The Apple iPod headphones dilemma

Ipods suck. More precisely, songs compressed into 128 kbps AAC, WMA or MP3 files suck literally. Compression sucks out highs and lows and everything in-between creatively clueless compression algorithms believe is extraneous noise.

So if the music on you iPod is a mere shell out as much as advertised. People don\'t realize how good their music really sounds. Today\'s compression schemers are much better than their predecessors, agrees our audio technician. “When MP3 was originally introduced, it was convenient. As it grew in popularity, a growing number of programmers came up with ways to utilize this format spec to reproduce audio in a truer fashion.”

Okay, so maybe we\'ve been a bit hyperbolic. So what makes free earphones bad and more expensive better?

As to the former, Apple\'s free stick ear phones “don\'t even properly represent the lowest compression ratios,” opines Mike our technician. “Even at a low bit-rate there is a lot of information that is bottle-necked and lost on inferior speaker technology.”

Most free earphones use a dynamic transducer that are challenged by higher frequencies, even those left after compression. So-called “balanced armature” transducers, used in many higher-end phones, have a lower mass and respond far more quickly to subtle and more rapidly changing signals.

Of course, not all digital music is compressed at 128 kbps. “The sophisticated iPod user has probably been loading uncompressed WAV files into their iPod for all their important music,” asserts our audio technician. And as iPod hard drive capacity expands, needs for compression disappears and the need for a higher-quality head phone rise.

And as unbelievable as it may sound, you may want a better set of headphones for listening to something other than an iPod. “Many artists are recording in hi-def mediums like SACD or DVD,” noted our techno Mike. “Radio is beginning to switch to HD. You need a really well designed set of headphones to take advantage of these.”

Well, maybe iPods don\'t suck. Just the free headphones.