A minor miracle (on a rope, at that).
Written: Feb 27 '05 (Updated Feb 27 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Size, size, and even less size.
Cons: Meager material quality, no LCD, lesser SQ than previous iPods.
The Bottom Line: When even Steve Jobs finally sees the light, how can one go wrong with the Shuffle? Well, there IS that lack of an LCD screen...
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| monoblocks's Full Review: Nokia N73 Smartphone |
Okay, so it's not Pope on a Rope (sorry, John Paul).
Once I became a card-carrying, full entrenched member of the Apple iPod universe, I had often longed for a simple flash player capable of handling AAC files for those times the bigger iPods wouldn't do. But it was well-known that Steve Jobs, the guru of everything Apple, publicly despised the things. The iPod Mini was the device that was supposed to put an end to flash MP3 players. Funny how things turn out.
The Mini, for all its virtues in compactness and lightness, still wasn't diminutive enough to steer the flash faithful away from the assorted flash memory-based digital audio players, or DAPs, like the MuVos, Rios, iRivers and countless other brands, generic to mainstream. Smallness does indeed match up very well against gigabytes, it seems. Even I continued to use my little non-AAC playing iRiver flash player even after making the switch to iPods from Nomad Zen and iRiver harddrive-based portables. Yes, smallness is quite the good thing when it comes to having to tote music around in this gadget-gone-mad world of ours.
In Apple's ever-continuing quest to corner the digital audio hardware marketplace, there had to have been an epiphany, given that 40 percent of portable digital consumers still sought out flash players over anything Apple had to offer on the harddrive side of the market. So, lo and behold, we have the iPod Shuffle, a flash device that apparently is oh so kewl and cute that most everyone has forgotten Jobs' earlier derisive remarks concerning the genotype.
The Shuffle. The miracle of product strategy backpedaling. And I couldn't be any more pleased.
For me it was not as difficult a task to buy one as the press reports made it out to be, but then I suppose timing is everything. Walk into an Apple Store a few days or so after they officially hit the market, sign up for a 1GB Shuffle (at the time I noted that on the sign-up sheet well over 90% wanted the less expensive 512MB version, which I think contributed to my success), and just over a week later one 1GB DAP with my name on it arrives at the store. Go back, pay Mr. Jobs and Co. their $150, and woo-hoo, I'm an owner of a Shuffle. All those poor souls who ordered them at apple.com and were STILL waiting for theirs three or four weeks later...sorry...I feel your dispair (well, not really...I'm such a horrible person...).
Initial Impressions
Pricewise, the Shuffle has to have made its competitors nervous, especially in the 1GB flavor I had chosen to buy. With 1GB of built-in storage, there are very few players on the market that retail at or less than the $150 price point that the 1GB Shuffle sells for (SanDisk's 1GB SDMX1 is a notable exception). The capacity will allow about 240 or so songs (ripped at a bitrate of 128k) to be stored on the player at any one time. The Shuffle is nearly 1/2 the cost of one stick of the 1GB Corsair XMS RAM modules I bought only a month earlier for the Athlon 64 FX-55 desktop gamer/multimedia box I'm building, and those can't play music without significant help, and certainly not while jogging. But while the Shuffle offers great storage value for the money, it does come at a cost in other areas and features.
Aside from the strikingly clean look, the first thing one should notice is the total lack of a display screen. Some have argued online that this should not be an issue, since the Shuffle is designed primarily as a random play device, where upwards of 240 or more songs are loaded into its flash memory. Set it and forget it (sorry, Ronco). Personally, my initial impressions of the Shuffle over this one issue were one of reluctance, though since purchasing and using the device over the past several weeks my anamosity over the lack of LCD screen has softened a bit, but certainly not entirely, which will be explained later on. Other features often found on more the expensive 1GB competition is FM radio, voice and/or line-in recording, and significantly improved battery life. While the Shuffle does have a rechargeable cell in place, it's not user-replaceable (I'm not even sure it's factory-replaceable, short of tossing the entire unit and supplying a new one). The competition often make do with AA or AAA cell-powered units; not as neat as the rechargeable kind admittedly, but also easier to find and replace, especially when one is away from a wall outlet (via the extra cost charger accessory) or a computer's USB/USB2 port. Plus, those little alkalines that the competition uses often work significantly longer before losing power. And forget FM and any sort of recording; neither are part of the Shuffle's base repertiore. As Apple sees it, this is strictly a digital music-playing machine, preferably using material purchased from Apple's online iTunes Music Store, as I'd hazard an obvious guess.
The Shuffle comes in a straightforward box not much different in size to an old double-thick cd jewel case. The box's retro green is oh-so-trendy, but since I survived the '70s once already, I certainly could do without the choice of the already sorely outdated lime color. Hardware-wise, included with the Shuffle is a set of earbud headphones though with the earbuds it's interesting to note that no protective foam pads were provided as they are with my other iPod players. Also included is the dreaded lanyard, an accessory of contention on quite a few iPod user forums, most generally for it's 'dorkiness' factor. This replaces the basic USB cap on the Shuffle when the unit is shipped, and like the television commercials show allows the player to be worn around the neck like a necklace. The Shuffle also comes with a cd-rom containing the necessary version of the iTunes software needed for use with the device, and an instruction manual. Being the non-conformist, pig-headed gadget guy I am, I totally ignored the cd-rom and instruction manual (they still exist very much sealed in the equally putrid lime green cardboard folder they came in), and went directly to playing with the Shuffle itself. Instructions? Who needs instructions? (A guy-thing, as my wife so-often calls it, though usually accompanied with more, ahem, colorful adjectives.)
The Shuffle comes in standard Apple White, housed with the same sort of plastic that is used on many of their other products, past and current. In terms of quality, the material is quite similar to the plastic Apple uses on their introductory line of G4 notebook computers and on their iMac G5s. Frankly the look of this plastic has never impressed me and instead gives off the impression of cheapness particularly when used on the laptops; on the Shuffle it doesn't exude anything different or better. Moreover, I found numerous complaints on iPod forums around the internet about how easy it is to scratch, and in use the gloss finish DOES INDEED scratch easily, though to me this is not as important an issue as it seems to be with others. Looking very much like a thick, stubby tongue depressor, the Shuffle's controls actually contribute to the impression, being minimalist of the sort like many basic flash players have. There's a raised circular master control on the front, containing the play/pause control, track skip forward and back, and volume adjustment. The top of the unit has a single stereo miniplug jack, while the back has a flush slider switch controlling power and play modes. Below that is a small flush button with an embedded LED that, when depressed, indicates the state of the charge life left in the internal rechargeable lithium-ion battery. At the bottom of the unit is the USB connection, protected by previously mentioned slide-off cap.
Test Driving The Shuffle
Charging up the iPod Shuffle is straightforward enough; all that was needed is a USB 2.0 port with power capabilities*. To connect the Shuffle, simply remove the USB cap and plug in to an available port. When properly connected, the Shuffle will light an embedded LED located just above the main controls on the front of the unit. During charging, the LED glows yellow or orange (depends on the opinion of the person trying to decide what color it is), and turns to green when the battery is fully charged, which took about two hours for the first charging session straight out the box. As with all iPods, the base method of getting music files to the Shuffle is Apple iTunes, which generally is one sweetheart of a file management program. But the computer can't actually DO anything with the Shuffle unless the appropriate version of iTunes is installed on the computer (version 4.7 or later), as I found out when I got a warning popup on my Windows XP Dell informing me that I needed to install the correct software. After a trip to the Apple website, downloading the latest version of iTunes, and installing Apple's ubiquitous program over my earlier iTunes application, the Dell no longer had any trouble whatsoever seeing and understanding the Shuffle.
(* I initially tried a USB 1.1 port since Apple states that's all that is needed, but doing so only gave me a Windows popup stating the device can be connected to a USB 2 port for better performance without any hint of charging the player whatsoever. There may some issues with my Dell that caused this, but the LED charging indicator fired up instantly after swapping the player to a USB 2 port.)
