Obviously not all audiophiles are musicians, or vise-verse, but one more major music related reason to buy an ipad is the fact that there are an enormous amount of professional audio creation apps available.
More Audiophile iPad Play! EQ Options
Are Audiophiles really allowed to use EQ?
The use of equalization has received a bad rap among audiophiles. I'm sure there is a host of reasons for that, including the historically poor quality of many EQ implementations---often times portable players have a software EQ that is essentially worthless. Then there's the fact that applying EQ in a useful way is not exactly intuitive on the first try. In fact, the uninformed or inexperienced user is much more likely to mess up the sound than enhance it, leaving them frustrated and unlikely to try that process again.
Yet I'm here to say that EQ is actually a very good thing when used properly. For one, it can help compensate for the differences in hearing between each individual. Sadly, we are all losing our hearing as the years go by. The process is called presbycusis and there is no way to escape it---though things like earplugs at concerts and sensible volume during home listening can go a long way towards slowing it down. Yet the fact remains that an average listener in their 50s is going to have a very different perception of high frequencies compared to an average listener in their 20s. Hifi reviewers frequently list their systems down to each individual interconnect yet we aren't told anything about their age, which is something that could actually make a very real difference.
Though Apple has a bad track record with their standard EQ built in to the iPod series, the good news is that several excellent options exist as low priced apps. EQu and Equalizer are the two very good apps, although there are likely several others that are worth a look. Both are excellent parametric EQ apps which have been around long enough to be very mature by now. EQu is pictured above; to the uninitiated, it may seem daunting. It's actually quite simple though: just start tapping away at different points and you'll catch on quickly. Pick a frequency and drag it up or down for boost or cut. Don't like the result? It's easy to start fresh from "Flat" and try again. The included presets are also helpful in order to see generalizations, though you'll soon come up with your own curves that are better for you.
The best way to start is just to jump right in. Find some music you are familiar with and some headphones you know well, and just start messing around with boosting and cutting different frequencies. Try to find the best way to improve the bass drum impact, or the vocals, or the guitar, without messing up everything else. Here is a handy chart to help nail down exactly where in the spectrum each sound lives. An older but still very informative Head-Fi thread is here. Some posts from a very qualified HeadFier here and here. You can recreate those settings and the results should be very good, though you still may need a few adjustments to account for differences in hearing.
Even if you don't end up using EQ for day to day listening, I still recommend playing around with it for learning purposes. Becoming a more informed listener is always a good thing. It may be somewhat embarrassing when you find that what you've been calling "highs" were actually upper mids, but don't let it get you down. We all start with very little knowledge and work our way up from there.
Article Continues: FLAC Playback »
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Comments
Very true
Submitted by John Grandberg on April 28, 2012 - 12:45pm.
It's not something I use my iPad for, but there are quite a few apps and things related to music production. I imagine most home studio situations would get a lot of use out of the device that way. Thanks for bringing it up!
I'm all for paying a little
Submitted by Willakan on April 28, 2012 - 12:36am.
I'm all for paying a little extra for cable durability, but $120 before shipping seems a little excessive!
Perspective
Submitted by John Grandberg on April 28, 2012 - 12:46pm.
It all comes down to your philosophy on the matter. I'm sure we can find some audiophiles out there who would scoff at "merely" paying $120. Do what works best for you.
John, great, detailed
Submitted by mward on April 28, 2012 - 3:49am.
John, great, detailed writeup, but I take issue with your assessment of the new iPad as an incremental update. Admittedly, the new iPad is all about the new display, but in a product that is defined by its display, such a drastic improvement should not be written off as incremental. The iPad 2 had a display with the pixel count of a monitor from a decade ago; the new iPad has a display that has more pixels than a 1080p HDTV.
I've found the difference remarkable. If that doesn't count as something more than an incremental improvement, I'd be interested to know what Apple needs to add to go beyond an incremental update.
Although personally I'd love to see the USB port have enough power to drive a headphone amp/DAC 
The iPad will power the Pico
Submitted by Justin@HeadAmp on April 28, 2012 - 9:08am.
The iPad will power the Pico DAC/Amp w/ the camera connection kit
It's complicated....
Submitted by John Grandberg on April 28, 2012 - 12:49pm.
I guess I was expecting the quad core CPU that was rumored to be coming with the new model. A display update is great.... Yet at the same time I never felt the iPad 2 display lacking. So it's one of those things. At this point I admit that it will be exceedingly difficult for Apple to EVER come up with something that is really game changing, revolutionary instead of just evolutionary. And if they do there is a risk that half the people won't even like it,since the old way is so ingrained. In any case I appreciate your perspective.
