Largely wrapping up the cluster-fuckery that is File Server -> Apple Music -> iPod, I find myself only mildly perturbed with some of the files that were filed (pun intended) for later review before import.
Cases where the album’s original source is a FLAC or WAV with an unusual sample rate when having Audacity convert it to an M4A/AAC file for import. Apple Music will happily import files with the crazy high 96 kHz sample rates, and Audacity happily uses 44.1 kHz for the project. Apple Music, whatever Finder uses for its previews, and VLC (the known good) all play them audibly fine but these can’t be synced to the iPod because of being unplayable due to the sample rates. In one specific case, Apple Music had audible muffling artifacts but otherwise sounds fine through multiple local audio outputs.
Adjusting the conversion options in Audacity to encode these at 44.1 kHz, works in that all points of software reference sound fine off the laptop, but generate chirp artifacts on the iPod as the source goes outside the sample range. Reconfirmed that it’s not just my ears by way of jacking into my speakers with a 3.5 male to male cable, and comparing the output of the iPod to Apple Music on my laptop.
Which makes me even more tempted to just say to fuck with it and load Rockbox. I’ve mostly tried to use the provided tools, even if I’m pretty sure that the iTunes side must have been the worst aspect of iPod software. But my temptation for replacement firmware has been more driven by the aspect that I’d prefer to treat the device as a generic storage device for media and playlists. Whether or not the FLAC encoder is up to snuffs or can support some of the more esoteric files in my collection would really just be a benefit IMHO.
In other weirdness, of course the first 3.5 M to M analog cable doesn’t work, because it’s probably the one weirdo in the box of analog computer stuffs, forcing me to go get the known good cable from my car just to do that AUX IN test, lol.