ipod touch 6G vs 5G shoot out!

First impressions. 

For those of you have read my no frills impressions you know what to expect.

No mess, no fuss. quick impressions without waxing lyrical or writing word salad.

I have an Touch 4G, iphone 4, Touch 5G and Touch 6G-128GB.

For these impressions I will use my Touch 5G and Touch 6G.

I will be using them through Centrance Hifi-M8 Dac/Amp via Venturecraft 7N lightning cable and the ATH-ESW11 Ltd Ed headphones.

Why, so I can get into more detail of whats under the hood.

Flacplayer app.

(Later I will try with DITA-The Truth in ears. Also Centrance Mini-M8).

5G vs 6G - Moar P`wer.

5G. A5 32-bit dual core 800MHz.  512RAM

6G. A8 64-bit dual core 1.1GHz.    1GBRAM

My old ears share some sound impressions.

5G/6G---flacplayer app---Venturecraft 7N lightning cable switching ---to Hifi-M8-----ATH-ESW11.

Its only used as transport, its all 0s and 1s etc etc, anyways-onto comparisons.

Different Stars -Alone.

5G. Slightly darker, cloudy, harsh.

6G. Clearer, more spacious, more high extension.

The Pixies - This monkeys gone to heaven.

5G. Lower tones, muddy lows.

6G. Cleaner.

Jeff Buckley - Halleluyah.

5G. Softer, vocal more forward, more bass, warmer.

6G. More overall clarity.

Massive attack - Angel.

5G. Deep bass, boom, muddy.

6G. Deep clean separate bass.

Morrissey - Little man, what now?

5G. Clear, good separation.

6G. Just more, background sounds very audible.

DJ Champion - No heaven.

5G. Darker, dull, harsh highs.

6G. More dynamic, fuller.

Peter, bjorn and john - young folks.

5G. Seems slower, bass plods on, dull.

6G. Groovy, clarity, pace, lively.

Lana Del Rey - Cruel world.

5G. Laidback.

6G. Beautiful, crystal clear, spacious.

The Doors - Strange days.

5G. Dull, plodding.

6G. Clear.

Hole - Celebrity skin.

5G. Rockin, deep bass.

6G. Cleaner, clarity across the board.

Hopefully the brief above paints a certain picture.

I will try other variations soon.

headphone out.

DITAs.

Mini-M8.

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Second test series.

5G/6G ----flacplayer app----switching via Venturecraft 7N lightning cable---Hifi-M8---DITA,The Truth in ears.

Norah Jones -Come away with me (everyones familiar test track).

5G. Acceptable, laidback.

6G. Clear, clean bass, nice highs, more background detail.

Ramones - Pet semetary.

5G. Clear.

6G. Punchy, clear, back ground detail.

Bauhaus - Bela lugosis dead.

5G.Classic bela track sound.

6G. Clearer, more clarity.

The cardigans - Erase and rewind.

5G. Thin, boomy.

6G. Wow, wall of beautiful sound.

The Jesus and Marychain - Munki/perfume.

5G. muddy.

6G. More punch and clarity.

Rammstein -Du hast.

5G. Rough and ready, dull blows.

6G. Brutal tsunami of rock music, clear and clarity.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Henry Lee.

5G. Muddier.

6G. Smooth, silky.

The Velvet Underground. - Sunday Morning.

5G. Vocals forward, muddy.

6G. Sparkly, good vocals and music balance.

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Touch from headphone jack out.

flacplayer app

ATH-ESW11 (Last night, my ears were getting a bit foggy at that stage from too much testing).

The Verve - Bittersweet symphony.

5G. Boomy bass, slightly flabby.

6G.

Lana Del Rey - Cruel world.

5G.

6G. Extended luscious highs.

Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence.

5G. A bit hazy.

6G. clarity.

Lana Del Rey - Shades of cool.

5G. Slightly distorted at times.

6G. Wall of sound, crisp, clear, dramatic.

.....Then listening fatigue won out. And bed......

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Good morning!

After coffee and breakfast testing.

(Obviously not professional :)).

I choose to use the same songs as my original tests.

