09-22-2010, 09:44 PM
DRR wrote:
The DAC is a good one (again, for a portable device) but once you start compressing the signal you're going to lose quality. Still, 320kbps AAC preserves probably 95%+ of lossless quality, and to even get close to achieving that you're going to need studio monitor headphones anyway.
iPods supports AIFF, WAV, and Apple Lossless, all of which are uncompressed formats.
And, as you'll see above, most iPods have DACs that are comparable to or better than those in even high-end CD players.