Recommendations for MP3 vs I POD

[Audio Flynn]

I am set on buying the S4 headphones.

I had an I pod 5 years ago but the kids borrowed it and away it went.

What player would you recommend?

I am considering Cowon, Sansa Fuze(concerned about audio quality on this one) and maybe an i pod for Apple lossles storage.

[Jeff-H]

There are several really good digital music players out there, including the Zune. However, I am really partial to the Apple products. There are so many accessories available for Apple products and to me that makes a huge difference. You just have so many more options for headphones, cases, portable speakers, in home speakers and everything else when you buy an Apple product.

As far as music quality goes, the Apple Lossless format is as good as anything out there, IMO. Unless you have some special needs or are an extremely serious audiphile, Apple Lossless should more than serve your needs.

I was a big fan of the Apple iTouch for several years, but I recently bought my wife a 16G iPod Nano and have been really impressed with it. It is a neat little device, easy to use and extremely small and light. My advice is to buy as much storage as you can afford. I can't remember what the largest storage capacity is for the Nano, but the iPod classic will hold 160G I believe.

I hope this helps a little bit.

[Audio Flynn]

Thanks Jeff

I am close to selectiong the I Pod classic 150G.

I think the ease of Itunes use and the Apple losless format may be easier sinece I work 60 plus hours a wek in the auto industry.

I was considering FLAC more in the past weeks but the 150Gig is quite atractive for lossless catalog.

I just need to know how easily I can put my vinyl inot Aplle Lossless.

[BLSamuel]

I have a Creative Labs Zen xTra 60 GB and it sounds pretty good but no lossless format just mp3.

I've read a lot of good things about Cowon players but have no experience with them and know no one who has one.

The iPods seem to be the most popular choice and there are tons of accessories available. Not so much for other players.

If I was looking for a new player I think I'd start with the Cowon and iPod. the 160 GB iPod classic would probably be my choice... The more music it will hold at good quality the better.

I still haven't started my project to digitize my vinyl but am thinking as I only have mp3 now I'll want to burn to CD or store complete file from which to rip to mp3.

[Kbuzbee]

Okay, I'm sure this is a stupid question but how do you "use" Apple Lossless? If you own an iPod and buy music through iTunes is that the format it's in or do you have to do something "special"?

Thanks,

Ken

[m00n]

I have a Zune and really like it. Sounds great and several audio formats. Plus, they have their own iTunes style software app to synch with and and online audio store.

[synergyfreak]

i have the zune hd for xmas i received and love it especially for movies, videos, and music sound great with my x5's

[Jeff-H]

Okay, I'm sure this is a stupid question but how do you "use" Apple Lossless? If you own an iPod and buy music through iTunes is that the format it's in or do you have to do something "special"?

Thanks,

Ken

You have to go into "edit, preferences, import settings and then click on 'import settings". There you can change to the Apple Lossless format. Once you select that option everything you import from CD or buy from the Apple Store will import as Apple Lossless. The standard setting is ACC format, and for me that is fine. I am not a serious audiophile, but I did import several albums in ACC and Apple Lossless. Through my Klipsch headphones and my Bose headphones I could not tell a huge difference in sound. Not enough for me to justify doubling the file size; even though storage space is not an issue for me.

Anyway, that's how you do it, and it's really easy.

[Kbuzbee]

Ah, I see, thanks Jeff, you're right, very easy. Hadn't really noticed it before when this thread had a couple mentions...

I changed the setting and pulled a CD in at Apple Lossless. Worked great. Turned songs from 4mb to 23mb! That's a sizable increase! I figured, a file that much bigger should sound totally amazing through my X5s. Well, like you, I really couldn't hear a difference from the same song in AAC 256kbps. (on an iPad if that matters?) didn't try d/ling anything from the iTunes store in Apple Lossless but I'd assume similar size and quality?

Now, like you say, I too am no audiophile. Maybe if I had better (or younger?) ears, I'd hear quality increase. Or perhaps if it was played through some state of the art system? But this is how I listen (x5s regularly, Bose QC on planes and such) on a 20gb iPod or now, on my iPad. So if I can't hear the difference, why take up the space?

Thanks for the info.

Ken

[skonopa]

First to answer the original post.

I have several iPods as well as a couple of Creative players.

For listening in the car, I use an iPod Classic 160 gig. Also use that for listening to on long trips, such as when flying to Vegas on business and or out west on ski trips. I also have an iPod Touch (with 32 gigs) that I sometimes use at work. Playing games on it is pretty cool as well.