Headphone out using ATH-CK10.

flacplayer app.

Different Stars -Alone.

5G. Full, a bit harsh in the highs, nice rounded bass.

6G.  Music and vocals at the same level, smoother.

The Pixies - This monkeys gone to heaven.

5G. Good, seems to strain at times compared with 6G.

6G. Great separation, clear across the board, (srry)-3D-ish.

Jeff Buckley - Halleluyah.

5G. Gets harsh at times.

6G. Smooth, 3D, good separation.

Massive attack - Angel.

5G. Woolly, deep bass, veiled.

6G. Clear across the spectrum, sparkly highs.

Morrissey - Little man, what now?

5G. Vocals too forward, grainy..

6G. Clear, great performance, highs a bit sharp.

DJ Champion - No heaven.

5G. harsh.

6G. smooth, laid back, cool.

Peter, bjorn and john - young folks.

5G. strained, harsh, fatiguing.

6G. smooth, beautiful, tonally balanced, highs a bit extended at times.

Lana Del Rey - Cruel world.

5G. gets a bit harsh during the busy chorus.

6G. 

The Doors - Strange days.

5G. 

6G. 

Hole - Celebrity skin.

5G. Gets a bit harsh in the highs.

6G. 

*It is a harsh song but 6G does it better.

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Thoughts.

The 6G certainly has more under the hood in terms of processing power and RAM etc, this could explain

how it seems more effortless at times whilst the 5G is straining at times.

I am listening critically which may be different for the casual listener, but as i listen whilst I type the 6G is easier on my ears.

No doubt Apple is paying attention to the boutique DAP market and seeks to improve their product and I look forward to comparisons with the likes of Fiio, AK and ibasso Daps.

I did have buyers remorse at first as I wondered will I really need this space, as i had deleted a lot of music due to photos taking up a lot of space on my 5G, but now as listen

I am very happy and satisfied with my purchase. I seems Apple have improved upon the 5G (which I found to be an improvement on the 4G Touch).

I tried a 24/96 track using Flacplayer and it still outputs at 16/48 (for testings sake). NOTE: 99% of the music I have on the Touch is 16/41 or 16/44.

Whether there is any different in Dac or amp between the 6G 128GB Touch and other 6G models remains to be seen. Being an exclusive sold only

from Apple Stores makes me wonder.

My listening notes, whilst using terminology that is simplistic, non technical and purely subjective hopefully paints a clear enough picture of what I perceived and hopefully that is accurate and not due to new toy bias.

Next up I will do some tests with the Centrance Mini-M8, and also headphone out using the DITA-The truth.... and then call it quits.

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Tested the 5G vs the 6G with Centrance mini-m8.
The mini-m8 doesn't have as much detail or power as the Hifi-m8 but i basically ended up with similar results to the earlier tests.

5G is a bit warmer, a bit 'duller' sounding, vocals can be too forward.
6G is crisper, more highs, back ground instruments and melody more audible, vocals and music volume more evenly matched.
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I had a thought that as I was using Flacplayer app to play my music that my result might be skewed for some reason.

So headphone out using the Apple stock music player.

*Music loaded is standard Apple size.

ACDC - Thunderstruck.

5G. Vocals forward, a bit overwhelming.

6G. Bold, forward, clear, effortless.

Current 93 - all the pretty horses.

5G. Nice, a little dark, vocals too forward.

6G. Smooth, nice micro detail, clear.

Donna Summer - Last dance.

5G. Theres a certain dullness overall to the 5G I just can place.

6G. Great dynamics, great instrument separation, had me dancing in my seat. nice snare drums.

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Sometimes always.

5G. A bit murky in the lows.

6G. a bit cleaner.

less extreme noticeable differences using the stock player rather than Flacplayer app and larger files.

Differences are till there, and conform to earlier findings and I still would think the 5G would be more fatiguing overall.

The differences are incremental and minor perhaps for some, but for dedicated and also long term listening sessions i do think they would be positive changes both for the serious and casual listener.

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Thanks for reading.

expatinjapan.

 (earlier posted on head-fi).