Performance
So how does the iPod Shuffle sound?? One word: Awesome.
First of all, I'm extremely surprised at how much Punch this little device has! You'd probably go deaf if you had the earbuds in and cranked up the volume to the maximum setting. Seriously. (p.s. I do NOT recommend you do that!). Once I turned it down to a suitable level, I couldn't believe my ears.
The clarity is absolutely amazing! When I closed my eyes, I could have SWORN that Diana Krall was tickling her grand piano and singing with her sultry voice right in my living room. The punk rock guitar riffs of Simple Plan sounded like there was a guitar in between my ears. It had me closing my eyes and playing my cherished Air Guitar. Ray Charles? I swear, he lives in my Shuffle!! I gotta give shouts out to my Makaveli brotha and Biggie. I even listened to some Bhangara songs, and it literally sounded like my ear drums turned into dhol drums! The clarity was so good that when Edison Chen was rapping in Cantonese, I could have sworn he was finally within punching distance!
All joking aside, this thing rocks. It's got amazingly powerful bass, and the highs are very sharp and crisp. The only time I had any sort of distortion was with the aforementioned preamp setting. Once I set it to zero, all the songs played back superbly. Talk about better than CD quality.
I cannot do the Shuffle justice within this review about how good the audio quality is. You'll have to go out and hear it for yourself. I haven't owned any of the other iPods before, but I've heard that each successive iPod improves on faults of each predecessor, and the Shuffle is no exception.
Another application where I use my shuffle is actually in my car. I've got an auxiliary input to my deck, where I've got a 3.5mm adapter at the end of it, which I used to plug in my PDA to output MP3s. Not anymore! I plug it into my Shuffle now, and I'm enveloped by beautiful sound! I've even got a custom-made, white leather holster on my e-brake, where my Shuffle sits for easy access. I had been looking at upgrading to an MP3 capable deck, but this little device will certainly suffice! The only issue is that I've had to crank up the volume on it, and crank up the volume on my deck as well. I hope to alleviate this issue when I install my 4-channel amp.
I also find myself wearing my Shuffle with the lanyard while playing PS2. Pretty cool to listen to tunes when throwing down nasty jam sessions in NBA Street V3, or weaving through the pack in my Skyline GTR in GT4.
One disclaimer that Apple explicitly states is that the built-in Lithium-Ion battery has a finite life span. (http://www.apple.com/batteries/). Which basically means that any device which uses this type of battery will die after a certain number of charges. Once that happens, you'll have to replace the battery. Now since the Shuffle's battery is built-in, and non-replaceable, that means that once the battery goes, it's game over! Well hold on, no need to jump ship just yet. This disclaimer is more or less just some legal ramblings to protect Apple in the odd event that your Shuffle dies on you. From what I've heard, it will take you quite a while to reach that point. They measure the life by how many charge cycles you do to the battery. So if you use 10% of the power each day, then charge it, it will take you 10 days before you complete 1 full charge cycle. Then we're talking about hundreds of charge cycles before the Lithium-Ion battery starts to dwindle. By that time, there will be even cooler gadgets for you to upgrade to. So don't even worry about it.
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