OT: Buying an iPod in Toronto: recommendations please

[James Knott]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 04:24:14PM -0500, James Knott wrote:
>   
>> As I mentioned in another note, the better headphones will only make it 
>> easier to hear the distortion.  You cannot hear better than what the 
>> source provides, no matter how good the equipment.  It's physically 
>> impossible.  MP3's work by removing a lot of the "unnecessary" sounds in 
>> the original.  With proper listening conditions, you can hear that 
>> difference.  Once that music has been compressed, the result is already 
>> more different from the original than any difference good quality 
>> equipment is likely to reproduce.  If you're talking about CD quality or 
>> better, then perhaps better phones will help.
>>     
>
> No, the better head phones just won't add to the distorsion.  The only
> reason you can't hear that the MP3 sounds slightly worse than a CD is
> because your crappy headphones already do far more damage to the sound
> than the MP3 did.  Good headphones let you hear everyting that is there,
> while crappy headphones won't let you hear everything properly so you
> simply loose a bunch of the music no matter what you are listening to.
>
>   

Perhaps we're having a language problem, but when have I ever suggested
using crappy headphones??? My point has always been that good headphones
are already better than MP3 sound and getting even better headphones
will not create any benefit, because the sound quality from an MP3 is
simply not their to begin with. Headphones cannot take a distorted
signal and make it better. They can only faithfully reproduce what ever
is presented to them. If that includes significant distortion, as MP3's
do, then they will reproduce that distortion. Claiming otherwise is to
ignore reality.



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