As you can imagine, I visit my share of audio related websites. At least once a month, an argument comes up about whether anyone can tell the difference between lossy and lossless files and at one bitrate does lossy become transparent. Many of the websites have members that say they can tell the difference, but that gets to be a bit sketchy. I remember one guying saying he could hear more air in a FLAC (lossless) vs wav file (lossless). Since the FLAC is bit for bit identical to the wav, he was either suffering from placebo or a computer that had issues. Obviously, he was challenged with those saying he needed to set up an ABX test and then decide.

I started thinking about these ABX tests and the difficulty in setting them up and what they really say about lossy vs lossless. If I am listening to Men At Work’s “Who can it be now” and it sounds the same at 256kbps, does that tell me that I will not hear a difference when listening to Mahler Symphony No. 4 at the same bitrate? I doubt it. So does it make sense to listen to every song in your collection in several formats before deciding what is transparent?

I have a much easier solution. When you rip a file for archiving, use lossless formats. You can get a terabyte external hard drive for less than $70 these days. It takes any reason for ABXing out of the equation. It gives you the ability to transcode to different formats later without having to get the CD out of the closet. In short, it eliminates any guess work and allows you to enjoy the music without wondering if the compressed instrument sound is coming from a bad CD mastering or from your own lossy compression.

I know, sometimes lossy compression is necessary. I listen to MOG and they use 320kbps for streaming to a PC. I have no control over what they use, so it is of little consequence that I am not getting lossless. MOG uses the highest bitrate of any pay service, so I know I have gone as far as possible in getting good sound from that source. SiriusXM and Pandora use lower bitrates and the sound quality often suffers. However, at some point, you decide that the trade off is worth it or not.

In short, use lossless for archiving when you can and then use lossy only when you need it. I know some people will say that their mp3 players will only hold 8GBs of music, so they have to use lossy. In that case, you have made the choice that you are willing to sacrifice sound quality for having more portable music. Decide how many files you need and adjust your compression to fit. Even if you are at 64kbps, you know you will be making some sacrifices and have determined it is worth it to carry more music. If the sound quaity is unbearable, then try a higher bitrate the next time you load up the player. Fortunately, you have the lossless version archived, so you can transcode to a higher lossy bitrate, if necessary. Personally, I have an iPhone and store a select number of my own files in lossless and stream the lo-fi stuff from other sources. Even with my Sanza Fuze (8GBs), I use FLAC. I just know I am going to be changing out music more often. Not a big deal.

I have waxed philosophically about my love for the Rhapsody music service. The ability to play albums from hundreds of thousands of artists, create playlists, have the music available anywhere using my iPhone, etc. was one of the greatest things I had used since the beginning of the digital age. However, there was always something missing….

Along comes MOG

While I was not really looking for a Rhapsody replacement, somehow MOG caught my eye and it was love at first site. My main issue with Rhapsody has always been the low bitrate that they made available. While MOG and Rhapsody both use a pathetic 64 kbps to stream to the iPhone (MOG has a better plan for Androids on wireless or 4G), MOG allows the user to download directly to the iPhone at 320 kbps. So, if you want to listen to an album in high quality, you just download it first, then play it. I believe Rhapsody uses 64 kbps even if you download first.

While the iPhone quality is important and I wish that MOG would stream at 320kbps to the iPhone when on wifi, the main benefit is the streaming via computer. In that case it is 320 kbps all the time. This beats the 192 kbps that I believe Rhapsody uses. For people like myself that love music, the much higher bitrate is a huge advantage over Rhapsody.

There are some benefits to Rhapsody that should be known. They have a lot more products with their service built in (MP3 players, networked DVD players, receivers, etc). My Denon receiver has Rhapsody built right into the GUI, so if I want to listen, I can just get the receiver’s remote and go to Rhapsody. For me, this is great because I do use that feature. However, I have a Mac Mini hooked up to the Denon receiver, so I can just use Splashtop remote to control my Mini from the couch with the iPad if I want to keep the TV’s display off. Rhapsody’s Mac GUI leaves something to be desired, so I hope MOG works better with my Mac Mini. I no longer have a Windows PC plugged into my home theater, so I am hoping the change makes a difference in this area, as well (I will post about it when I subscribe to MOG).