Within the freshly-installed compatible version of iTunes, I was initially confronted with the Apple's usual EULA screen, then asked to name the player. I was then given a choice of loading the Shuffle using the Autofill command, which uses several user-defined parameters to automatically select songs from the iTunes library to load onto the Shuffle, or manually loading files by selecting songs myself. Since our AAC filetype library contains music files for the differing musical tastes of the household, I elected to set iTunes so that I could manually transfer the song files I know I'll want to listen to. My first experiments with this device involved selecting a couple of dozen or so files from the main library, and using drag/drop of the files onto the Shuffle's listing in the source window in iTunes.
This is where the first revelation hit. Even though my Shuffle only charged with a USB 2.0 port it did not transfer files at USB 2 speeds, instead transferring at a speed closer to the slower USB 1.x rate. While waiting for dozen or so songs may be marginally acceptable, having to wait for 250 songs induces agitation and impatience, at least as I found out later on when finally stocking up the DAP for real use. Moreover, there is an irritating hesitation in the entire process that appears after the file tranfer appears to have completed, when iTunes reports that the Shuffle is being 'updated' and to avoid disconnecting the unit from the computer until finished. What exactly iTunes and the Shuffle is doing during this phase of the file transfer is unclear, but often when copying over a small handful of files this hesitation gives the appearance that makes it seem to take longer than the actual file transfer itself (as gauged by the report to the computer screen when iTunes displays that the files transferred as being completed, but that additional 'updating' is still ongoing).
To better manage what files I send to the Shuffle, I decided to create Shuffle-only playlists within iTunes, then use those to transfer the appropriate files. Like earlier iPods there's no means to delete songs without use of a computer, which is one ongoing point of contention that continues to irk me about iPod devices. However, given the simplified universe the Shuffle is expected to live in, to be fair I hadn't expected Apple to add this feature into the instruction set of its newest player. But it still would've been nice to have incoporated such a feature, especially given the nature of how this player is expected to see the sort of song turnover that's anticipated for its usage. It would be far more convenient to delete a tired or unwanted song file at the point of playback, rather than having to remembering it hours later when the Shuffle is actually connected back to its home computer and iTunes once again.
In use, the Shuffle is as simple to operate as they come; slide the power/play mode switch to on (exposing that "lovely" lime green color, painted or molded on the plastic beneath the slider itself). It should be noted that the flush power switch, especially when new, was not the easiest control to operate since it tended to stick and with only ample amounts of forceful persuasion (heavy squeezing to get enough pressure to move the slider) was I able to get the switch to move.
There are two play mode settings determined by the power switch, the first of which is a straight play-in-order mode, which is as flexible as one might expect from Apple. I discovered that when loading the songs with my Shuffle playlist (dragging the completed playlist and dropping it into the Shuffle's listing in iTunes) the order is based on whatever the playlist's songlist sequence was in within iTunes at the time the Shuffle was last updated with and dismounted from the management software, rather than only playing the music by the alphabetical order of the artist's name, for instance. In other words, had I decided to sort the songs in the playlist by song title, or by length of song or by any of the other ID3 values for that matter, and then updated the Shuffle, that would be sequence that the play-in-order mode would playback the files.
The second switch position invokes the random play (or shuffleplay in Applespeak) mode. The Shuffle, like all iPod devices, determines a randomized playing order for the available songs, and playback is generally set to that sequence. In effect this randomized order is somewhat predetermined, and unlike some of the other digital audio players like Creative's Zen family where subsequent songs are randomly determined as you go along (i.e., where while playing a series of songs in random play, if you skip back to the previous song then skip forward, you'll get a new song different than the one you started with before the skip back). Turning off and back on the Shuffle will not alter that; the player will remember the location where it was last left (it's just a position pointer in RAM after all), and will pick up playing from that point. To re-shuffle the songs into a new order, three quick clicks on the play button on the front of the Shuffle will re-parse the songs into a new playback sequence.
