I have a 60 GB iPod crammed with stuff, but I hardly ever use it. Basically it only gets some love when I go on trips. I have a lot of old favorites on there, but probably a higher percentage is comprised by stuff I’ve downloaded that I feel I should listen to at some point. Some of these actually get some listens on road trips, but I find that in general the favorites see more use, and this is particularly so if the trip involves camping. When I’m laying in a tent on the ground in the cold crisp air they have outdoors nowadays, listening to the wind in the trees and hoping that bears or rabid raccoons don’t attack me for the toothpaste residue in my whiskers, I seem to almost always head back to the dense textures, hypnotic melodies, and comforting gauzy vocals of the shoegazer genre. Here’s what I listened to in the tent last night.
My Bloody Valentine “Come In Alone”
Chapterhouse “Love Forever”
The Telescopes “Celeste”
I’m with you on MBV. I used to love riding my bike around Houston on a nice fall or even winter day listening to that album. “Sometimes” is a perennial favorite of mine.
Not to move off-topic too much, but does anyone have one of the 120 GB iPods? I’d read reviews that they didn’t sound as good as the previous generation 60 or 80 GB ones, and I’m trying to confirm (or not). I’m interested in upgrading before they completely phase the iPod out, because oddly enough, my 60 GB just isn’t enough for me anymore.
No personal experience on the 6G iPods, but here’s some interesting info:
http://homepage.mac.com/marc.heijligers/audio/ipod/comparison/measurements/measurements.html
Interesting… I don’t understand most of those graphs, but the visual differences between the 6G and the 5G are obvious, and the lack of differences between the 6G pre- and post- new firmware are also disappointing. I was just wondering because I really wanted to get a larger iPod, but I’ve read many reviews saying that they changed the DAC between 5G and 6G, and that contributes to a “thin, metallic sound” which I guess was pretty much perfectly demonstrated in that link. Damn. I really love the sound of an AAC file on a 5G. The MP3 sound may still be a little mushy, but the AAC file sounds pretty much perfect to me.
What bitrate do you use for AAC? I’ve been using the LAME mp3 codec with the -V2 VBR setting, but was thinking of maybe using AAC for ripping some of my CD’s.
Whatever the basic rate is, I think it’s 128 or something like that. AAC is just a far more efficient file than an MP3, so it sounds better at a much lower bitrate, which saves space and improves sound quality, relative to an MP3. I rip MP3s at 196 and still think the AAC files sound better.