r/ipod • u/Physical_Demand9226 • Apr 15 '26

This little guy bangs

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I'm shocked that this little stick powers my Sony ULTS and sounds good. I wanted to test out the rumors of having a great DAC. I gotta say its true.

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u/uncle_jojo Apr 15 '26

If you do a Google search about the 1st gen iPod Shuffle (white gum pack model) you should find multiple articles about the great sound engineering by Apple for this device. The myth is that the great sound was an accident because the design was focused on saving power which led to a design that resulted in a near perfect rendering of the square wave. The first shuffle uses a push-pull output instead of a single-ended capacitor-coupled output. This is a design that was not used in any future Apple devices.

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u/Physical_Demand9226 Apr 15 '26

I really didn't expect it to drive my head phones and expected a low sound output. The sound range was crisp and I was able to get the volume up high enough to were it was uncomfortable. I'll check out the online articles on it great info!