[d3ft]

Given that the vast majority of my music is in MP3 format (I own the originals I swear

) I'm looking for the best sounding portable solution. The main setups I could think of were:

MD - using optical lineout from soundcard to portable recorder or perhaps NetMD
CD/MP3 - such as an iRiver SlimX model
DAP - NJB3 or alternative

I'd probably be going ampless although comments about amped setups would also be appreciated.

 

[D-EJ915]

How high is the bit-rate of your MP3s? SP format MD uses 264? or something, and LP2 is 132.

 

[breez]

MD is naturally ruled out because compressing the MP3 again will only reduce the quality further.

 

[Hyena]

Quote:

Originally Posted by breez MD is naturally ruled out because compressing the MP3 again will only reduce the quality further.

Unless he uses the optical out on his soundcard. Although I do not see the how the benefits of using MD would outweigh the fact that you need to wait 80 minutes to get 80 minutes of music on your MD. So I agree. Discount MD.

 

[Kirosia]

My advice, if you have a lot of mp3s (5gig+up) that you want to carry around with you ALL THE TIME, then get a DAP. If you only plan on carrying a couple hundred songs, get a mp3/cd player.

 

[d3ft]

So there are no differences in sound quality notable enough to justify the extra hassle of MD? I was under the impression MD was the best portable sound going around.

 

[D-EJ915]

Quote:

Originally Posted by d3ft So there are no differences in sound quality notable enough to justify the extra hassle of MD? I was under the impression MD was the best portable sound going around.

MDs are the most portable portables, not necessarily the best sounding ones. MDs do sound good for portable use, but other things will be louder and might sound better with ultra-good 'phones. (really, with D66s, I can't tell the difference between my MZ-S1 and D-EJ2000 while using them portably).

But yeah, just skip MD if you're not already a die-hard fan, or think they're cool.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyena Unless he uses the optical out on his soundcard. Although I do not see the how the benefits of using MD would outweigh the fact that you need to wait 80 minutes to get 80 minutes of music on your MD. So I agree. Discount MD.

Actually, even then it's still recompression (with the jitter caused by the digital connection too). AFAIK, no MD's are lossless.

 

[D-EJ915]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar Actually, even then it's still recompression (with the jitter caused by the digital connection too). AFAIK, no MD's are lossless.

Hi-MD using PCM is lossless. Since there are like no Hi-MD discs around, you can reformat regular MD discs to Hi-MD, but you can't revert them.

 

[d3ft]

How do MP3/CD players fair soundwise against DAPs? I'm talking the best each has to offer.

 

[Hyena]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar Actually, even then it's still recompression (with the jitter caused by the digital connection too). AFAIK, no MD's are lossless.

I poorly worded my response. I was referring to recording optically in SP, which is 292 kbps, so even if his mp3s were 320, there would be minimal loss.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar (with the jitter caused by the digital connection too).

Is it that much of an issue, or are you stating a fact? I cannot believe that jitter could make that much of a difference with a portable audio player. (Not to mention that I believe that MD recorders include buffers to re-clock the data to correct timing errors. Anyways, can you really hear a jitter error of 3 picoseconds?

)

 

[sldonmtns]

I have an mp3/cd deck in my car, but what I have done lately is plugged my ipod into the aux input on my cd deck, mostly because all my songs are on the ipod, not mp3/cd, but I also like the sound quality better on the ipod.
I also have an portable mp3/cd player and I like the ipod sound better.
Another thing I've noticed with mp3/cd is that a tiny scratch or smudge on the cd could mess up a few songs, instead of just part of a song on an audio cd, because there is more music in less space on an mp3/cd.

 

[deltawalkerl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyena I poorly worded my response. I was referring to recording optically in SP, which is 292 kbps, so even if his mp3s were 320, there would be minimal loss.

But MD's compression algorithm is different from that of MP3 from a psychoacoustic standpoint right? So wouldn't more information be lost that way?

 

[D-EJ915]

Quote:

Originally Posted by deltawalkerl But MD's compression algorithm is different from that of MP3 from a psychoacoustic standpoint right? So wouldn't more information be lost that way?

When you compress something you lose information, no matter where on the chain or by how much, you always lose something, especially if it's a different algorithym.

 

[Hyena]

Quote:

Originally Posted by deltawalkerl But MD's compression algorithm is different from that of MP3 from a psychoacoustic standpoint right? So wouldn't more information be lost that way?

I need to start training myself to say "IMO" more often. I'm not entirely sure. They're both psychoacoustic coders, anyways. (Actually, I have a few MDs that were originally -api mp3s, recorded through my soundcard's optical out, and to my ears, the sound quality isn't that degraded)

It's an improvement over LP2 using SonicStage anyways. (Though by no means comparable to any other DAP.)