CDs ? MP3s?

^ Altec Lansing? It's surely not a bad brand, but switching to a 2.1 system could be a huge improvement at little cost.

My personal recommendation:

I prefer CD's, but nearly always end up listening to MP3's.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: Slartibartfast wrote: Mr ProgFreak wrote: Most often? I think I listen to MP3 almost exclusively these days. All legal of course ... About 90% is my own CD collection ripped to MP3, the others are mostly from eMusic.com, but also from Amazon MP3 (they opened in Germany about two months ago). I rarely ever listen to CD directly anymore ... but I still listen to vinyl, and DVD-Audio. You may have mentioned this in another thread, but what bitrate do you like.  I do WMA and I've heard that a WMA can be done at half the bit rate of any MP3 bit rate and you get the same quality (might just be Microsoft propaganda or something). I think that WMA might still have some advantages over MP3 at really low bitrates (e.g. a 64kbit WMA will sound better than a 64kbit MP3). But at this level of compression both formats can't compete with the original signal.

I rip everything to 64kbit WMA. I do it out of habit, since I've been ripping CDs ever since I only had a 4 GB desktop way back when. While its obviously not at CD quality, I don't get any knee-jerk reactions about the less-than-perfect-sound. Plus, it helps me save space. I already have 40 GB of music that I've ripped from my CDs... imagine re-ripping all of it at a higher bit rate? That'd be interminable torture.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: I think that WMA might still have some advantages over MP3 at really low bitrates (e.g. a 64kbit WMA will sound better than a 64kbit MP3). But at this level of compression both formats can't compete with the original signal. I use CDex to rip the CDs to MP3 ... it uses the LAME encoder, and I configure it to a variable bitrate at highest quality settings (q=0). Usually that results in average bitrates around 256kbit. I wouldn't recommend using any less with MP3 ... with WMA I think I would also use 256kbit, mainly to be on the safe.

Yeah when I read that the WMAs were as good as the MP3s at half the bit rate, I totally re-ripped everything to 64 WMA.  I think the reloading was what did my Creative Labs player in, because in my first round I started out MP3 at a higher rate.  I think it was 256.  Then redid everything at 128 MP3 then again at 64 WMA.  I've been happy with the 64 bit WMA.  Plus I'd rather blow my brains out than re-rip everything to a higher rate and run into that whole space problem thing on my Zune.  Still when that wears out and the technology improves, you never know.

I still have the CDs for best quality listening and I can't see departing with the "hard" copies.


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 08 2009 at 21:28

SaltyJon wrote: I agree with Slartibartfast, in that I listen to my collection of CDs as WMA files.  Searching through my Zune software is much easier than searching through all my CDs, and while at school my mp3 player is what keeps me sane walking to and from classes.

I like my Zune.  My first player a Creative Labs one, had a hard drive failure.  My Toshiba Gigabeat filled up and starting misbehaving, plus their support was terrible.  It's still around for in pinch.  Zune's got enough capacity that is should last me for a while.  So cool to be able to carry my whole damn collection around with me.


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 08 2009 at 21:26

I agree with Slartibartfast, in that I listen to my collection of CDs as WMA files.  Searching through my Zune software is much easier than searching through all my CDs, and while at school my mp3 player is what keeps me sane walking to and from classes. 

Mr ProgFreak wrote: Most often? I think I listen to MP3 almost exclusively these days. All legal of course ... About 90% is my own CD collection ripped to MP3, the others are mostly from eMusic.com, but also from Amazon MP3 (they opened in Germany about two months ago). I rarely ever listen to CD directly anymore ... but I still listen to vinyl, and DVD-Audio.

You may have mentioned this in another thread, but what bitrate do you like.  I do WMA and I've heard that a WMA can be done at half the bit rate of any MP3 bit rate and you get the same quality (might just be Microsoft propaganda or something).


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 08 2009 at 15:58

yea i rarely listen to cds directly, its all mp3 ripped from cds. i think 20% of my music collection is a mix of trades, D/L (legal and unregulated), and other various sources...

Music ripped from my CDs, of course.

I read that blank VHS are about to go extinct.  Time for one of favorite cartoons whenever this subject comes up: