Apple iPod Shuffle - 2nd Gen Review

Good Points
Small and easy to 'wear' thanks to the clip. Fairly detailed sound, if a little bright / too much mid-frequency.

Bad Points
Loud background hiss and difficult to control by touch. No equalizer settings.

General Comments
A loud hissing background noise, especially with good quality in-ear phones makes the shuffle all but impossible to listen to. I had it replaced twice but all three suffered the exact same problem. If you use the earphones that come with it and only use it in noisy environments this won't be much of a problem, but with better earphones the noise was audible even when cycling. Since the player has no obvious up or down, you never know whether you are turning the volume up or down, or going forward or back a track. There is no possibility to set the equalizer, even though I understand the chip has the capability - this could easily have been implemented in software (iTunes).

I eventually returned mine and got my money back.