There is also a difference it the plans. With Rhapsody, you pay around $14.99 to put the app on three devices. However, while you can download music to all three devices, you can only stream to one device at a time. The main issue I have run into is that it can only be installed on three devices, so when I put it on my iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, I had to remove the license from my Creative Zen W. From what I understand, MOG allows their app to be installed on an unlimited number of devices (which I prefer), but you can only stream to one at a time (like Rhapsody). I don’t believe MOG works with players that don’t stream (Creative, Sanza, etc..), so that does come into play when comparing the two services. The MOG streaming + downloading option costs $9.99 a month. There are cheaper plans for both services.

While I am only using the trial version of MOG right now, I did look at their video on their website. Their playlist and radio options look incredible. For example, when you listen to Rhapsody’s James Brown channel, you have a lot of other artists blended it. You do not have the ability to just listen to only James. However, with MOG you get the option to only listen to James, listen to James and few other artists, or James and lot of other artists. The computer application actually has a slider built in that gives you the ability to select how many other similar artists you want them to play. That is really cool!

Finally, I think Rhapsody is a great service and I have singed their praises for years. However, I want quality sound quality and that is the main reason I am switching to MOG.

My canned response related to Apple products that I own

Back in 2003, I bought my first iPod. It was the 2nd Gen version that had a firewire port and predated iTunes on the PC. It was one of the few models out at the time that had 20GB of storage space. Over the course of time, I have gathered a few more products (Shuffle, iPod Classic, iPod Touch, iPhone 3GS, Airport Express, and iPad, respectively). In my quest for more information related to gadgets and audio, I participate in a few online forums. What amazes me is that whenever I mention any Apple product, I get some ludicrous comments from one or more members. As a result, I am creating this blog entry to put in my signature link that can respond to these comments without derailing every thread in which an Apple product is mentioned into a debate about Apple.

Below are some of the most common comments and my reponse to them. If you want to add further comments, use the comment button, send me an email, or PM over your issue using the forum where you got this link, and I will try to answer the comments here:

1. You are an Apple Fanboy - this is by far the most common comment to any of my (or others) posts related to Apple devices. The comment is meant to imply that I only like Apple products because of some sort of blind loyalty to the company. This would make sense if I did not also own two portable players by Creative and own several computers running Windows.

2. Apple products are gimmicky – I think some people confuse ease of use and cutting edge devices as gimmicky. iPod hit the scene back in 2001. By 2007, over 100 million iPods had been sold. A gimmick is a “quirky feature that distinguishes a product or service without adding any obvious function or value”. Most people do not think of ease of use, apps for everything, 160GB hard drive space, etc.. as quirky features.

3. Faddish - A fad usually means that it is a product that is fashionable for a short period of time and then disappears. The iPod is not going anywhere. Also, I would argue that other players are much more faddish. An iPod is about as common as wearing socks. A SanDisk player (for example) is much more likely to be faddish because of their small market share and its flavor of the month status in some circles.
Edit: Woot had a deal on SanDisk Sansa Fuze and I bought one for comparison purposes. It was cheap, which is its main benefit and has decent EQ choices. Personally, I don’t think portable devices and EQ work that well together unless you live near a subway or have to take a bus and just want to mess with settings. I still prefer the iPod Touch because it is much better at a lot of stuff. Also, I don’t think it needs EQ out of the box like the Sansa. From what I understand, there are very good EQ apps available at the Apple app store, but I have not tried them.

4. Trying to look cool - Many have their own interpretations of “cool”. However, if owning an exceptional product is part of being cool, then I guess some buy them for the coolness factor. However, they are only cool because the product is viewed by the buyer as an exceptional device.

5. Trendy – How trendy can something be when 100 million+ devices have been sold? Once again, iPods have been around for 10 years. If they are still trendy, it is because of their exceptionalism when compared to the rest of the market. There is also news out that the iOS devices have now sold over 100 million, too.

6. Build Quality is suspect – I am sure every brand of electronic device has had an example of it being broken or just stopped working at some point. I still own a fully functional 2nd Gen iPod. So, from that perspective, I would say that this iPod is exceptionally well built. My 1st gen shuffle also works like it did the day I bought it.

Also, the fact that the popularity has not diminished seems to point to the fact that people are happy enough with the product to buy a new version of one. This is extremely common for iPhones and iPods. If people were miserable with the build quality, why would they buy the new version when it came out? There are many other options…many that appear to be copied directly from Apple. The fact is that the build quality is good enough for most people.

