[stymie miasma]

Hello,

Let me be frank with you all - I have no real knowledge regarding compressed audio formats and DAPs. I have been trying to learn some things, and am becoming slowly familar with the jargon. Please be patient with me!

Here is my situation:

I would like to purchase an iPod - not immediately - but sooner rather than later. Given the rather dubious quality control issues associated with the G4 iPods, I have been leaning towards the iPod Mini. In the back of my mind, however, I am wondering whether 4Gb capacity will be sufficient. Bear in mind, that I do not plan on using my computer to store music, so the "rotating 4Gb playlist" idea, while appealing, is not really applicable for my purposes.

To get a feel for the capacities that I will be dealing with, I have downloaded iTunes. The goal is to begin ripping CDs I would like to have on the iPod. Hopefully, this will give me a grasp on the r/ship between file size and audio quality, and let me know whether 4Gb will be sufficient or limiting.

What I would like to know is: what iTunes settings are most people using for ripping their CDs? Keep in mind that the sole reason for me ripping CDs is for transfer to the iPod - so lossless is not required. I anticipate that once the songs are transfered to the iPod, they will be deleted from my hard drive (for space reasons more than anything).

An important consideration is that I may eventually choose a DAP other than the iPod - a DellDJ for example. For this reason, it would seem prudent for me to rip using the MP3 encoder. I have been looking at the EAC/iTunes Integration over at Hydrogen Audio. Is this the best way to go, or is using the standard 320kbs MP3 settings in iTunes sufficient?

I would like to think that my tin ears can discern low-quality audio. FWIW, I can certainly pick the difference between LP2 and LP4 on my old MD, but have a harder time picking differences between LP2 and "uncompressed".

Any advice will be most appreciated!

 

[blessingx]

Since you aren't archiving, there's a couple things you may consider for your situation, which differs from many.

The EAC/LAME process (I'm not familiar with the iTunes scripts, thanks for the link) while producing excellent quality, can be slooooow. Depending on the condition of your CDs, other options may be preferable. While I use EAC for some severely scratched discs, I tend to use iTunes (w/EC) to rip most of the time.

Coupled with your space concerns, pick your player first. It would be good to know what your codec options are. It would be best to test yourself, but many find AAC or Ogg acceptable at lower bitrates. If going for a 4GB player I certainly wouldn't encode in 320 kbps (in any format). You may want to check out
this old file size comparison. When I had a 5GB 1G iPod, I found 224 AAC to be an excellent compromise between size and quality (think difference between it and 320 far less than 320 and lossless). Others feel it's even lower.

Also you may find this link useful. It's the iTunes (branched FhG) encoder, not LAME, but you can get an idea about the two iTunes options.

 

[stymie miasma]

Thanks for the links and suggestions blessingx - I'll look into them!

After I had posted, I performed a "test-rip" at 320kbs. I used the results to do some maths and realised that I was going to be pushing the iPod Mini capacity rather quickly! I'll have to play around a lot more, but again, thanks for the advice.