Jump to content

Recommend Someone An Ipod?

Rate this topic


Christopher

Recommended Posts

Bagged n' tagged from here.

Here's another handy rerun in ExWeb current special series on Everest tech. Previously this week we have covered sat phones, radios, and power. Today, the latest on Everest music. And don't forget that you'll find these stories and lots more on HumanEdgeTech.com. Click the boring sounding "tech guide" in the menu and watch a world of info unfold!

Rocking out on Everest

There isn’t anything quite like taking off in an old stripped out Russian helicopter with AC/DC blaring in your headphones. Or even chilling out in high camp with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald after a long, hard day of climbing.

In the mountains these days you see more and more climbers with headphone wires coming out from underneath their wool caps. Music is a big help, whether the tunes are simply complementing your situation, providing a real life soundtrack, helping you relax, or getting you amped.

Lots of choices

There are a lot of choices out there for listening to music, but you have to remember that at altitude humans aren’t the only ones that start to act a bit weird. The device that is hot right now is Apple’s Ipod. These personal MP3 players, albeit expensive, can hold anywhere from 5 to 40 gigabytes of music – that’s 10,000 songs.

It’s biggest strength is it’s biggest weakness

The problem is in Ipod’s apparent strength – storage. The music is stored on a hard drive. Climbers on both sides of Everest, both this year and last year reported failures as low as the trek into BC. We know of one particular first generation 10 gig Ipod that did make it as high as ABC on the North side, about 21,000 ft, before it started malfunctioning. Some crash and lose all the music permanently, while others start to work again at lower altitudes. Technically the Ipod’s operating altitude has a 10,000 ft ceiling.

What’s the problem? Well, we did some digging around and have found a logical reason. The hard drive isn’t sealed; it has a device that allows pressure inside the drive to equalize with the pressure outside. Data is stored on disc and is read by a head that floats a small distance from the disc on a cushion of air. Unlike a tape, there is no contact. At altitude, the air thins out and there simply aren’t enough molecules to support the head, making it physically crash onto the hard drive. In computing terms this is referred to as a, “head crash.”

Those people in Silicon Valley wear those funny white suits for a reason

It seems hard to believe that the difference in pressure can have such an impact, however, to better understand the exact tolerances we’re dealing with, it’s important to realize that a piece of dust has the ability to crash a hard drive and destroy it.

If this happens once or twice to an Ipod, the drive should still be in decent shape, enough for it to resume operation at a lower altitude. If you keep pressing play, trying to run the device and scratching your head repeatedly, it might permanently damage the Ipod.

The alternatives

So, what are the alternatives? Regular old walkmans playing tapes work well, but if the battery gets to cold, it’ll die or the tape will start to play veeeerrrrrry slooooowly. One tape only holds maybe two hours of music, and the ancient system is rather large with lots of moving parts to break.

Solid-state Mp3 players with changeable flash cards

Solid-state Mp3 players that have no moving parts work great. With flash cards holding one or two gigs, you can store quite a bit of music. Though not tested, microdrive flash cards might have the same problem as Ipods. A flash card that can hold a gig is about $200 to $300. In contrast a 15 gig Ipod is only $300.

The Minidisc

Minidisc players are also another great alternative. The relatively small cd-like disks have a protective covering so they can be tossed around, the device itself is small, and one minidisk can hold over an hour of music (newer systems tout up to 320 minutes of music), and a 5 pack of discs will run you about 10 bucks. The only pain is that you have to record the music onto a Minidisc yourself – there really aren’t too many titles available to buy.

The old CD player

Finally you’ve got the tried and true CD Player that can play burned Mp3’s. This is probably the most affordable solution with one 700 MB disc costing less than a dollar each. Leave your computer in Base Camp and burn what you need, when you need it. If a CD gets too scratched, throw it away and burn another one. The portable CD players that run Mp3 discs only cost $50 or $60 – it’s so cheap you can afford to bring a backup.

So, before you plan to rock out on the mountain, make sure you come correct. Figure out which device fits into your price range, and whose features match up with what your needs are.

Head crashes are not only a problem for Ipods at altitude, but also in computers as well. Depending upon the specific hard drive used, some can tolerate higher altitudes better than others.

Too bad they don't cite any MD examples all the way up there on Everest. It would be interesting to see what high altitudes [in this sense] could do to such a device.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Give me a break. What normal user is going to climb Everest? Sheesh. These people are going into a hostile environment; I won't even play sports with my iPod, much less take it up a damn mountain.

But this is another example of just how insanely durable flash-based DAPs really are. I'd love to see a >4GB flash player. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Give me a break. What normal user is going to climb Everest? Sheesh. These people are going into a hostile environment; I won't even play sports with my iPod, much less take it up a damn mountain.

But this is another example of just how insanely durable flash-based DAPs really are. I'd love to see a >4GB flash player. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Give you a break?

My friend's brother has been travelling the world with his iPod. That is, until he went somewhere higher than 5000 feet. Not climbing a mountain, just a Really High Place. His iPod's hard drive head crashed and now he doesn't have any more tunes.

Think of all the people that live in Really High Places. Now they have to rely on some antiquitated.. MiniDisc?

I live at sea level. I will enjoy my next iPod if that's whats cool in a few months.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a very interesting article. I will definitely need to reconsider taking my VAIO Pocket to high elevation areas.

Give me a break. What normal user is going to climb Everest? Sheesh. These people are going into a hostile environment; I won't even play sports with my iPod, much less take it up a damn mountain.