Sound quality sucks – I think that this is marketing hype put out by companies trying to get some market share. The fact is that sound quality is in the ear of the beholder. I would not argue if someone claimed that they prefer the sound of a Fisher Price record player to a VPI Scout. It is their opinion. The fact is some like tubes, some like solid state, some like analog, and some like digital. Its not an absolute. However, Apple makes some of the most flexible players if you want to improve on the small amps and DACs in a portable player.

There are many LODs (line out docks) that skip the internal amp to send the sound to a better portable amp (PA2V2 and Fiio E5 are two products I own). Also, if you want to spend the money, you can get a Pure, Wadia or Onkyo dock that will allow you to dig out the digital stream and send it to a better DAC (digital to analog converter). Most portable players have no way of doing this.

For the iPad, you can get the camera connector and send out a digital signal to a DAC via USB. Once again, this is not possible on most devices. While some people may appreciate Sony’s tweaked sound (for example), the fact is that most of their players do not even support compressed lossless formats (FLAC, WMA Lossless, etc..). As a result, the source file is lossy and I would argue garbage in/garbage out.

Edit (1/9/11) For the record, the iOS devices will now play FLAC if you want to download the FLACPlayer or one of the other apps in the Apple Store that make it possible. Personally, to me, lossless is lossless and I have no problems with ALAC.

Edit (1/9/11): Apple has made the USB a little more of a pain to use with unpowered devices. It now requires a T3hub (which tricks it) to work with my uDac. However, they added Airplay which gives it (and iPhones and the iPod Touch running the latest firmware) the ability to stream audio from the the iOS device to the AppleTV, Airport Express, certain receivers and speakers. I did an update for my Denon 4311CI receiver and I just tell the iPad to send the audio stream to my receiver and it will turn on the receiver and begin to play music. It also has volume control right on the iOS device. What other company makes devices with this type of flexibility? Also, best of all, this update from Apple was FREE!

(Edit) Apple is great at marketing – Yes, they have features the other guys don’t (or didn’t before they were copied), so it is easy to market them. Also, no one is saying Sony can’t market its mp3 players, but somehow they can market the PS3. Maybe marketing works better if you have a unique device that has features no one else has?

While the above are general comments that appear in any discussion of any Apple device, here are some popular comments related to specific products:

iPhone
The iPhone requires a jailbreak to be useful - OS4 should have put an end to this complaint. With it, you now have multitasking…which is the reason I jailbroke my 3GS. While many gadget fiends like myself will jailbreak, mod, and push a product past its basic commercial limits, it does not mean these products are useless before geeks get ahold of them.

There are better phones on the market - I don’t think there is a better phone for me. I like to have functionality across platforms. For instance, I download the Orb app to my iPhone. I then sync it to my computer. After that, I sync my iPad and iTouch to my computer and now I have Orb on all three devices. It is simplicity at its best. I also like the way the “Remote” app integrates with iTunes on my computer.

iPad

Here are a couple to address some concerns:
Its a big Touch – umm…yeah…that is why I wanted it. If someone wants to argue that a 3.5 inch screen is better than a 9.7 inch screen for anything visual, I would just have to say they are a liar. Fortunately for the iPad, the 9.7 inch screen makes it better for Netflix, Orb, ABC, USA Today, Pulse, Zinio, Pandora, etc.. The Touch is only more portable…but comes in handy when you need a pocket device and don’t own an iPhone.

A netbook does more – Who cares? My laptop does more than a netbook. My swiss army knife does more than my butcher knife. The question is what you use it for and how well it does those tasks. Have you tried chopping meat with a swiss army knife? Most people have netbooks for quickly getting on the net. They like them for their portability and battery power when compared to a laptop. However, it has a keyboard that takes up half the space. As a result, the iPad is easier to read on, carry from room to room, and it is faster to boot up. In other words, a netbook may do some things that iPad doesn’t, but I would use it much less… We own an MSI netbook and I would gladly trade it in for another iPad. At this point, I also use it A LOT more than my fairly new laptop. Form factor is everything!

iPod Classic 160GB – I rarely post about this product, but I have a good reason for selecting it instead of Cowon (which I also like). My car has a plug in that works with iPods. It allows the user to control what is playing (via genre, playlist, album, artist) using the head unit or the steering wheel controls. There is not another brand that will work with it, so it is what it is. However, the fact that so many accessories (I also have a Sendstation pocket dock for attaching my iPhone to my car’s USB input) are made specifically for Apple devices makes them more user friendly than other devices. I should also mention that I wanted 160GB, so I could use lossless files.

