[neil]

A while back, pre-head-fi, I used to encode my own MP3s.. 320k VBR, entire albums. I used Media Jukebox (registered) to do so, and I essentially had just that, a nice huge jukebox of MP3s to choose songs from. This meant that instead of shuffling through a large CD case for something to listen to, I could just click-click-click and I'm listening to whatever I want to listen to.

Since I've received my portable amp several months ago, and found an old Sony portable CDP, I haven't listened to MP3s for music at all (other than the occassional download [i.e. Interplanet Janet from Schoolhouse rock via Morpheus]).

But just yesterday, I rode my bike to the office, and I didn't even have my CD case with me. I plugged my Grados into my Dell notebook and loaded up Media Jukebox. You know what? It didn't sound bad at all. I mean, clearly, its not like my portable CDP/amp combo -- but to be entirely honest, it sounds quite good. The convenience to quality ratio is high.

Right now, my MP3 directory is 2.3 GB. There's plenty of stuff I've encoded that I will probably never listen to again -- but for the stuff I listen to often, I think I'm gonna do some more encoding this afternoon.

 

[hongda]

if you wanna try another encoder, check out CDEX, I think they have it over at download.com as freeware. offers lots of encoding algorithms. Do the Dell notebooks have line outs on them? maybe Dell-amp-gradoes

 

[neil]

You know what? They don't have a line-out. Bah. They just have headphone out, input, and line-in. BTW, the encoding method I'm using is GoGo MP3 VBR (high quality - 320). Media Jukebox also has a ton of different plug-in encoders, including Ogg Vorbis. I just prefer the MP3, because one day I may actually pick up a portable CDP that supports MP3 format too -- and I may pack in a few albums in one (i.e. all Radiohead albums on a single CD -- how about that?)

 

[aeberbach]

This guy (http://www.r3mix.net/) has a great page about MP3 encoding. He compares several encoders and shows frequency response of the results. I've encoded many using LAME (320K, VBR, joint stereo), and through an average PC soundcard I can't tell the difference between MP3 and CD. I think it matters only when you playback through gear that will expose the loss of information in the MP3.

 

[pigmode]

I've just installed the associated apps for encoding/decoding Mpc files. Mpc is supposed to be of higher quality than Mp3, and smaller to boot.

They definitely sound good. I've previously been using the Insane preset for RazorLame.