Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Portable Source Gear › Considering re-ripping my whole CD collection if new iPod Touch comes in 128 or 256 GB.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Considering re-ripping my whole CD collection if new iPod Touch comes in 128 or 256 GB.

post #1 of 9
8/5/11 at 2:28pm
Thread Starter 

Hey everyone, I'm currently carrying a 60 GB 5th gen iPod Video, I haven't updated to more recent iPods because I'd rather have flash-based storage than HDD, because I can hear and feel the drive spinning on my current iPod. If the next generation of iPods feature 128 or 256 GB flash storage, I may consider re-ripping my whole CD collection to a higher bit-rate and maybe different format. I've been ripping mp3s at 128 kb/s, so that my whole collection could fit in the 60 GBs, should I move up to 192 or 320 kb/s? And should I stay with mp3s or go with AACs?

 

I can enjoy 128 mp3s under normal circumstances, but I cringe with the tear-up in some cymbals/snares in certain recordings, and some electronic music is pretty unlistenable.

Reply
post #2 of 9
8/5/11 at 6:24pm
I'm considering - and dreading - the same thing. I have about half of my collection ripped to AAC. Sooner or later, I want to get a bigger iPod and run a proper music server.

Quality matters, so I think I'm going to go for ALAC rips, lossless. Even 128 or 256 wouldn't hold the collection, but I'd be able to get a couple hundred favorites on an iPod. That would be good enough. And then I'd be able to have all lossless files on the home server, while using an iPad as a big remote control.

So I'd recommend ALAC or lossless. Thinking about it, it would be awesome to have a couple thousand recordings on an iPod. But, say, 200 favorite albums would keep me happy for a few weeks.
Reply
post #3 of 9
8/6/11 at 5:00am
Thread Starter 

I have considered lossless, but I really do prefer to carry all of my collection instead of just a fraction. I haven't taken any blind listening test, but I'm pretty much sure I wouldn't be able to distinguish between 320 kb/s mp3 and lossless, and if I would, it would probably be if I were home, with my static material, and that makes it null, because I can just pop the CD in instead of using the iPod.

Reply
post #4 of 9
8/6/11 at 6:10am

Not sure if it helps ..... 

 

My iPod Touch G4 (32 Gb)

 

Currently on board = 272 full albums, 3465 songs, around 29 Gb.

 

All ripped to lossless, then converted to 256 aac for the ipod.  I use lossless for listening and archiving at home.  Every new album I get, after ripping I immediately transcode a 256 aac copy to a directory just for my ipod.

 

I ran foobar a while ago, and ripped (EAC) a couple of reasonably HQ albums (one Jazz, one Rock) both to lossless, then again to 256 aac.  I mornalised the audio then used the Foobar abx plugin to see if I could tell the difference.  I can't - so for my portable I see no sense in going any higher bit rate.

 

Even when I travel (longhaul 2 weeks around the world - go every year on business), I wouldn't have a hope of listening to even 10% of everything I have on the iPod - so 256 aac all I need on a 32Gb device.

Reply
post #5 of 9
8/6/11 at 6:51am
Thread Starter 

It does help. I like to have my whole collection because often I like to show people albums they should listen to, when hanging out at a friend-s house or similar environment, and I can't plan in advance what albums to bring, because they often pop to my head in random moments. iTunes says I have 7449 songs, some of those aren't worth bringing on the iPod (bootlegs and some things I very rarely listen to, around 500 songs or so), the content that is synced to the iPod totals at around 55 GB (pretty much the full capacity of the iPod). Everything is 128 kb/s, except albums I borrowed from friends of mine, which I ripped to lossless, because of the lack of CDs in my possession.

Reply
post #6 of 9
8/6/11 at 7:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackened View Post

It does help. I like to have my whole collection because often I like to show people albums they should listen to, when hanging out at a friend-s house or similar environment, and I can't plan in advance what albums to bring, because they often pop to my head in random moments. iTunes says I have 7449 songs, some of those aren't worth bringing on the iPod (bootlegs and some things I very rarely listen to, around 500 songs or so), the content that is synced to the iPod totals at around 55 GB (pretty much the full capacity of the iPod). Everything is 128 kb/s, except albums I borrowed from friends of mine, which I ripped to lossless, because of the lack of CDs in my possession.



Don't rule out the possibility of ripping everything to lossless but using lossy on your iPod. I have 3383 songs on my 32GB Touch, mostly higher-bitrate MP3, but I'm sure there are a few 128 or 160kbps ones in there. I never put lossless on a portable player.....mine are FLACs, and they stay on the hard drive at home. My iTunes library is a subset of my MP3 library(a duplicate of that subset, actually) but if you're worried about hard drive space, iTunes can convert your ALACs to 128kbps AAC on-the-fly, I think.

Reply
post #7 of 9
8/6/11 at 9:47am

I have 290 lossless albums on my 160gb iPod Classic and they don't even come close to using up all the available space!  Now, I am on the hunt for even more CDs!

Reply
post #8 of 9
8/6/11 at 12:59pm

Hmmm, Fortunately I've already started reripping my CD collection I rip DIRECT FROM THE CD using DBpoweramp into 4 formats; 192 M4a CBR, 256 M4a CBR (I use this on most of my portable devices, as it is the Itunes standard) FLAC, and ALAC. If they release the new Itouch in 256GB I'm gonna shove ALAC on it.

Reply
post #9 of 9
8/6/11 at 2:20pm
Any details on how to get iTunes to convert ALAC to AAC without having to maintain multiple libraries/volumes?

My iTunes knowledge tapered off about three years ago. I've been procrastinating over re-ripping into ALAC. I know I have to one of these days.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Portable Source Gear
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Portable Source Gear › Considering re-ripping my whole CD collection if new iPod Touch comes in 128 or 256 GB.