European iPod volume restriction issues - suggestion for Ephod development?

First off.. Ephod is great and works perfectly for me.
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The European version of the iPod is volume capped. For many European users
their iPod is too quiet to hear in noisy environments (i.e. gymn, plane,
busy city steet, on a bicycle). Many iPods have been returned to Apple for
this reason apparently.

If you use the "Adjust MP3 Volume" setting on Ephod (with utilises the very
great MP3Gain - http://www.geocities.com/mp3gain/) it reduces the volume of
your MP3's to 89db. Although this may get rid of any clipping (distortion)
in the MP3 the resultant volume of the files is too low to be useful on
volume capped iPods.

A Norwegian guy has made small program (http://www.ringom.no/espen/ipod/
that apparently adjusts
the volume setting of the MP3 in the iPod's database. It appears to have no
damaging effect on the quality of the file but gives the volume a big boost.

This now allows European iPod owners to increase the quality of their MP3s
by getting rid of the clipping (introduced by the ripping process) using
MP3Gain and still have MP3s of sufficient volume.

Is it possible that Ephod could include the ability to adjust the volume of
the MP3s via the iPod database volume setting? This would be much more
useful than the current implementation of MP3Gain I think.

If anyone understands why clipping is introduced into MP3 files, even when
using the latest Lame codec and Exact Audio Copy, I would love to know.
(Oddly I find that the distortion introduced by clipping is not easily
noticeable when MP3s are played back on my computer but very noticeable when
played back on my iPod).

Simon Turner
Brighton UK


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