You will be surprised by the demographics of iPod users in extreme sports.

Edited by Ishiyoshi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

MD is truly better than ANY HD DAP in extreme conditions, no need to single one out regardless of it's popularity. That's not the best reason to take a MDR with you up there though. Why not take an MD and some blanks up with you and keep an audio log?

Let's tout all of MDs strengths when comparing it to an iPod or any other playback device. Where MD lacks in some playback features (not gapless biggrin.gif) it shines in recording capabilities that most MP3 playback devices can't match.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's interesting to know since I have 3 DAPs that use hard drives. Though the iPod being the most popular, it will also be the one that gets called on such issues, even if it's not the only one with the problem tongue.gif

[broken record] Still waiting for an Auvi Hi-MD to bring me back to the format [/broken record]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, iPod's ceiling is 10 000 feet?

That's just 3300 meters. Most passenger airplanes have their internal air pressure set to the equivalent of the altitude of 3000 meters

when going above 3000 meters.

It is done to reduce the stress on the fuselage and thus extending

the lifetime of the aircraft.

In other words, using your iPod during flight means running it close to the limit of the specifications,

making it more susceptible to damage

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, iPod's ceiling is 10 000 feet?

There's no mention of what generation of iPods this guy was talking about. Both my iPod Mini and my mother's 4G iPod 20GB have been in Northern California with elevations close to 5,000 feet, with no ill effects.

I think that the newer Toshiba drives are a little different than the ones in the 1G and 2G iPods.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was that particular helicopter's cabin pressurized?

Passenger airplanes, normally, wouldn't be a problem since its cabin is fully pressurized, so you don't see laptops, iPods, and other things falling dead (not to mention it needs pressurizing since it flies around 30,000ft).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was that particular helicopter's cabin pressurized? 

Passenger airplanes, normally, wouldn't be a problem since its cabin is fully pressurized, so you don't see laptops, iPods, and other things falling dead (not to mention it needs pressurizing since it flies around 30,000ft).

The doors were open. I leave the conclusion and the reason I made the post up to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why not sell it and get some money out of it?

And then get the super expensive DH10P lol.

well, considering the fact that no matter how much care you put into an ipod, you will always find that one scratch that later will turn into another, than another, than another. so to sum it up, its in no condition to sell biggrin.gif .

but i really love those new MD's!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest NRen2k5

Nice article, but they're totally off about the price of a pack of five minidiscs. It's not ten bucks, it's more like twenty to twenty-five.

Edited by NRen2k5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest NRen2k5

I'd like to reiterate that the average iPod user is a moron, and that I'm not the average iPod user. Those crappy white earbuds are nowhere to be found.  biggrin.gif

I'm wondering just how crappy they are... ? Are they any better or worse than the garbage that's packed with minidisc recorders?

Are they any better or worse than average Sony earbuds... MDR-818LP, let's say?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice article, but they're totally off about the price of a pack of five minidiscs. It's not ten bucks, it's more like twenty to twenty-five.

here is australia you can buy a 5 pack of twinkles, sony colour, standard 80 mins for au$8-14. himds are about au$4.80. you guys are getting boned

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm wondering just how crappy they are... ? Are they any better or worse than the garbage that's packed with minidisc recorders?

Are they any better or worse than average Sony earbuds... MDR-818LP, let's say?

They have less sonic 'glare', are much less scratchy and have a warmer sound. I think the thing that fazes a lot of potential users is the size of the buds, and it doesn't fit well in some ear 'bowls'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mainly, the iPod just provides a listening experience which is frankly too "low end"(!) for a seasoned MD user like myself and everyone else here... Sure, you can fits gazillions of albums on an iPod, as long as you sacrifice what's really important - sound quality and the feeling that you're giving one album your complete undivided attention! What's more, the MD just has this wonderful DIY ethic, the ability to record audio on the go, trading of MDs, finding old MD compilations you've made... I could go on. For me, the iPod symbolises (and this isn't true of everyone I must stress) the need for people who know minus-zip about real music to jump on the trend bandwagon. I mean really... how many albums do these people actually have on these things? 5 identical RnB compilations??

The iPod is convenient and is a design masterpiece though I must concede, and if someone offered me one, I probably wouldn't say no! (I might just sell it though)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mainly, the iPod just provides a listening experience which is frankly too "low end"(!) for a seasoned MD user like myself and everyone else here... Sure, you can fits gazillions of albums on an iPod, as long as you sacrifice what's really important - sound quality and the feeling that you're giving one album your complete undivided attention! What's more, the MD just has this wonderful DIY ethic, the ability to record audio on the go, trading of MDs, finding old MD compilations you've made... I could go on. For me, the iPod symbolises (and this isn't true of everyone I must stress) the need for people who know minus-zip about real music to jump on the trend bandwagon. I mean really... how many albums do these people actually have on these things? 5 identical RnB compilations??

The iPod is convenient and is a design masterpiece though I must concede, and if someone offered me one, I probably wouldn't say no! (I might just sell it though)

The sound quality on the iPod is noticeably better than the MZ-NH1 when compared Lossless against OMG PCM. (and of course, Lossless is taking up half the space of OMG PCM) There are a few headphone issuses, but once again if you're serious about sound they're easy to overcome.

I have 80Gb of MP3's... and I haven't yet finished ripping the rest of my CD collection.

Edited by bhangraman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...