Revelation Number Two was almost as quick to come out as the one concerning transfer speed: the Shuffle, at least the one I have, does not sound as good as any of our previous iPod players. First using a pair of low end Sennheiser MX-500 earbuds and listening to a variety of different music types, much of it typically ripped as AAC files at a bitrate of 128k and at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (Apple's example file specifications that often are publicized as being typical of the sort that's used with the Shuffle, as well as the standard rates of digital files sold through the iTunes Music Store), it was plainly (and sometimes painfully as well) clear that the Shuffle could not produce an output analog signal as good as the 4G iPod I was using for back-to-back comparisons. Switching to a set of Sennheiser PX100s and later to a pair of Etymotic Research ER-4p earbuds only served to confirm my initial impressions of the Shuffle with the inexpensive but high listenable MX500s. While most rock and pop music suffers the least in head-to-head comparison (mostly because of the FM radio-biased mastering much of these genotypes suffers from), clean, finely recorded music like classical and jazz recordings tend to be point out the holes in the Shuffle's sound. I initially used Karrin Allyson's wonderful 'Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane' for my first comparisons. From the very first song, Allyson's sultry, longing voice was sliced in its range, with much of the character of her vocalization and detail uncomfortably compressed and muted. Just as noticeable was the lack of precision, presence and detail in the accompanying instruments, most obviously with James Williams' normally brilliant piano. Because I'm so familiar with this CD (for the past year and a half, I've been unable to find another disc that can wrestle away the spot in my in-dash Eclipse cd changer that 'Ballads' hold), I found it rather difficult to listen to on the Shuffle; it was that bad sounding, at least to me.
Switching to music less listened to (at least in terms of time passed since I last pulled out the CD to actually experience), I tried next AAC files from Weather Report's 'Heavy Weather' and Jaco Pastorius' anthology 'Punk Jazz' (specifically songs from his 1981 album 'Word Of Mouth'), ripped at a bitrate of 192k a year or so ago and sitting forlornly on the Dell's hard drive, waiting patiently for an iPod to be loaded onto. Both 'Heavy' and 'Word' were vinyl favorites of mine from two decades ago, neither of which I warmed up to with their cd versions; consequently it had been years since I last sat down and REALLY listened to either set. Being that the source content were older recordings and, at least with Weather Report, off an 1980s vintage CD which hardly has state-of-the-art mastering and sound, there's still enough clarity and detail to notice any issues with a music player. And it does help that the music is still somewhat familiar. Again, the Shuffle did not perform sonically as well as the 4G, though in this case I had been farther removed from the songs used and truthfully did not object as much to the relatively lackluster sound of the flash player as I was with Allyson's 'Ballads'.
I found the same was true when I listened to an older recording of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, as conducted by Sir Christopher Hogwood and performed by The Academy of Ancient Music. Instruments that were lively and bold on the 4G were now considerably flatter and dull in comparison with the Shuffle. When shifting to more contemporarily-mastered music, even selections from Johnny Cash's brilliant but unevenly recorded box set 'Unearthed' (AAC/128k), U2's brilliant MFSL UltraDisc II version of 'The Joshua Tree' (AAC/192k), Tony Bennett and k.d. lang's 'A Wonderful World' (AAC/128k), Norah Jones' stunning 'Come Away With Me' (AAC/192k), Rage Against The Machine's 'The Battle Of Los Angeles' (AAC/128k) and Sting's 'Brand New Day' (AAC/96k), all sounded dulled and less alive on the Shuffle. I was surprised that even the material ripped at a marginal rate of 96k was still noticeably lacking in sound quality on the Shuffle. I then borrowed my wife's iPod Mini and randomly made comparisons with music she listens to against those same files on the Shuffle; same outcome, same lower audio performance.
At this point I was tempted to begin comparing the Shuffle against my old, battle-scarred iRiver iFP-390, but one of the main reasons I bought the Shuffle was because of its ability to play AAC format files, which the iRiver cannot do. So even if though some might protest that it's unfair to compare a flash device against a larger (and presumably more internally sophisticated) hard drive player like the 4G and Mini, it is fair to make such comparisons since all three play the same filetype, sold by the millions out of the manufacturer's online music store. Plus, the Shuffle is in the same marketplace as its sibling units, and that in itself is justification enough to draw comparisons. It would, however, seem that size does matter in terms of sound quality. Whether it's the switch to using SigmaTel's music processor from the usual PortalPlayer CPUs found in Apple's hard drive players, or just the contraints in place due to the Shuffle's small form factor, it was clear to me that the Shuffle is not the sonic performer like its hard drive-based siblings.
