clavus

I want to stick my CD collection on an MP3 player. I'm going to move the whole giant CD mess into the garage, and free up some space in the house. I'm going to stick a dock on my stereo, and get some sort of MP3 boom box for the kitchen.

I have about 600 discs, plus about of gig of random tunes on my PC that I would add.

I think don't want an iPod, because I don't want to convert the existing MP3's to some other format, and I don't like the DRM crap. Is this still true? But I'm concerned about the docking stations. Is there a universal dock, or is iPod pretty much the only game in town when it comes to things like MP3 boom boxes and stereo docking stations?

What MP3 player should I get? How large a hard drive?

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Cynthetiq

I have a 160g iPod and never had to convert my selections to anything but MP3. If you were talking ogg or something else....well you'd still have the concerns.

I have over 50Gb of music and 70Gb of movies/TV shows.

I was always hesitant to the iPod craze but since I got it, I've used it much more than the scrawny 2gb Rio I used to have.

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snowy

As cyn mentioned, mp3s load on to an iPod just fine. No conversion necessary. You don't have to use iTunes, either. There are plenty of third-party freeware programs out there to choose from.

I love my iPod. I have a 30GB Classic (actual capacity reads as 27.8GB). As of right now, I have 3,446 songs on it, with 9GB of space remaining. I could definitely put more music on it, but I've been lazy.

I enjoy the fact that I can walk around with the entire U2 backcatalog in my pocket...as well as several other complete collections. I really want a 160GB Classic so that I'd have room for videos too.

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Cynthetiq

oh.. DRM was an itunes thing and now they don't DRM anymore either.... and iTunes is just a big ass store that can suck your money right out of your keyboard, quickly and easily. be careful!

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Daniel_

iPod all the way - it has the widest range of docks, and you can use MP3 files just fine.

They're prettier than everything else too, which my wife and daughter like.

Because they have the most accessories, you can get things like in-car charger/FM broadcasters - since I got mine, I've not used CD in the home or the car.

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And deep beneath the rolling waves,
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The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
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Cynosure

You don't necessarily need a docking station, to hook your iPod or Zune (or whatever mp3 player you decide upon) to your stereo. All you really need is a cable like this...

telekinetic

Depending on how you encode, your 600 disks will probably be between 40gb and 60 gb...just FYI so you can size your player accordingly.


re: Cable--yes, but you can't then control the player with the remote.

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SSJTWIZTA

160 gig ipod here.

i have over damn near 500 albums on it (over 5 days of rad tunes) and it isnt even almost full.

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clavus

How does it sound when played over a home stereo? I'm concerned about that.

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Daniel_

I have my collection ripped to a moderate bit rate (lowest is 80kbps AAC) and at the lowest end they sound as good as really good FM reception - at the best quality it is not possible to tell from CD under normal listening conditions (moderate volume in the living room).

Under very high amplification, you can hear that the quality on low bitrate stuff is less than CD, but it's still plenty god enough for me.

I like the docks rather than inputting directly from the headphone socket because it charges as it plays, and because it allows me to use the remote.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

Redlemon

If you really try and do the research (*cough* hydrogenaudio *cough*), you will be able to identify the codec and bitrate of any compressed audio, because each introduces certain audio artifacts.

I have always avoided those threads, because I don't want to know. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. I'm a music lover, not an audiophile (not that you can't be both).

Also keep in mind that your CDs are also compressed. Has that bothered you?

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mixedmedia

I have a 120gb ipod with about 15,000 songs currently loaded and about 25gb of free space left on it...it has changed my life.

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Anxst

I recently got a 120 gb Zune, and I love the damn thing. Having 65 gb of my favorite tunes with me at any given time is freaking awesome.

I got the stereo dock with mine for free, and it sounds just fine over my house stereo system, even with the volume up pretty high. but then, I'm encoded pretty much entirely at 256 LAME mp3, so it's just like CDs.

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n0nsensical

The iPod supports the Apple Lossless format, so if you're really concerned about quality you can just rip all your CDs to that, but it takes up a lot of disk space and you might not be able to fit them all on even the hugest iPod drive. Each CD takes 300-400 MB losslessly compressed, a quick calculation shows that would be around 200 GB for 600 CDs. It is certainly possible to tell the difference between uncompressed audio and any lossy compression, the question is just what kind of quality are you willing to tolerate and only you can answer that.

Other players have support for other lossless formats as well, such as FLAC, which is what I rip my CDs to, but the Zune has no lossless support at all as far as I know. When I wanted to put my FLAC-format CD rips on my iPod, I just did a mass conversion to 224kbps AAC and they work and sound just fine.

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flstf

You might want to consider a Logitech Squeezebox Boom for your kitchen. It connects wirelessly to your PC and can play your music collection from ripped music on your computer or music streams from the internet. I currently have one setup to listen to playlists from my 35,000 mp3 collection and the sound is really good from such a small device. You can also plug it in (move it) anywhere in the house and yard as long as you stay within your wireless range.


Squeezebox Boom All-in-one Network Music Player: Plug it in. Turn it on. Rock the house.