Two Ipod questions...

Factual Questions
1

Before I reluctantly jump on the bandwagon, I need something settled. I read this on epinions:
"you can’t shuffle playlists. This gets on my nerves because you can shuffle your entire library, but who wants to follow up a beautiful Phantom of the Opera piece with Eminem’s “Slim Shady”? And yes, I have both on my pod. I like to have specific playlists, and I think you should be able to shuffle them. Currently, the playlists I have on my pod are as follows: Britt’s Workout Mix, P!$$ed Off, Happy, Relax, New Stuff. Now, if I’m working out for the fourth time in a week and I start my pod on Britt’s Workout Mix, it’s going to play the same songs it did last time I worked out, in the same order. Not very inspiring. And, since the cardio part of my workout is only 35 minutes long, I never get to hear the songs on the end of my list. And if I have songs on that list by the same artist, it plays them all back to back. VERY SAD. "

This is huge to me as I’m often in the mood for a certain genre, I don’t feel like listening to rap when I’m reading nor classical when I’m working out. Can anyone verify this or let me know if there are any fixes to this (I know there are a lot of iPod hacks).

Second question, very IMHO, but how do you all feel about the sound quality compared to other players. I’ve listened to the mini before and it was decent, but it was with the stock headphones which I plan on replacing. I don’t need great being that many of my mp3’s are ripped at 128kbps, but I would like a little better than what I heard. I’m basically torn between this and the Archos XS200, but the iPod looks to be much better when it comes to quickly accessing songs, which is pretty important to me.

2

Assuming the person is talking about a regular iPod and not the less flexible mini, that’s nonsense. You can shuffle playlists; you can also choose a single album that is not itself a playlist and shuffle the contents; you can choose all songs by a specific artist and shuffle them; you can even select all songs within a given genre (“jazz,” “alternative & punk,” etc.) and shuffle that. As long as you have “shuffle songs” enabled, any selection you happen to be browsing will shuffle play.

3

For what it’s worth my ipod has better sound quality output then my computer’s sound card(sb live original 4.1) I hooked them up to my speakers.

People also use etymonic er-6i’s( I want some!) with their ipod. They’re canalphones capable of incredible accuracy. I don’t hear the audiophiles complaining.

4

As others have pointed out, (a) any list on a “regular” iPod can be shuffled and (b) replacement headphones can give really amazing sound quality. Of course, I don’t think the stock earbuds are bad at all, either.

To clarify one point a bit: if you keep the information in your mp3s’ ID3 tags updated, you can sort on pretty much anything in there (except for comments, grr). That is, you don’t have to create any playlists at all. If I want to listen to a bunch of Parliament, I just go to Artists > Parliament > All, and push play (with “shuffle” previously set). If I specifically want to listen to Motor-Booty Affair, I go to Artists > Parliament > Motor-Booty Affair, and push play (with “shuffle” turned off). Of course, I could also go to Albums > Motor-Booty Affair, or… you get the picture.