Generally, there seemed to be a lack of top end performance, and unquestionably less accuracy in detail and resolution. Low and mid bass is murkier than with the 4G or Mini, and in general the audio material just sounds blunted by comparison. Any critical listener who values sonic performance over all else may easily balk at putting up with the sonic output of the Shuffle in lieu of using a hard drive iPod, despite the convenience of such a diminutive device. While I have no proof that the use of SigmaTel digital processing technology in the Shuffle is the root of the performance differences, what I do know is that I strongly prefer the sonic performance of PortalPlayer's processors in the 3G, 4G and Mini iPods. Certainly for me, the audio performance of the little flash player preempts the need for purchasing expensive headphones solely for the Shuffle; any performance gains probably are just not worth it.
Living with the Shuffle
One thing I've really come to loathe about the Shuffle: having to take 8200 songs (and growing, as I'm continually ripping from my 3500+ CD library that so far I've barely made a dent into) and MANUALLY pare it down to 240-260. I finally tried to fill the Shuffle (for real use, and not just for testing and experimenting with), and the agonizing in trying to pick and choose was something I hadn't counted on. Autofill would indeed be easier (and a bit more random, meaning I'd probably get songs that would give the track skip button on the shuffle a workout on), except iTunes on this one PC already is used to manage FOUR other iPods (all manually managed as well). I love my wife, but some of her music is...well, to put it mildly, eeeyuuuewwww.
Time to get a Mac Mini to take some of the library managing burden off. If only I didn't have to get on another waiting list...
In extended use, from a sonic standpoint the Shuffle does acceptably well, though as I pointed out above not sounding nearly as good as my regular 40GB 4G rig. I've grown to accept the sonic shortcomings, however, since the Shuffle's small size is, for me, a major virtue unto itself, one that any current hard drive-base audio player can't hope to match or even compete with. Even small hard drive digital audio players like my wife's first generation iPod Mini are monsterous compared to Apple's flash memory sibling. I've often longed that my smallest iRiver could play AAC files; with the Shuffle that no longer is an issue and in fact allows me to complete the abandonment process of lesser quality MP3 (yes, even including VBR format, for all you naysayers) and non-compatible WMA format files in our digital audio library that started when I bought my 3G iPod.
In my testing, I noted that the autopause (then to auto-shutdown) feature with the miniplug jack on my 4G iPod initially didn't make it to the Shuffle. With my usage habits I was bound to miss it, especially since the Shuffle gives little outward signs on its operational status. I often get interrupted during the typical work day (where much of my iPod use takes place); with the 4G I could easily remove the headphone plug from the jack and count on player shutting itself down and saving on battery life. With the Shuffle that feature was lost to me, at least until Apple's recent release of firmware update 1.1 for the player. With the upgrade of the player's firmware, the Shuffle's heaphone jack now behaves just like fourth-generation iPod's does. Another fix include with the upgrade is a repair of the terminal pause lock-up, where when the Shuffle is put on pause and is allowed to shut itself down (after a minute or two in pause mode), if the player is not started up within 20 to 30 minutes it will never start up without switching the power switch in back off and on (the Shuffle's version of a blue screen of death, IF of course it HAD a screen). The update also seems to have improved the transfer rate speed to close to where it should be with USB 2.0, though the hesitation when the player appears to have finished transferring the actual files and is updating something in the player's flash memory still remains, and seems as drawn out and prolonged as before.
The Shuffle's size is definitely a plus for AAC usage, but the power switch as implemented by Apple remains for me a contentious negative. I can operate the switch w/o having to try to dig a fingernail into the seam between switch and body, but the amount of squeezing pressure causes a lot of flex on the Shuffle's soft plastic chassis. While the switch has loosened up over time, a small raised ridge, a row of raised tactile dots, or something of the like (outward OR in), across the switch would've been much appreciated by me, and would not have been too horrible a transgression on the Shuffle's overall aesthetic; after all, the control buttons on the front are certainly not flush (and btw are quite easy-to-use as designed). Aesthetic design for the sake of aesthetic design while ignoring--or at the least speaking to--basic functional tenets is bad design, period. The power/play mode switch reminds me of the power button on the early Nomad Zen: it works, just not a well as it should, which seems so anti-iPod.
