AudioSceptic
Major Contributor
Don't be too sure about the iPod. They all measured well, even the original ones with disk drives.I really appreciate you bringing some sense into obsessing too much about measurements. In the end, it is about what we can actually hear and the subjective listening experience. I did buy the RME ADI-2 DAC because of ASR (and the plethora of features), even though I would have been perfectly happy with something like a JDS Labs Atom combo. Last year I bought and tried the FiiO K5 Pro, and shortly after I saw measurements of it, which were relatively poor compared to the competition. I was really surprised, because I could not hear any hint of distortion, even near full volume, yet the measurements show quite a bit of distortion. In fact it sounded exactly like the JDS Labs Atom + Tone Board I was using. Even using my 9 year old 4th gen iPod Touch, my IEMs still sound great even though it's probably not the best measuring device in the world.
I very much appreciate ASR and Amir for all the hard work with maintaining the site and the hundreds of measurements, because it prevented me from considering something god awful like an Audio-GD DAC/AMP, which I was actually considering before I joined ASR. But there is a point I agree that we need obsess a little less over achieving state of the art measurements and more on the actual listening experience. I do agree FiiO needs to step it up, especially considering their older Q1 MkII is the better performer in all areas except for power over the Q5s.
<https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/ipod-touch-4g.htm#perf>
<https://archimago.blogspot.com/2016/09/retro-measure-2006-apple-ipod-classic.html>