21st Century Sound Reproduction and Storage

I had an Apple iPod Shuffle bought by Rachel & Gary last year, and despite being fairly tecnologically and electronically minded, I have never got round to firing it up and downloading any music on it. However, as a present for Father’s Day last year Rachel got Gary to download about 1Gb of classical music on to it for me!

Today it has had its opening ceremony! Whilst Hannah was busy filling in a job application on my computer, I thought I would give the ipod a go. I carefully followed the instructions in the enclosed booklet, and I am, at present, listening to Luciano Pavarotti singing O Sole Mio. I was very pleasntly surprised with the quality of the sound which issues from the individual earpieces.

I had always thought that earpieces so tiny would produce a thin, tinny sound – but no! The sound coming from them is rich and full bodied, and the stereo separation is extremely vivid. In fact, truth to tell, the sound quality, frequency range and stereo separation is some of the best I have heard in ages!

I have already downloaded the ipod shuffle manual onto the computer, so I can learn how to utilise itunes, and, if necessary downlaod some of my favourite CD’s onto it.

One of the “Pluses” I have discovered is that when listening to the music (or whatever) on the earpieces, you are not attached to a large piece of hi-fi equipment, and with the tiny ipod shuffle attached to a part of your clothing, you are free to wander from room to room and still enjoy the music!

The only downside is that if the music is playing at a reasonable volume, you are apt to miss the knocking on the door! Today I was expecting the burglar alarm service engineer to call between 09.00 and 13.00, and he had arrived but got no response to his knocking on the door. He had the good sense to phone me, as he was sure that somebody was in the house. It was only when I heard the phone go that I realised somebody was outside, knocking at the back door!