There is probably some well known reason why the iTouchy is a better choice for playing music than the iPod mini. I have had an iPod mini for a couple of years and it does good work, but it doesn’t match the iTouchy in the end. The nice thing about the mini is that it is easily transportable for things like running, at least my 3rd gen is. When I plug a set of headphones into one and then the other, the difference is obvious immediately, and I don’t think it is just me.
The limitation of both devices, however, is that they are digital. The problem with that being that the music has to be cut up into chunks of data the then pieced back together at the other end, like Johnny Television in Willy Wonka. Back when I was your age, the proponents of digital would argue that there was virtually no data lost and anything that was lost was not audible to the human ear. If you have listened to the dog of a pressing of “Kind of Blue” that they released in the 80’s, you know they were full of crap. Digital fanboys now tout “lossless” formats which are definitely much better but still can’t change the fact that you’re chopping the music to bits (literally) and then trying to put it back together.
The thing about analog, particularly vinyl, is this: sound is a wave. The wave hits a diaphragm, the diaphragm moves a needle, the needle scratches a platter, the platter is copied, the copy comes to me, I put a needle in the groove, the needle moves a diaphragm, and the diaphragm makes the wave. Perhaps I have skipped some steps, but in the end the process really is that simple. The best reproduction equipment removes as many steps from the process as possible. In other words, it gets me closer to the original performance.
I own a turntable, but I don’t listen to records much. I own two ipods and listen to both of them most days. I found out about Animal Collective through a podcast and bought “Meriwether Post Pavilion” via a digital music provider. A tweet from @bentmatches made me aware that the record is available on vinyl. (It’s true that, as a sojourner in the Valley of Love and Delight, she has more than enough degrees to operate a laser printer.) It is such an amazing album, I may have to get it in that format to see how it really sounds. It’s interesting that, after a decade of not really be current on music, the digital devices in my life have led me back to the wave.