However, for working out at the gym, I got my trusty ol Creative Zen. The one I have has 8 gigs of capacity, which is plenty for putting a decent enough selection of music on for working out at the gym. I still got an ancient Creative MuVo Slim with a whopping 512 megs of capacity, which still works and sound darn good to this day. I find I often take that to the pool if I want to sit back and listen, since I am not as concerned if that one accidently got dropped in the drink or what have yea. Yeah, I could've just gotten an iPod Nano, but as I change the music on those devices much more, I like being able to just plug the Creative players in and they just show up as a flash drive on my PC that I can just copy the songs onto like any other drive, and not have to go through something like iTunes.

I have just recently gotten a pair of S4s to replace a pair of Sony headphones that I was using the past few years at the gym that finally died (I do have a pair of Klipsch Custom-3s as well, but I am not going to take a $300 pair of headphones to the gym). The Creative Zen sounds really good through the S4s, and I just use regular MP3s (typically 320 kbps). For working out, I cannot justify using that much more space for a lossless compression, especially when I only have 8 gigs on that thing.

I've done the lossless compared to high bit-rate MP3 comparisons myself, even on my big RF-7 setup. I personally could not really tell, or not tell enough of a difference to justify taking up the extra space for the lossless. Maybe I am just not as anal about the format as some folks on here are. Having said that, I do find that I'd prefer to just listen to the CD itself on the main stereo system and then rip everything into high bit-rate MP3 (at least 192, but prefer 256 and above) for convienience and mobile use. Works and sounds perferectly good to me.

You have to go into "edit, preferences, import settings and then click on 'import settings". There you can change to the Apple Lossless format. Once you select that option everything you import from CD or buy from the Apple Store will import as Apple Lossless.

Setting the import settings in iTunes has nothing to do with what format you'll get from the Apple iTunes Store. The old "DRMed" versions where all in 128 kbps AAC format, regardless of what the "import" setting was in the iTunes software itself. This new DRM-free "Plus" format are all in 256 kbps AAC format. Definitly an improvement though (just getting rid of that annoying DRM is a huge improvement), but seems they jacked up some of the prices on there. Unfortuantly, there is no option to buy music in "lossless" format in the iTunes store. I personally don't buy any music through iTunes myself (I've only gotten the occasional game for my Touch through iTunes), prefering to get it through eMusic or Amazon MP3 instead, but I have several friends (including my younger brother) that has gotten music through the iTunes Store and never seen it offered in Lossless.

[Stocklone]

If music is your primary concern, I would go with Cowon. They have the best sounding players. Period. The battery life destroys everything else on the market. I have had a D2 for over two years. It can be upgraded with SD cards. Right now I have 24GB of space. When the 32GB cards get cheap I will have 40GB. The S9 is much more sleek but no SD. The screen is very nice on the S9. The V5 has an SD slot and is also very good for movies with a large high resolution screen that supports all kinds of video formats. Cowon products usually support a ton of formats so you can find the format that's perfect for you. I've been nothing but happy with mine and I will definitely buy another Cowon product if this one ever dies.

If music is not your concern and you want to play games and surf the internet then go get an iPod Touch. But that's what I have my Android phone for.

[Jeff-H]

You have to go into "edit, preferences, import settings and then click on 'import settings". There you can change to the Apple Lossless format. Once you select that option everything you import from CD or buy from the Apple Store will import as Apple Lossless.

Setting the import settings in iTunes has nothing to do with what format you'll get from the Apple iTunes Store. The old "DRMed" versions where all in 128 kbps AAC format, regardless of what the "import" setting was in the iTunes software itself. This new DRM-free "Plus" format are all in 256 kbps AAC format. Definitly an improvement though (just getting rid of that annoying DRM is a huge improvement), but seems they jacked up some of the prices on there. Unfortuantly, there is no option to buy music in "lossless" format in the iTunes store. I personally don't buy any music through iTunes myself (I've only gotten the occasional game for my Touch through iTunes), prefering to get it through eMusic or Amazon MP3 instead, but I have several friends (including my younger brother) that has gotten music through the iTunes Store and never seen it offered in Lossless.

Thank you for the correction and the information. I thought that since I had my import setting set on ACC that was the reason my iTunes purchases came through that way. I haven't bought a ton of stuff from the iTunes Store either. So the only way the Apple Lossless comes into play is when you are importing music from an outside source, such as CD's or existing mp3's; correct?

You can import something from the iTunes Store and convert it to Apple Lossless, but that wont be the same, will it?

Sorry for that bad bit of information Ken, I thought I had it all right, not just part.

[Kbuzbee]

No worries, Jeff. This is all new territory for me. My tests with Apple Lossless leave me not wanting to lose that much space anyway... I even changed the import cd setting back down to AAC as I just don't hear the difference. Maybe I'd care if I was converting back and forth but all I do is d/l the AAC files to my iPod/iPad so that isn't an issue. No real desire to change over to any other brand like a Cowon as the Apple products sound pretty good to me. Maybe if I ever hear one, I'll rethink that but, for now, it's all good.

Ken