Ipod Touch – I got one of these while I was locked into using a Treo on Sprint. The apps and the wifi capabilities are incredible. While I rarely use it since I got an iPhone, it is what got me interested in apps and the iPhone. It also has an LOD output that allows it to be used with outboard amps. The new version also works with airplay.

Airport Express – Inexpensive music server. Unlike the Roku Soundbridge I also own, it does not take up any desktop space. It can be controlled using the Remote app. Edit (1/9/11) It also supports Airplay which means I can fire up audio on my iPad and it will play it back on this device.

While I am not saying that Apple devices are perfect, AT&T for the iPhone in the USA is an issue (Edit..obviously, Verizon now has the iPhone, too), I am saying that making a bunch of ignorant comments about them anytime they are mentioned serves no purpose…other than derailing threads to a point that the original post is no longer being considered. Admit it, Apple makes some decent products.

(Since I lost all of my old articles, thanks to moving to a new host, I am reposting some of my old articles…Thanks to Google for the ability to get the old articles from their cache.)

I received an ATV2 (Apple calls it Apple TV, but it is the second edition I am referring to) for Christmas, so I thought I would post a blog about it to explain why I wanted one, why you might want one, and even why you might not want one.

1. Why did I want one?

The combination of price and features comes to mind. The ATV2 is less than $100, so it is not the most expensive piece of equipment in my home theater. For the $100, I mainly wanted it to integrate with iTunes on my computer, run Netflix, and hopefully add some future apps to make it even better.

The iTunes integration and Airplay were the main reasons I wanted an ATV2. While I do have a Mac Mini hooked up to my home theater, the main issue is that you have to have the monitor on to change audio outputs. Why is this important? Well, when I want to watch movies in the living room, I use the HDMI output. However, sometimes when I listen to music, I use an outboard DAC (Digital to analog converter) that I like to use with the optical output of the Mini. To switch the output on the Mini, I have to go into a program called Soundsource to change outputs. The ATV2, on the other hand, sends digital audio through the optical and HDMI outputs simultaneously. With my iPad’s Apple Remote software, I can control the tunes and choose how I want to interact (with or without a display) with the ATV2 without worrying about settings.

The iTunes integration was easily what separated it from other similar machines on the market. I have over a thousand albums in Apple Lossless format and I wanted to easily listen to them on my main system. Also, the ability to setup interesting photo screensavers from my collection that would appear while music was playing made the setup fun to watch while listening to music (assuming I had the display on). Also, I have an EyeTV that will record from my DirecTV box and save the programs in HD format to my Mini. It will then convert the files to ATV2 format and place them in iTunes, if I desire. The iTunes integration allows me to watch movies, listen to music, and look at my own photos on the ATV2.

Airplay is a relatively new, innovative feature. It will take audio, photos, and video from some apps and stream the content from newer iOS devices to the ATV2. Since the ATV2 does not have apps for Pandora or Rhapsody, it is nice to just stream directly from the iPad to the ATV2 to listen to the music on my main system. The photo streaming also comes in handy. I can copy photos to my iPad while I am on vacation and see them immediately on my big screen without any cables and without dropping the files to a computer. I have tested the video feature with movies using the Apple video app and it works, but since I have access to the same video from my computer, it is not something I have tested extensively.

Some of the internet features are pretty cool, too. Of course, Netflix works great with the ATV2 and the interface is very easy to use. Same with Youtube. Something I didn’t expect that I would use all that much is the HD Podcasts. However, I really like them. I can pull up the latest shows from Leo Laporte, CNet, Engadget, numerous photo editing tutorials, etc…the number of tech friendly shows are never ending. There are other podcasts that I have not even tried yet, ranging from music podcasts, learning new languages, news, etc..

