This afternoon I went to the Fashion Island Apple Store to get replacement headphones for my new iPod.
Earlier today, the left side blew out somewhere between Massive Attack and David Bowie's 1.Outside. So instead of a nice bass sound, I got more of a thud followed by a half-second scratch.
Not cool. At all.
Especially when I just bought the damn thing almost four weeks ago.
And especially when Apple touts these headphones as nothing short of a miracle in audio design due to the "Neodumium transducer magnets [used for] enhanced base response, smoother midrange transitions, and accurate high-end reproduction."
To make a long story short the tiny, four-eyed, dirt under his finger nails, no social skills what-so-ever, black jeans wearing, Steve Job wanna-be, Apple 'Genius' yelled at me for trying to play the wrong music on my iPod, because it wasn't designed to play that kind of music.
It went something like this:
— Look you can't play music like this (Massive Attack) with these headphones.— What do you mean, I can't play music like this? I've been playing music like this for the last three weeks without a problem.
— Exactly, you can't play music like this.
— What?
— These headphones are not designed for this. I can replace them today but if these break you won't get anymore.
— !@#$%
So much for customer service. I might as well have gone to the South Coast Plaza Apple Store.
It was just that bad.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
iPods and speakers... I can't resist a comment.
Good speakers play anything!
Bad quality or faulty speakers blow.
As I type this I am pounding out Oingo Boingo on my iPod. Just before that, Lamb's 'Scratch Bass' was giving my headphones a run. No probs.
What, exactly, should we all be playing?
Did the counter-jerk give us any pointers to correct iPod listening tastes?
Guessing by the looks of him: Steve Miller Band, Blue Oyster Cult, and Earth, Wind, and Fire.
Haw haw! And listening to them through the same crappy Panasonic bookshelf speakers he bought back in college, too, I'll bet... no, wait - that's me...
I just got my iPod (Win version) this past weekend -- my first Apple product : ).
Remember the iPod commercial that showed a guy grooving to Propellerhead's "Take California"? Phead is okay but not Massive Attack? Strange. I guess this means I have to cut back on Pheads and the Chemical Bros and go back to Mozart.
I've been to both the So. Coast and Fashion Island stores and I know more than those guys!
Mike: "that guy" is Jeff Goldblum. Propellerheads rock. Even through those crappy Panasonic bookshelf speakers. ;-)
conversly, if you use the ipod as a hard drive, microsoft files will cause it to spew bits and bytes everywhere. you can't play files like that.
hmmm, feels kind of good to spread mis-information.
I just went to the Apple Store to get a new case, since the one that came with my iPod broke: the belt clip literally peeled off of the plastic. I called AppleCare:"Sorry, but that's not covered". "Good", I thought, I hate that case anyway. Now I'm sporting a nice leather case that allows me access the controls without taking it out of the case. my 3 cents.
Bob: I don't think it's Jeff Goldblum. This particular ad I'm thinking about is for iTunes. I think Goldblum was on the iMac ads only. I tried tracking the ad down, but they're offline now.
I was certain it was him... but apparently not. The ad is here ... and some discussion on the ad, including people whose eyesight is apparently better than mine refuting the appearance of Goldblum in an iPod ad here.
Mea culpa.
Won't play "music like this?" That's bizarre. It sounds like the Apple Store employees are pulled from the same pool as their Switch ads. If so, you're probably safe playing a lot of soft jazz and, just maybe, the occasional club remix. You could take this further: what would happen if you returned the iPod, declaring it to be faulty because it wasn't designed to play -your- music?
I really don;t why you guys always complain and complain. Those apple headphone are small and can only do do so much. The quality are extremely good, yet if volume is purposely increase to high levels, it will break and ruin them, regardless of what they are made of. , it does not take rocket science to realize this. I would encourage you guys first sent an email from any speaker company regarding harms one can do to small speakers, and the effects on them before you jump the gun and asume what "You think is best " . you will be surprise what you can learn, you may ask , what do I know, why take my word, well all I have to say is that I help develop speakers, yet I cannot say where I work , I can say that small speakers are not meant to be abuse with high levels of sounds, they all have tollerence, most of which are ignored. i dont see anyone of you guys with an physics.engineering degree. many of us are eager to expressed our opinons without any research . I am not saying apple is off the hook, yet i think it's the fault of the user. you guys have such errogance and believe you know everything, then your car stereo and when you bust them, try to get them repaired with the excuse they were defective. In any case, those are just my to cents.
If you can buy it through the iTunes store, shouldn't it be playable? When last I checked, they have a special section for Bowie (24 albums), and one for Massive Attack (6 albums). I have purchased five of the above through the store, and enjoy them on my iPod just fine, "genius bar" guy be damned.
Gavin said it best. Quality audio merchandise will reproduce high fidelity audio no matter what the range.