MP3s and such

[Thunder]

So, after Napster got hosed I never messed with MP3s, just bought a CD here and there.   I've come to realize that it is time to get hip and try out them thar newfangled MP3s again.   I'm a bit peeved at the MP3 players I've seen as they just seem to be alphabetized by artist name and you really can't organize them "your way."   Are there any fancier, not-too-pricey ones you can do this with?   

Also, I'm a bit puzzled by the song pricing.   For instance, some websites charge $1.00, but Legal Sounds the songs are like 9 cents a piece, how is that possible that the others survive?  Is it really legal?   seems too good to be true to me.   

Also, I've read that Ipods only play music from the Itunes website, or that you at least need some sort of decoder to play MP3s from other websites?  I'm a bit lost on this, would appreciate any feedback in terms of what to look for and avoid and maybe personal experiences that'd help.

[Vanish]

I covered some of this in game, but here it is a bit more detailed:

iPods can play more formats of music and video than any other device of it's kind. About all it cannot play is WMA with DRM and Rhapsody with DRM. It plays MP3s without DRM just fine, which is 98% of the MP3s out there. The advantage to iTunes tracks is they are in MP4 format which allows for higher quality audio at a higher rate of compression, so smaller files, better sound.

At this stage in the game, if you can justify the price, an iPod Touch is really the best option. Not only can you play music, you can play videos at a higher resolution and best of all: Apps from the AppStore, like the one DSV will be submitting for release likely sometime this week. (Yeah, yeah. Shameless plug) This even better if you have access to WiFi wherever you are. Catch up on your emails, facebook, twitter, hell even check Realm Status and show off your WoW Toons... all for free.

As for the price differences, some sites have dirt cheap prices because they offer only Indie music. Others are illegal as hell and just waiting to be brought down. If the site offers between $0.79 and $1.29 per track, it's probably legit.

[Thunder]

That is interesting to know about the Itouch - think I'll cool my jets for a bit and research these players a bit more.   As for the illegal aspect, that website is operated out of Russia, the sound files sound pretty decent to me.

[Vanish]

Oh, it' one of those. It is legal in Russia, but it is not legal if you are not a Russian citizen on Russian soil. The biggest of those sites was taken down last year after continuous pressure from American industries.

[OPIE]

As for website to download mp3's from. I forgot the name but I do believe there is one out there that has a monthly fee with unlimited downloads. Something like $14.99 a month. Pay $15 I could probably download at least 4000 mp3's in that month.

Then again you could always go the not so legal route and download lime wire. It's peer 2 peer file sharing though, so you always run the risk of viruses and actually getting caught and sued. :-p

[Thunder]

After peppering some poor girl at Best Buy with a load of questions, I walked out with a Nano, thanks for your help.

[Kindred]

After peppering some poor girl at Best Buy with a load of questions, I walked out with a Nano, thanks for your help.

Hot?

[Thunder]

Decent.

Having some problems figuring out how to lower the volume for headphones (no, lowering the volume bar doesn't make it get quieter), and how to make it sound good when I'm using the car adapter (the sound quality is like a 1970's alarm clock.

[Afterthought]

did it come with a car adapter, or is this something you got elsewhere?

[Thunder]

I bought the car adapter separately.

Edit - got the sound thingy fixed, blasted headphone jack was a lot tighter than I figured, guessing that'll fix the car adapter problem but it is too cold outside to bother with so will try tomorrow.

[Asus]

I still buy CDs but I rip the tracks from the CD to my music folder. Goes right on my iPod. It only takes 3 minutes and it is better quality than MP3s or songs on the iTunes store. Noticeable if you have a decent set of speakers (not the type for PCs) to play it on or some powerful portable hardware (headphone amp and expensive headphones). Having a hard copy is bonus.

[Vanish]

Meh, it's only better quality if you ramp up the settings to be so. (Default settings are identical to the iTunes Store). Doing so is, as always, a trade off. Higher quality audio most people can't differentiate for larger storage requirements. And that's not mentioning the additional physical storage required for the hard copy.

I stopped buying CDs years ago. While I do backup my songs to DVD (1 DL DVD holds a mother lovin' crap ton of MP4 files) to ensure I always have a copy, I can fit dozens of Audio CDs on just one of those DVDs.

It's a matter of what's important to you. FWIW, I have a very good sound system that I pump my music and videos through. I can discern no difference between CD audio and MP4 rips of CD audio at the default encoding specs. YMMV.

[Asus]

I don't notice any difference when I play them back on my PC speakers or headphones. Although when I hook up my ipod to my home theater system it can be. If I had a smaller iPod I wouldn't do lossless but I do since it all fits on the 160GB player.
I would buy songs online if they offered MP3 for less than the price of a CD (lossless for the same price as CD) and there were no restrictions.

[El DeBarge]

I rip everything to lossless. 

Back when I first got my iPod, I researched file formats and confronted myself with the choice on bit rates.  The method I used was to take a song that I had heard literally 100s of times (this one, if yer curious; doubt anyone has heard it--let mockitude ensue) and rip it to all the available AAC bit rates including apple's lossless.  My goal was to start going up the chain from less to more "resolution" to judge the smallest filesize where I could no longer discern any difference in sound quality.  At that time, I didn't make it past the default of 128 kbps, but I was using some fairly cheap headphones.  The bitrate for nearly everything on the iTunes store nowadays is 256 kbps.  When I got my Grado-SR60 headphones, I performed the same exercise using the same song, and this time made it up to 384 kbps.  I actually thought I could tell the diff between 384 and lossless at some points of the song, but I was too inconsistent to believe myself.  I still made the decision to rip to lossless, because it's "only" 3 times larger than 384 kbps (roughly, on average) and is a complete copy of the original CD--you can archive all the quality you paid for without needing the physical CD media (assuming you keep your iTunes library backed up).  I got a Denon AH-D200 last year, and I still get audiochub each time I put the damn things on.  Even tho the sound was better, I was in the same place in terms of the differentiating 384 kbps and lossless. 

I had to take the plunge myself to get a feel for the sound quality difference between different headphone models, but I'd be glad to let anyone in Omaha try out my headphone rig to see whether the extra cash translates to a worthwhile amount of increased audio enjoyment for their ears.  Just let me know. 

As long as I have the space on my iPod (and by this point, I'll always have the space), I'm a lossless guy. 

[Asus]

I'm getting close to my limit on my 160gb ipod with less than 30gb free. D:
But by far most of it is in lossless. I guess I'm going to have to convert my library to 256 vbr and keep a flac (lossless) copy for backup on my other PC (so I don't have to re-rip from CD).

Do yah think they will come out with a 320GB version any time soon?