I've just discovered one very serious problem with my 4-day-old 40gig iPod. I believe the problem is coming from the output analog stage of the unit. I hope this is just an isolated case, not a flaw in design so I can exchange it for a good one. I do love the iPod but I can not live with this defect.

Here is the story, please keep in mind this is the first and only track I've found so far with the error, perhaps there are many more. I hope someone out there can duplicate this problem with other iPods so we can all share:

Original CD of Late Night Betty by Pepe And The Bottle Blonds, track # 6 Tarzacheando, decoded by iTunes in ACC at 192kbps then downloaded to iPod. When played back via either the headphone out or the line out (from the dock) in iPod the sound is badly distorted whenever the vocal and percussion (guiro) are mixed. Perhaps hiccup is the best way to describe the problem. The problem started around 17 seconds into the song.

I though my original ACC file on the PC was bad but it sounds fine. The file in the iPod when played with iTunes via firewire also sounds great. This leads me to believe my iPod has
problem with its analog output stage. I repeated the listening tests with other gears including my "high-end" home system and the problem is there!

I bough this iPod from Amazon and I just don't know how to go about to start the product return process. I'm going to travel overseas this New Year and really want to take this iPod with me. Oh, well... very dissapointed!

Should I copy this email to Apple?

Dervish