The lanyard is actually quite helpful, if more than a little on the dork-looking side ("Gee, that's a BIG whistle," or "I knew you were a dog, now you have the tag around your neck to prove it" are two such comments I've gotten...great friends, eh?). It's easy to wear the Shuffle; replace the standard cap on the USB connector with the lanyard cap, and toss the player over my neck and under my usual polo shirt (or over my shirt and under a sweat pullover I'll wear on colder days). The minimal weight and flat cross-section are virtually non-existent while wearing, so unlike the relative bulkiness of the 4G iPod I usually string on my belt or stuff in one of my pockets (and a lot less conspicuous as a tempting item for theft while in public). I'm now convinced that my old iRiver player (and it's requisite MP3/WMA files) can indeed be retired once and for all.
The quality of the lanyard itself is a cause for some derision. In the short time I've been using it, the lanyard's already showing signs of wear and discoloration, probably from contact with skin oil or perspiration. The cord that makes up the lanyard to support Shuffle around one's neck is really not much more than round-section shoelace material, similiar to what Nike uses with some of their athletic shoes. Moreover, the USB cap threaded to that 'shoelace' is a bit ill-fitting and seems ripe for wearing down somewhere down the road, and indeed right now has more than a little play in its hold on the rest of the Shuffle.
I still long for the non-existent display screen; with my listening habits these days I like to hear new music and the Shuffle simply does NOT encourage that sort of usage. When I pick up a new CD, nowadays more often than not I'll rip it to AAC with iTunes and transfer it to one of the players before I even listen to it. Most of my initial listening is done with an iPod and the ER-4p earbuds, rather than on my computer, in the car, or even on my home sound systems (of which there are currently three to choose from, though I could set up more given all the retired gear I have lying around the basement and, of course, given more room). Many times, these new CDs are unfamiliar in many ways beyond just the music itself; I do have a habit of taking chances with unfamiliar artists when I buy new music. But I like to know what I'm listening to once I DO listen to it, and during those times when I want to listen to new albums the Shuffle, particularly in random play mode, simply can't accommodate that need to know. The idea of thinking 'who was that I just listened to' all day long seems all too irritating to me; the Shuffle's 'Greatest Hits' nature precludes the sort of off-the-cuff listening I prefer to do with new untested music, and at least for me is a major limitation on its overall usefulness.
However I admit I've still warmed up to the littlest iPod, primarily in regards to its diminutive size, but also due in part to its almost brainless ease of use. And in fact I've just bought a SECOND one (for my wife who keeps wanting to snatch away mine for her own). But still for me it's been more than a bit of give and take. Sonically it's not as easy to live with as any of its predecessors are. Its size has nearly made up for that, though not completely. But I do find when out of the confines of the house or car I use the Shuffle significantly more than either of my hard drive iPods. Yet I still occasionally think expletives over the lack of a display screen; fortunately for those normally around me, the spewing of said language died down weeks ago, though the thoughts are still there ;). I'm glad that I finally have small AAC DAP to finally retire my incompatible iRiver, though I wish the bloody file transfer speed was similar to my other iPods. As I've found out over the past few weeks, I can truly live with this player. But I can also just as easily make out my wishlist of fixes for the second-generation Shuffle as well.
So to Apple's finally addressing the dilemma of not having a small flash digital audio player...Mr. Jobs, I admit do have to thank you for your little miracle. However, when I pause, stand back, and take a deep breath it's actually scary in how completely I've become entwined in this iPod universe; kind of like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (they had 'pods' of a sort in that story, didn't they?). Well...something like that.
My Overall Rating:
3.75 out of five stars.
Recommended for AAC fans who want and/or need small.
Recommended:
Yes
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monoblocks
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Location: PacNW
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