Help me pick an MP3 and a File Player/Organizer

[Soundbuff]

I've got a new quiet computer now with about 250 gigs of empty storage waiting to be filled, and I'd like to make an intelligent choice when buying a good new MP3 player and also the best software for ripping CD's as well as playing and organizing music files on the computer, and transferring them to the MP3 player as needed.

Is there one brand of MP3 player that comes with a file player/organizer/CD ripper software that is better than the others? What's the best way to go as far as formats for sound quality, OGG? Is it best to use the software that comes with the MP3 player, or is it possible to use other software to organize and play music files on the computer, while still retaining the ability to transfer files to the MP3 player?

I'd like to get an MP3 player that has at least 40 gigs of space...with a nice interface...for classical music...with excellent sound...and hopefully an all-in-one software solution.

Thanks.

 

[Cordmore]

You could check out the Iriver hard-drive based series. They offer a drag-and-drop interface so that you can use any software you're comfortable with to do the encoding. It also supports ogg vorbis. I'm using an H120 and am very happy with it.

 

[fr4c]

buy an iPod. join the Dark Side

 

[Krishna]

I would suggest either the Rio Karma, or the Ipod. They both come with programs to sinc up, and both programs are not bad. In my experience I don't truly love Itunes or any such program that is bundled with a player. The best program BY FAR is Jriver Media Center to organize music and other media. It is simply the best, and you can get plugins for the Ipod and Karma(I believe) so you can use it to sync your music. Actually Windows Media Player 10 isn't that bad either.

For best quality you should use FLAC (if you get a Karma) or Apple Lossless (if you get an Ipod). My preference is FLAC because then you aren't tied to Apple players and software. To rip the music you should use EAC(Exact Audio Copy).

The Rio Karma arguably has the best sound of any DAP on the market, and in my very simple tests (basically going back and forth) it does sound better to me.

The only problem with the Karma is that it doesn't have 40gigs, so another alternative would be the Iaudio M3.

 

[titaniumx3]

Some may argue that the Creative Zen Touch or Zen Xtra give best quality. I have a zen touch and I get extremely clean sound from it. I can barely hear any background noise, and even then the noise is usually coming from the music itself, not the player. I think in terms of pure & neutral sound quality, the Zen's reign supreme. They Zen Touch comes in 20/40gb and the Zen Xtra in 30/40/60gb. Unfortunately they don't have the extra stuff like organisers, calenders or games. They don't look as good and are slighlty bulky compared to other HD players, but then again they do have very long battery lifes.

For subtle stuff like Classical music, the zens are highly recommended. I use alt-preset extreme mp3s ripped with EAC and they sound nearly perfect on my zen.

 

[chumley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krishna I would suggest either the Rio Karma, or the Ipod. They both come with programs to sinc up, and both programs are not bad. In my experience I don't truly love Itunes or any such program that is bundled with a player. The best program BY FAR is Jriver Media Center to organize music and other media. It is simply the best, and you can get plugins for the Ipod and Karma(I believe) so you can use it to sync your music. Actually Windows Media Player 10 isn't that bad either. For best quality you should use FLAC (if you get a Karma) or Apple Lossless (if you get an Ipod). My preference is FLAC because then you aren't tied to Apple players and software. To rip the music you should use EAC(Exact Audio Copy). The Rio Karma arguably has the best sound of any DAP on the market, and in my very simple tests (basically going back and forth) it does sound better to me. The only problem with the Karma is that it doesn't have 40gigs, so another alternative would be the Iaudio M3.

I own both. The RK has a nice sound. The 4G iPod, running either from Headphone Out or to an amp via a Sik Din from Line Out has better sound. Less compressed, more extension, detail, and overall accuracy.

This thread explains the sound quality difference between L/O and headphone out on the iPod...

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99015

The Rio Karma's sound is among the best. The 4G iPod's output, either headphone out, but particularly Line Out, is THE best among portable DAPs, IMO.

If something else comes along that sounds better than my 4G iPod, I'll buy it in a flash... until then, 4G 40GB iPod>Sik Din>Emmeline SR-71>Senn HD25-1s/Ety ER4S will be my everyday portable rig...

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundbuff I'd like to get an MP3 player that has at least 40 gigs of space...with a nice interface...for classical music...with excellent sound...and hopefully an all-in-one software solution.

Listen the iPod/iTunes combo isn't for everyone, but it sure sounds like it is for you.

Download iTunes and give it a try.

Lossless: FLAC (Karma, iAudio) or ALAC (iPod)
Lossy: LAME MP3s (everything) or newer formats like Ogg (iRiver, Karma, iAudio) or AAC (iPod) are good options.

 

[Jose Perez]

iAudio M3 40GB and MediaMonkey

Clean, simple, and sounds oh so sweet

 

[cannedheat]

I often rip CDs with EAC, and encode the resulting WAVs as LAME generated MP3s (usually alt-preset extreme) or as FLAC (lossless) files, and playback using Foobar 2000....but tagging FLAC files is difficult (if not impossible) but the lossless classical files sound very good.

For classical, I tend to use iTunes and encode as ALAC (Apple Lossless) or as 320 kbps AAC files. With this setup tagging (composer/artist/song title/etc) is much easier/automatic (even for classical CDs encoded as a lossless file).

Edit: I playback the iTunes-generated files with iTunes or Foobar2000.

250 GB will provide room for roughly 750 to 1,000 losslessly-compressed CDs. 256 kbps/320 kbps AAC or LAME-encoded MP3s may be sufficient for your needs, but I prefer FLAC or ALAC for classical. Additionally, FLAC or ALAC can be reconverted to WAV (exactly matching the files originally ripped from the CDs - this is why I use EAC for perfect rips), then can be converted to AAC or MP3, if disk space becomes tight.

All in one box solution is iPod/iTunes. You may decide to use EAC, LAME, and Foobar, but it is not necessary. My classical music, lossless compression, and the need to display tags pushed me to puchase 2 iPods. iTunes seems to do a good job ripping the CDs, finding the tag info, compressing the files, and playing back the compresssed files. I do use Foobar2000 for organization and playback of FLAC/AAC/MP3s (no Apple Lossless Support yet), but iTunes is a good start (no FLAC support).

Rio and Creative have strong MP3 players as well, but do not have an all-in-one solution that I am aware of. I am tempted to try the Zen Touch, but am waiting for an 80 GB player....

 

[DigDub]

looks like ums is also important to the thread starter, in which case, the karma and zen xtra or touch won't satisfy his needs since they need software to be installed to be used to transfer files. iriver, ipod or iaudio are some of the more suitable ones.