[wakeride74]

I have over 400 cd's and am considering going digital and dumping my portable cd player source for a source that will hold all my music and any new stuff. I know very little about the ipod type sources but I do know that what I want will need to hold a lot of music and should be capable of downloading WMA, ATRAC, and MP3. I would most likely download many of my cd's straight to my computer and then transfer to my source but I don't want to buy some funky conversion software and I don't want to restrict myself from the ATRAC and MP3 downloads. I am open to any brand and have no set price range, any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[Zanth]

Isn't Sony the only supporter of ATRAC? If so, me thinks you are stuck with the HD3 or whatever it is called. 20 gig capacity, compressed properly you will have no problem with your cd collection in one spot. It does MP3 but I don't know about WMA.

 

[videocrew]

no offense, but if your music is on CD, you're already digital...

 

[Aman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth Isn't Sony the only supporter of ATRAC? If so, me thinks you are stuck with the HD3 or whatever it is called. 20 gig capacity, compressed properly you will have no problem with your cd collection in one spot. It does MP3 but I don't know about WMA.

I believe it DOES support WMA, but beware! I have not heard all good things about this particular player, and I believe it's the only player that supports Sony's ATRAC file type.

Is it absolutely necessary that it has to support ATRAC? It may be best just to switch to another service that sells music in .mp3 .aac or something like that.

 

[wakeride74]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aman I believe it DOES support WMA, but beware! I have not heard all good things about this particular player, and I believe it's the only player that supports Sony's ATRAC file type. Is it absolutely necessary that it has to support ATRAC? It may be best just to switch to another service that sells music in .mp3 .aac or something like that.

I don't care much about ATRAC so I'd be happy to scratch that from the list if it would create more options for me.
And yes videocrew I know cd players are digital so my question would be what is the term for the ipod type source or what is the term for switching from one to the other?

Ok so any source that would support WMA and MP3... what should I consider?

 

[Zanth]

He is being picky with the terminology. Most would say compressed audio formats (though with the proper unit, you could use lossless!) Non-Redbook formats would work as well. Regardless, we know what you are after, portable storage for your tunes.

I'm not too up on what does WMA well. I have an iPod and like the sound. I rip to ALAC (apple lossless) and what I have in mp3 remains there. The Rio Karma I loved the sound...it did FLAC (free lossless codec), mp3, ogg vorbis, not sure about WMA.

Iriver is a good solid company, I think they do WMA. this could be your best bet.

 

[Twombly]

Karma will do WMA. ATRAC is generally regarded as absolute crap, so I have no idea why that was on the list in the first place. I personally would go for the Rio Karma, an iPod, or a used iRiver H-series if the ridiculous markup doens't scare you first.

 

[Gigabomber]

honestly, I wish i was in your position.
I have a ton of mp3s and I want to go CD (or wav, however you want to look at it).
You are probably going to regret ripping and compressing your cds as you upgrade your system cause your going to get more revealing and CDs, under hd or sa cds, are higher quality sound. All of this is largely dependant on your ears though.

 

[gloco]

IMHO, it's not worth the hassle. Imagine the amount of time it will take to encode all those cds to whatever format you choose?

 

[THESANTINI]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gloco IMHO, it's not worth the hassle. Imagine the amount of time it will take to encode all those cds to whatever format you choose?

what is this kid supposed to do then?

 

[wakeride74]

Let me just clarify here... I am not familiar with sound quality of any "portable audio storage" devices or the sound quality of MP3 vs. ATRAC vs. WMA. I am in the process of doing a bit of separation between my home and "portable" set up. My Headroom Supreme will be upgraded and designated for home use with my HD650's for CD's, movies, and gaming; my portable rig for the office I am trying to shrink from the Supreme to a smaller amp and CD case and player to portable audio storage of some sort. I will not be tossing or transferring "all" my CD's not will I be discontinuing CD purchases. If I want to listen to CD's at work I can still bring them in but I'd like the options and again I want to be able to transfer some of my favorite CD's into a portable rig and be able to download MP3 singles and what not as well. The Rio Karma looks like a possibility... any others?

 

[wakeride74]

I posted another thread in Portable Audio (just covering all my bases) with this same question. After digging a bit I think I may have narrowed my choices down to the Iriver H10 20GB or the Zen Touch 20GB. I know there is about $100 difference between the two and the Zen does not have the picture screen which I don't care about. I just want the one that will be most user friendly for me and my PC and of course the best sound production. So which one do I get?