Limited Memory
Submitted by PredatorZ on May 8, 2012 - 4:22pm.
I really like the Ipads for what they are, but see the small memory as a major drawback, 16 to 64 Gigs( and the premium apple charges for memory and no SD slots is a crime, IMHO) is a tiny fraction of my lossless files and I wouldn't use it for serious listening for that reason alone, I love my Ipod classic and 160 Gigs of storage, sure it wont do the fancy EQ, but I enjoy my music as is, sure some recordings have messed up production and might benefit from some EQ. For me if I get to caught up in the gadgets I tend to loose the connection to the music, I love to get lost in the listening for hours, sometimes ignorance is bliss. For travel and when I need video access, I use an MSI Netbook with 500 Gig Drive, sure it isnt as slick as the apple gadgets, but really gets the job done, and with Win7 on all my devices, homegroup makes moving files around a breeze.
True
Submitted by John Grandberg on May 8, 2012 - 10:42pm.
I wouldn't recommend buying an iPad with the intent of strictly using it as a dedicated music server only. You're right - simply not enough built-in space for that. A netbook, or a Squeezebox Touch, or any number of other devices are better suited. Yet there are ways around this - Home Sharing and UPnP are two methods of storing your library elsewhere and accessing through the iPad.
My point is merely this - plenty of people have an iPad already. Why not learn to make the most of it?
Comment and a Question
Submitted by SeanNY on May 9, 2012 - 3:11pm.
Comment:
I agree with all of your points, especially on getting the most out of a device many of us already own.
My iPad is basically the world's-best remote control, for a Mac mini connected (via asychronous USB) to my home stereo. I use "Remote" to control iTunes on my Mini, and a 1.5TB drive connected to the Mini ensures I never run short of space for my uncompressed music.
If I want to listen to music on MOG or Pandora, I use Splashtop remote to control those programs, which are located on the Mini. the advantage of this is that my Mini is ethernet connected to Fios, so I don't get the dropouts I was sometimes getting when I streamed the music from the iPad. Also, MOG is cheaper on a desktop than on a mobile device.
I also put an Airport Express behind my stereo, which is connected by toslink cable. Whenever I watch a video on my iPad, I switch the stereo DAC input from USB to TOS and listen to the video through my stereo.
Question:
Considering the quality of the DAC inside the iPad, can you really hear the difference between, say 320kbps files and lossless, or high resolution? I can hear the difference on my stereo, but not on the iPad using the headphone output. Can you hear it with the Line-Out cables?
Put another way, at what point does the sound quality of the iPad DAC become the weak link in the chain?
Hi fellow iPad power user
Submitted by John Grandberg on May 12, 2012 - 9:38am.
Great comment! I really like Splashtop as well. I hadn't used it much until recently so I didn't include it in the article. Now that I've got more experience with it, I highly recommend it.
Good point about getting the cheaper $5/month version of MOG by using that method.
As for your question:
Opinions about SQ will obviously differ from person to person. In my view, the iPad DAC sounds pretty stinking good. They use a Cirrus Logic embedded solution (CS42L63 to be exact) which is surely better than what you'll find in the average soundcard, CD, or DVD player. Is it audiophile grade? Depends on your definition I guess. But if you Google "iPad RMAA" you can see some real world examples of how well it performs.
In my case, I've honestly never sat down and done a specific test of 320k, FLAC, and hi-res material on the iPad. I mostly use the FLAC playback apps because that's the format I store my library in, so it saves me a conversion. It's worth noting that hi-res material will generally be recorded and mixed exceedingly well, often superior to their redbook siblings. So even if the iPad is a bottleneck for hearing the improvement based on sample rate, it will likely still sound better for that reason.
iTunes Functionality
Submitted by The Federalist on September 14, 2012 - 10:34am.
John, I've been using the CCK with my ipad for a few months and rip all my cd's to Apple lossless format but dont think i am making the best use of itunes for some reason... are there other places you can buy higher quality music that can be stored in an itunes... that actually has a decent library of modern music... i.e. not HD Tracks? also when you buy an AAC file from itunes is there any point to converting it to lossless format
It is important
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It is important to dress appropriately to a classical music recital.The Greatest Living Legend George Strait As an illustration, the ladies could wear nice sunset dress and the gentlemen would look first-rate in costume.
While tinnitus is a real
Submitted by Emma Roberts on January 1, 2013 - 11:22pm.
While tinnitus is a real trouble that affects many citizens justin bieber concert for different reasons, going to a floor-shaking concert is one way to promise real damage to the association between your intellect and ears.
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