iPod Classic - Plagued With Sound Quality Issues?

What's up with QA over at Apple these days? The iPhone was plagued with battery issues when it was launched, the iPod Touch has difficulty displaying dark colors (along with an identity crisis), and now people are reporting that the iPod classic has poor audio output.

Some people might call the latest complaints a bit picky. However, for those that have an ear for music, some minor quality issues can drive you to a different product. One such person was upset by this and decided to run a series of tests to confirm that he wasn't crazy. His tests showed that the the iPod the following issues:

A slight uplift in treble.

A group delay that depends on frequency.

A strong modulation with 22.1k, causing intermodulation distortion.

These issues are likely caused by Apple's decision to switch to a Cirrus Logic audio codec chip. Luckily for most of us, the quality issues are barely noticeable.

New iPod classic has "badly engineered" audio circuitry? [via tuaw]