Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
Back in 2003 or 2004, when the iPod was just becoming the dominant mp3 player, there were dozens of posts to usenet newsgroups (which still had some residual utility at that time) arguing that some other mp3 player was better than the iPod because it had more features, such as line-in recording or an FM radio...as if you could determine the best player by listing all of their features and the one with the longest list was the best.
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Actually, certain of those players did sound better than the iPod. And the iRiver's digital line out gave it the ability to do something the iPod has only been able to do since the release of the Cipher Labs AlgoRhythm Solo this year: be connected to a small battery-powered DAC and amp for portable home-stereo-quality sound.
Don't misunderstand me -- I like the iPod and still own one which was modded by Red Wine Audio in exchange for a review. But I won't be buying a Touch.
Yes, iPods tend to be durable (in my experience) and inexpensive if you buy them at the right time, and acquire more features through third-party solutions than Apple's lockdown would ever be able to prevent.
But the Neuros II and the iHP140 were better sounding devices, and their extra features could be incredibly important. Portable digital recording, for example, which got me through the sonic abyss between DAT machines and the modern flash recorder (since Minidisc was a locked digital format until the very end of its life cycle).
There was custom (linux-based) firmware that could theoretically turn 3rd-gen iPods into recorders (Podzilla, I believe), but you needed a custom hand-built dock to make it work at all. And no third party ever offered such a dock for that generation, which tells you something about how well recording was likely to work.