Bono, Steve Jobs, etc.

[Carvill, John]

Yes indeed, MP3 file are mostly to be avoided. 

Obviously, the fact that you get supplied with really crap earphones when you buy an ipod means that most people who care at all about music will upgrade. Yet a huge number of people (maybe the majority) who buy iPods use the supplied earphones, and they probably use highly compressed MP3 files also, so their listening experience is multiply degraded, therefore the general population's experience of music has been significantly degraded. Probbaly the average ipod owner would get a better listening experience from an old Walkman.

I have an old ipod, 5G I think, and a slightly newer one, with a bigger hard disk, that still has the old sound chip. I have compared these with the new 'iPod classic' generation and, although I was skeptical at first, had to agree with the (many) people who have noticed a big change in how the ipods sound. As someone put it, the new ones sound like you are listening "through a kind of electronic gauze".

I'm not anti-ipod. How could I be? But the iPod, as opposed to the generic MP3 player, does not have any real advantages beyond, arguably, improved aesthetics. Plus the pose factor of course.

The whole cult of Mac is creepy. EWverybody hates Windows and Microsoft, and that's just how it should be of course. But this love of Apple is baffling, they're just as corporate and just as willing to cosy up to Them as Microsoft.




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of Keith
Sent: 06 January 2010 14:45
To: pynchon -l
Subject: Re: Bono, Steve Jobs, etc.

On Jan 6, 2010, at 1:29 AM, Carvill, John wrote:

Well, what is it that  the ipod adds to that experience
that another MP3  player lacks?
-------------------------------------------------

First off - 160G for $230. Most of my music collection with me at all  
times.

But, yeah, I would never listen using Ipod earphones. I use Etymotic.
When I use a speaker dock I use the fantastic Klipsch iGroove. Plus
I use AAC files to download music, not MP3. Even my anti-iPod audiophile
friends are surprised when they hear what comes out of my iPod.