Sound Quality: 2nd gen vs 4th gen

Yeah, got a 2nd & 4th gen shuffle. Using my high end Shure earphones (SE530's) the background hiss between tracks on the 2nd gen shuffle is almost unbearable it's so loud. There is non of this background hiss on the 4th gen. Also the sound appears to be far superior. Overall a vast improvement with the 4th gen!

Thank you so much for this post. This is exactly what I was wondering too, which is why I came on these boards. I bought a 2nd generation Shuffle a while back. I find it essentially unusable because of its poor sound quality (hissing, bass non-existent, overall sound level lower compared to Nano or Touch even at max volume).

I really am curious to get the 4th gen for the gym but want to get some feedback to make sure the sound quality has really improved.

Wasn't really into sound quality too much until I upgraded head phones. Now the 2nd gen is unbearable with high quality buds. The 4th gen, I'm happy to report, has good sound quality and is very easy to listen to.

FYI, I'm using Sennheiser HD495s.

I think we all might have a different benchmark for what's "noticeable", but I've listened to both the 4G shuffle and the 6G nano and I can't discern a noticeable difference in sound quality. Not sure if it's convenient but if there is an Apple store (or even Best Buy maybe) nearby, you can bring in the headphones you prefer and listen to both iPods side-by-side for a comparison test.