New to MP-3 and in need of advice.

[BachQ]

You might not even need buds at all.  I recently bought an rca mp3 player and it can give enough juice to my Sennheiser 497s which are just straight up headphones.

I second the EAC suggestion with lame, and say use the default setting for encoding and it will sound fine (average bit rate=192).  That seems to be the best balance between quality and file size.

My thoughts on players-- the flash player is for mobile, it doesn't have to store alot (1-2GB) because you just swap out music on your pc another time.  If you wanted to buy your wife an mp3 player for her to store her entire collection in then you need something with alot more memory (depending on how large her collection is).

I embrace DavidW on two points:

1. The Sansa^Tm also carries enough "juice" for powering my Sony^TM monitor headphones ........ a wonderful sonic experience .........

2. An avg. bitrate of 192 is very satisfactory, (unless you're a dog or a Vulcan) ....... the key is to achieve "the best balance between quality and file size."

[longears]

An avg. bitrate of 192 is very satisfactory, (unless you're a dog or a Vulcan)

Or listen to opera and have half-decent cans.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Download a shell extension called AudioShell from a company called SoftPointer (Google it). Once installed, it adds extra tabs to the 'Properties' dialog that comes up in your context menu when you right-click an MP3 file. In the second of these two tabs, you can add or remove album art. You can also amend a fair few ID3 Tag fields. As to how you get the album art ... I do it manually! I just grab images off the Net, resize and drop 'em into the relevant folders, then do the above outlined procedure having first highlighted all the files in an album.

Well, I bought the 8 Gb Sansa. I am charging it via my ANCIENT USB 1.0 port now (maybe this is why it doesn't show up under "Removable Media" under "My
Computer" ).

I ripped the first CD for her using WMP (don't know what version it is, and apparently there is no way to find out--right clicking and going into "Properties" tells me nothing!). I looked in the folder where it placed the files, but I don't see any type of bitmap file (.jpg, .tif., .bmp) for the cover. The instructions for the Sansa say, "For correct Album Work functionality, the art and associated music file may need to be located in the same folder." How do I get it there? Is it supposed to be a .jpg? I want her to be able to browse the album covers, and not have to read tons of text. Thanks.

[BachQ]

Well, I bought the 8 Gb Sansa. I am charging it via my ANCIENT USB 1.0 port now (maybe this is why it doesn't show up under "Removable Media" under "My
Computer" ).

I ripped the first CD for her using WMP (don't know what version it is, and apparently there is no way to find out--right clicking and going into "Properties" tells me nothing!). I looked in the folder where it placed the files, but I don't see any type of bitmap file (.jpg, .tif., .bmp) for the cover. The instructions for the Sansa say, "For correct Album Work functionality, the art and associated music file may need to be located in the same folder." How do I get it there? Is it supposed to be a .jpg? I want her to be able to browse the album covers, and not have to read tons of text. Thanks.

Copy the artwork from Amazon (or wherever), and paste it directly onto the album box in Sansa.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Thanks, but I couldn't find an Album Box anywhere; I looked in all the folders ("music", "photos", etc.) I pasted the .jpg I swiped from Amazon into the folder with the MP-3 tracks, then tried pasting this into the "Music" folder, but an error message came up that said the .jpg filetype is not supported.

Anyway, at least I was able to transfer the tracks. I'm listening to them now. At 256 kpbs, they sound pretty good. I'll no doubt give in soon and get one of these new-fangled MP-3 thingies for myself! 

[longears]

Well, I bought the 8 Gb Sansa. I ripped the first CD for her using WMP

Good choice for the player.  Did you try CDex?  Really great, flexible, easy-to-use, free ripping software.

[drogulus]

    If it were only a question of sound quality, which means enough output to drive serious headphones, I might go with an iAudio or Sandisk. But I listen to lots of live rock music albums and of course classical music which is frequently broken up into many tracks per movement. Therefore I have to have gapless play. Only the iPods can give you this out of the box, though the other players can be modified to do this.

[Mark]

    If it were only a question of sound quality, which means enough output to drive serious headphones, I might go with an iAudio or Sandisk. But I listen to lots of live rock music albums and of course classical music which is frequently broken up into many tracks per movement. Therefore I have to have gapless play. Only the iPods can give you this out of the box, though the other players can be modified to do this.

I know that the amps on iPods are supposed to be very good, but I wasn't aware that iAudio's or Sandisk's were. Do you have any technical data on this, please?

[drogulus]

I know that the amps on iPods are supposed to be very good, but I wasn't aware that iAudio's or Sandisk's were. Do you have any technical data on this, please?

      No, I'm just relying on what the folks at the Hydrogenaudio Forums say about these players, as well as the high output spec for the iAudios.

[12tone.]

What is everyone's thoughts on the Microsoft Zune?  I don't have one, and I don't think it's available in Canada yet, but it's another alternative to Apple:

The older version:



Newer ones:

[Morigan]

Apple bashing aside, I have to admit I am the owner of an iPod...

I know it's limited format-wise, but it's the only good music player with an actual hard disk. I have a 30 gig one and it's absolutely full (of music only)... I'm probably going to go for a larger model next year.

