[Lord Melch]

Hi All,

Well I am new to the world of quality portable Hi-Fi. Always been a music lover but an Amp and Speakers type of chap.

Please bear with me.. I hope this is the correct area, I did look for a newbie area.

Well recently travel has dictated music. I am afraid to say I had an old iPOD and (at least not the default) entry level headphones.

Well after noticing the various earphones in use on the train trip in, I luckily found the chaps at Headphones & Earphones | HiFi Headphones Store - iPod earphones, wireless headphones, in ear headphones, Sennheiser headphones plus Grado, Audio Technica & Skullcandy - HiFi Headphones and after many many emails and reading I spent some money and now have IE8's with Comply T400 Foam Tips.

An order placed for Custom sleeves also, although I must say the Comply's were a fantastic upgrade.

Has anyone gone from Comply to Custom sleeves I'd be interested in opinions

Custom Earphone Sleeves - Custom Mould Ear Gels - for Shure, Etymotic, Westone HiFi Headphones

So after starting to appreciate my IE8's I noticed

that I was ripping my music at the lowest iTunes setting..

OK after some more reading I went iTunes Apple Lossless - WOW now that's more like it.

Next problem my iPOD was full. OK no problem (apart from financially) BOING and a 160gb iPOD was purchased..

Spend along time re-ripping my CD's only to listen and find lots of crackles..

Needless to say unimpressed.

That I believe was down to the doggy old PC I was using, and I am trying again on my Laptop which seems much better.

I do have a rather nice machine available which has Windows XP x64 BUT of course iTunes won't work it seems on XP x64..

Can I ditch iTunes altogether and somehow rip in Windows XP x64 to Disk and then to my iPOD ? (without moving to Windows 7 x64)

OK off to rip some more sounds..

Any tips appreciated.

Cheers,
LM

 

[3DCadman]

Try dbpoweramp. One of the best programs out there for for this purpose, plus it does so much more.

dBpoweramp: CD Ripper & Audio Converter. Secure ripping to mp3, FLAC, m4a, Apple Lossless & WMA

 

[Lord Melch]

3DCadman,

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3DCadman /img/forum/go_quote.gif Try dbpoweramp. One of the best programs out there for for this purpose, plus it does so much more. dBpoweramp: CD Ripper & Audio Converter. Secure ripping to mp3, FLAC, m4a, Apple Lossless & WMA

Thanks for the tip. Sorry to be a Dufus, so do I used say CD Ripper to rip the CD's to Apple Lossless, copy to say a USB disk and import into iTunes on a PC iTunes will run on ? or can I ditch iTunes altogether ?

Cheers,
LM

 

[3DCadman]

Itunes needs the music to be somewhere permanent. If you put it on a USB stick, I think itunes will remember that location. Once the USB stick is removed, next time you try to play the music, itunes will show an error. Do you have a permanent "music library" location?

 

[Marcus_C]

There are also a few other programs which can manage music on an ipod with third party plug-ins, foobar2000 can for one.

 

[Lord Melch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3DCadman /img/forum/go_quote.gif Itunes needs the music to be somewhere permanent. If you put it on a USB stick, I think itunes will remember that location. Once the USB stick is removed, next time you try to play the music, itunes will show an error. Do you have a permanent "music library" location?

I could use a large USB disk I have - iTunes replacement is the way to go methinks..

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarcusC party plug-ins, foobar2000 can for one.

I'll have a look thanks.

 

[3DCadman]

Lord Melch, I might have misunderstood you a bit. You can certainly use a USB stick to COPY the music to your PC itunes would run on, as long as they stay there.

Marcus C, foobar2000 might be a bit overwhelming for a newbie

It was for me as a seasoned veteran!

 

[Marcus_C]

3 years ago I would agree with you but now it is much easier to undertsand than when I first installed it and it's easier to use straight up. Plus it's just a question of asking on the forum.

@OP, do you mean a usb stick or a usb drive?

 

[JakmanFirby]

LOL Doesnt apple lossless take like HEAPS of memory?

 

[Marcus_C]

It's about the same as flac, compression is about 50% generally

 

[RASeymour]

Media Monkey is a good music organizer too. I believe it works with Apple files.

Second DB Poweramp as a great ripper/converter.

 

[Lord Melch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JakmanFirby /img/forum/go_quote.gif LOL Doesnt apple lossless take like HEAPS of memory?

Yep lot's of disk space but sounds fantastic..

 

[Lord Melch]

Ladies and Gents,

Now a proud owner of dBpoweramp and Floola - Excellent stuff no more iTunes and dbpoweramp is Multi-CPU Aware

Great tips thanks.

Cheers,
LM

 

[sotodefonk]

another good and free program is CDex I had been using it, and is simple and functional

 

[Lord Melch]

Superb Prog's both dBpoweramp and Floola thanks for the tips.

Ripping Lossless as we type - top stuff

Cheers
LM