Using iPad as a remote is also great. The ATV2 comes with an extremely easy to use remote. However, I have my HT system feeding the displays in my office via HDMI. This means I can use the ATV2 from a different room, but the remote is not for going through walls. It is possible to setup a system that could make that work, but there is no reason. I simply pull up the Remote app on my iPad and control the ATV2 that way instead.

2. Why would you want one?

Well, if you have a lot of media in iTunes, own a newer iOS device (iPhone 3GS, 4G, or iPad), and want a way to connect to your main audio/video setup, it is pretty easy to justify the price. The additional ability to rent movies from the iTunes store, watch Netflix, etc.. is really just icing on the cake.

3. Why wouldn’t you want one?

a. You hate iTunes.

b. You don’t own an iOS device

c. You have other ways to receive the internet content in your setup or don’t care about watching internet content.

d. Very picky about video resolution – The ATV2 is not 1080p. It uses 720p and is a step down in quality from Bluray. I have seen some comparisons with some of the media streaming devices that handle 1080p and even though it is less than 1080p, it had less noise in the picture which made it look better overall.

e. You are very picky about getting bit perfect audio – A redbook CD uses a 16/44.1 signal and for the device to handle the signal without affecting it, the device also has to be able to put out a 16/44.1 signal. Unfortunately, the ATV2 resamples the signal to 48kHz. I thought twice about getting the ATV2 for this reason. I would MUCH prefer a bit perfect signal to send to a DAC. I did fill out a request on Apple’s website to fix this issue, but I would be very surprised if they changed it. It could be a hardware issue. That being said, I still think it sounds great. However, if I want to do critical listening, without worrying about what is being lost in the resampling,I will just have to use my Mini.

f. You listen to a lot of hirez music – Several websites are starting to offer 24/96kHz audio files for download. I have actually used HDTracks for this feature in the past. While I do believe hirez formats like Bluray/DVD-A (and SACD – uses a different standard than 24/96) offer better sound quality, I am skeptical of how much that has to do with the 24/96kHz signal. Many “audiophile” recordings are actually mixed with sound quality in mind, rather than loudness, so they can sound better because of the mix. A study was done by the Audio Engineer Society that pointed out that people could not tell the difference between a high rez recording and a mixed down version of the same file. I am not saying I support or don’t support their conclusions, but it should at least raise the question of whether it is worth losing a lot of convenience for a hi rez format. Personally, I just get the SACD/DVD-A out if I want hi rez.

g. You want features you can’t get on the ATV2 – There is already a jailbreak (a way to crack the code) for the ATV2 to give it more features that peope desire. For example, the regulation ATV2 only plays music from your library that are in a certain format and are stored in iTunes. However, programs like Plex and XBMC will transcode ATV2′s unacceptable formats to a format that the ATV2 can play, if you jailbreak the device. Personally, I am not going to go through the trouble of jailbreaking for this feature. I have a Mac Mini that works with Plex and XBMC now. Also, I have PS3 that works with other media serving software that also has this ability. Since I have numerous devices, I don’t need it to do everything. However, if you can only have one streaming device in your setup, and you don’t want to jailbreak, the ATV2 may not be the right fit for you.

As I have pointed out many times, just because millions of people like a device, it may not be the right fit for everyone. I really don’t expect a $99 device to be a powerful computer that can do everything. However, if you have the same reasons that I did for wanting one, you should be happy with the ATV2.

Well, my buddy that was carrying me along like a house guest that stays too long, finally dropped me after he decided to stop running his own sites. Kind of like selling the house and telling the “guests” that the new owners demand they leave. :) Anyway, I decided to switch over to GoDaddy hosting and it hasn’t been without its share of problems.

I lost all of my blogs in the process and lost the ability to put “www” in front of “blog.uofmtiger.com”, so any old links now take the person to an invalid page. GoDaddy claims that “blog.” replaces “www.”, so there is no way to have both. I would believe them if that is not how the site ran for years.

Anyway, “www’ is gone and all my old posts are gone, so I am starting off with a clean slate. Not really a big deal since I mainly blog about gadgets and sports and those subjects change daily anyway. I will probably post new reviews of some of the gadgets I have that are still relevant for someone thinking about joining in now, but you won’t ever see another review of the Palm Treo that I blogged about years ago. I doubt many people would care to read it and I wouldn’t remember the features at this point anyway.

Had some blog-site issues that I’m working to resolve. The blog will be back shortly, thanks for your understanding.