Hi-fi your iPod

The Apple iPod. All 100million of 'em. A brilliant piece of kit, but not perhaps the first choice for the hi-fi buff. Used properly, though, and the Apple iPod becomes a lot more than just your music collection carried round with you; it becomes a high-quality mobile music server, and something that even the most hi of hi-fi snobs would struggle to poke fun at.

Choose your weapon
If you want your iPod to speak audiophile, you have to start with the right iPod. Right now, the best balance of price vs performance (but mostly performance) comes in the Classic shape. The iPod Touch and Nano are both fine for normal listening use, but lack the storage capacity of the 120GB Classic.

iTunes desktop

Now that you have an iPod, you need a method of putting music on it. Apple's own iTunes media player software is the logical choice, being free, platform agnostic (no Linux, though) and easy to drive. But if you feel you are getting too chummy with Apple, there are alternatives; Media Monkey mediamonkey.com is popular with PC users, while Songbird songbirdnest.com may be in Beta, but seems to run well on PC, Mac and Linux boxes. If you are planning on a non-Apple media player to run your iPod, it's often best not to have the iPod handshake with iTunes first, to make sure the way the media player sorts its file structure is not compromised (Floola - floola.com - allows you to transfer songs to and from an iPod, but will not work with iPods that have been touched by the latest version of iTunes). For the purposes of simplicity though, we'll stick with iTunes for now.

A curious quirk of iTunes is Apple's failure to understand the importance of error correction when ripping CDs to the media player. It also defaults to 128kbps AAC (Advanced Audio Coding… a sort of SuperMP3) as standard. Neither of these settings are acceptable for hi-fi grade listening. Instead, go to the Preferences drop-down menu, and click the Import Settings button on the General box that appears.

iTunes import settings

Now change the 'Import Using' setting from 'AAC Encoder' to either 'Apple Lossless Encoder' or 'AIFF Encoder' (we prefer AIFF to WAV, because AIFF includes all the metadata about a track as standard). You can adjust the AIFF Encoder (using the 'custom' button directly below) to look specifically for 44.1kHz sampling, 16-bit precision recordings on CD, but 'auto' works well enough. Now beneath these two options is an unchecked box marked 'Use error correction when reading Audio CDs'. Turn this on.

Error correction works to read and re-read the disc to overcome the problems that scratches can cause the CD ripper. It also means the ripping process slows down considerably and makes the transfer of data from disc to iTunes smoother. It can also mean that some discs sound better when encoded, because normal CD players would be straining at the error correction process. The downside is that it now takes you almost as long to rip the disc as it does to play it (sometimes even longer)… such is the price you have to pay for your buffdom.

The choice between AIFF/WAV and Apple Lossless is a tougher one. As it uses data-compression, Apple Lossless does shrink file sizes by a not inconsiderable amount - typically between 40-60 per cent - and that can mean a lot more CDs on your iPod. In tests, few have ever been able to hear the difference between an uncompressed AIFF track (essentially the CD track, redrawn for computers) and a losslessly compressed Apple Lossless track, but that will probably still not impress those who find it intellectually impossible to accept compressing music formats.

iTunes preferences

Sound on the move
One of the problems with iPod is that the volume control is limited on EU models. This is a good thing if you want to keep your hearing when listening on Apple's own relatively high-gain earphones, but less fine if you want to use other headphones. The built-in amps in the iPod don't cut the mustard, making sounds quiet and bass-light, especially on larger diaphragm headphones.

The fluctuating pound and dollar make personal imports less exciting these days, so the best bets are UK-based. The Boostaroo is cheap and cheerful, giving up to 4dB increase in gain (making it a little more than twice as loud, in theory, but Boostaroo claims a 40 per cent loudness increase). The audiophile-grade alternative is the Graham Slee Voyager, which is the size (and cost) of an iPod Classic in its own right, but gives up to a whopping 10dB boost.

Headphones for iPods are a very personal issue, but many find something like the Grado SR80 to be an excellent open-backed, full-sized alternatives to earphones, while others love the enclosed sounds of closed dynamic cans like the Sennheiser HD25 and some like the full in-ear squidgyness of the Etymotic ER4.

And then there's the noise-cancelling headphones; great for planes and automobiles, if not so good for trains; and Sennheiser's PXC range is excellent for this. Rather than make any firm recommendations, put your ears under a range of headphones and try to find the ones that make the best sound and are the most comfortable for your budget.

The hi-fi connection What if you want to add your iPod to a hi-fi system? As a fixed server, it has little to offer in fairness. You are constantly having to walk over to the iPod to read the menu screen and the built-in analogue converter and amplifier section that speaks to most docks lets the side down. Fortunately Wadia's 170iTransport breaks with convention. It allows you to get to the digital audio side of the iPod and wire this directly to a digital-to-analogue converter. The downside to this is two-fold; the Wadia 'dock' is very, very expensive (c £400) and accessing the digits seems to slow down the iPod interface (but does not damage the iPod).

It also means you have to buy a separate DAC (or use one built into an amplifier or receiver). Good DACs start at around £200 for the excellent Cambridge Audio DacMagic, and quickly rise exponentially in price. You could try the PS Audio DLIII (£800) or the Cyrus DAC X (£1,200), but we think the law of diminishing returns will kick in rapidly after the DacMagic. Fortunately, connecting the Wadia to any DAC is simple and only needs one lead - much less hassle than trying to wire in a proper music server!

Audiophile iPod docks Three to try Fatman iTube 452, £1,500 Not just an iPod dock, but a whole 25-watt valve amplifier in a very bling style… just add loudspeakers for wonderful sound, though at a bit of a price.
Krell KID, £1,350 Krell's Interface Dock is a high-grade preamp for iPods and treats the signal with the respect it can sometimes deserve.
Wadia 170iTransport, £350 Finally, someone managed to crack the digital interface in the iPod, and the result is as good as you can get… if you use a fine DAC.