I'm no big fan of Apple's computers, but I think the iPod is still one of the best portable music player around. Then again, I'm no audiophile and I simply encode my files to mp3 format (at the highest resolution I can get).

[drogulus]

     Am I the only one who insists on gapless? I can't imagine anyone would prefer those little interruptions in the middle of the music.

     About iPod sound quality, I saw a paper from a couple of years ago that demonstrated that the headphone output of a 3G iPod differed considerably from the line out due to a coupling capacitor which rolled off the bass. This has almost certainly been corrected since then. My iPod 2G Nano sounds pretty much the same through the headphone out as the line out (the line out is a little better, but they both sound flat).

[Gurn Blanston]

     Am I the only one who insists on gapless? I can't imagine anyone would prefer those little interruptions in the middle of the music.

     About iPod sound quality, I saw a paper from a couple of years ago that demonstrated that the headphone output of a 3G iPod differed considerably from the line out due to a coupling capacitor which rolled off the bass. This has almost certainly been corrected since then. My iPod 2G Nano sounds pretty much the same through the headphone out as the line out (the line out is a little better, but they both sound flat).

Maybe not, but I don't need it in the hardware technology. I have no problem with a small gap between movements since that is what you would see "live". Where movements are attacca I just rip them that way now, since I use VBR encoding. Back in the day when I used CBR, I had a nifty little program called MPEG Audio Scissors (which is an anti-name as you will see). In any case, you could simply edit out gaps or applause or whatever in Audacity, and then make a list of the 4 (or however many) files and then click and it would compile them very neatly into one large file. It claims to be compatible with VBR, but that's not true: it totally screws up the track length information. What the hell, I'm happy...




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Now playing: Brahms Symphony #3 in F Op 90 - Scottish CO / Mackerras - Symphony #3 in F Op 90 3rd mvmt - Poco allegretto

[MN Dave]

I'm now boycotting iTunes till they gets some decent-sounding files (yes, after I've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars).

Also, I am now re-ripping CDs to the Apple Lossless format. What's weird is some CD's files' bitrates are larger than others, so I assume just because you buy a CD doesn't mean you're necessarily getting the highest bitrate sound.

[Gurn Blanston]

Hmmm Is that so? 



Q

If you are ripping VBR, an average bitrate of 192 will use a sampling rate of 320 or more if it is needed for "busy" sections of music, and then drop down to (mine is 112, but it could be as low as 64) if there is nothing to fill it up. Thus, average. So yes, it IS so. Although since I can't see your picture, perhaps you were making a joke that I can't get...  



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Now playing: Scottish CO / Mackerras - Variations on a Theme of Haydn Op 56a pt 07 - Vivace

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

So, eh, how do I get those little thumbnails to display on my Sansa player?

[Gurn Blanston]

So, eh, how do I get those little thumbnails to display on my Sansa player?

Don't know how you do it through the player, but if you embed them in the file when you rip it, they will show with no further effort. WinAMP now supports album cover graphics, but I don't think Gracenote supplies them. Get one of those little freeware programs that adds the picture (or any picture) to the file. Then the Sansa will show them with no further input from you...



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Now playing: Seiler / Walch - Boccherini - G 062 Duet for 2 violins in Eb "La Bonne Notte"  3rd mvmt - Minuetto sostenuto - Trio

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Don't know how you do it through the player, but if you embed them in the file when you rip it, they will show with no further effort. WinAMP now supports album cover graphics, but I don't think Gracenote supplies them. Get one of those little freeware programs that adds the picture (or any picture) to the file. Then the Sansa will show them with no further input from you...

Great, thanks. Can you suggest such a freeware program? I looked at the EAC website and I didn't see anything about supporting album cover graphics.

[Mark]

Great, thanks. Can you suggest such a freeware program? I looked at the EAC website and I didn't see anything about supporting album cover graphics.

Google for, download and install AudioShell from a company called SoftPointer. Then, whenever you right-click on an MP3 file and select 'Properties', you'll be able to amend its tag fields (the parts that tell you who's playing what, etc), and add album art effortlessly.

[drogulus]

Maybe not, but I don't need it in the hardware technology. I have no problem with a small gap between movements since that is what you would see "live". Where movements are attacca I just rip them that way now, since I use VBR encoding. Back in the day when I used CBR, I had a nifty little program called MPEG Audio Scissors (which is an anti-name as you will see). In any case, you could simply edit out gaps or applause or whatever in Audacity, and then make a list of the 4 (or however many) files and then click and it would compile them very neatly into one large file. It claims to be compatible with VBR, but that's not true: it totally screws up the track length information. What the hell, I'm happy...

     Yeah, but......

     I don't want to re-join hundreds of music files in Audacity!! 

     Say you have a live album of rock music broken up into different tracks, some of which are songs and some index points in extended works (the same applies to many symphonies, oratorios, etc.). In my case I want to have both the whole album in one playlist, and the separate songs which I can add to different mixes. So I don't want to be required to turn the album into one file and then re-record it to separate out those tracks which should be separated. And it isn't the inter-track gaps between movements/songs that are the problem, it's the gaps in the music itself. How many joins do you want to do? Why should you be forced to do them?

     Maybe you have to be a Deadhead to grasp this issue (though I would think a recording of the Messiah would do it. too.).