USB HD in windows and copying files to and from seems quite easy so it's quite nice as a removable HD. Though very slick, holding in your hand gives me the feeling that it's very fragile and fingerprint-prone. I should've got the carry case I guess.

The Apple earphones look pretty cheap but the sound seems quite different to my Sony's. I don't know which sounds better...just know they sound different.

So far, I've been very happy with it.

I purchased a 40 GB 4G iPod this week and I love it! I think the real benefit is the combination of iTunes and the iPod. I have so far ripped approx. 50 CDs in a few days, and it is just so simple. Syncing w/the dock is easy, too. Encoding at AAC 192 Kbps. I have tested several titles from many genres against the original CD, and have yet to notice ANY discernable differences!!! Have tested through a pair of Bose 301s and old Sony Studio quality headphones.

I have used the LAME plugin in the past on my G3, but it was so slow, I barely encode in MP3 on OS X now. I have not tested the plugin on my new G4 eMac yet, but the G3 would be lucky if it hit 1.0x!

Does anyone have any information about the purported hidden features in the 4Gs that Apple is allegedly going to ignite sometime in the near future?

Nothing but speculation about "hidden features", which originated from this article.



I have to say that if it's meant to be that amazing the only reason I can think of why Apple wouldn't have annouced yet, is if they have to wait for the production of some form of accessory. (ie radio)

Or may be it's going to require major work on their part, I assume for instance that if they implimented gapless it would require them to re-encode the entire iTMS library. But I think that my just be wishful thinking on my part As I doubt that it would take them weeks/months to transcode their music library, unless of course they didn't rip to lossless first

dman hope the fix the big gaps/clicks between mp3 tracks at playback