Question to Zune/iPod Users

[AudioDwebe]

My question is about ripping sound quality. The Zune's best quality is 192 kbps. With the iPod, you can go lossless or, if you choose, you can rip music at 320 kbps in AAC.

Forgive me if this is a real stupid question, but here goes: Is the Zune recording quality lacking that of the iPod as far as sound quality goes? I feel a bit silly because my Zune, with music ripped at 192 kbps sounded superior to my 3d gen iPod using AAC at 320 kbps.

How is that possible? Tin ears? Placebo effect? What?

If anyone can explain this to me I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.

Ciao

 

[Clincher09]

You can rip music at 320kbps in mp3 format with the Zune.

 

[zip22]

yeah, the zune supports 320kbps mp3 and aac.

as to why it sounded better with lower bitrate files, the zune could be driving your headphones better. a number of people have really like the zune's sound quality. it could have also been louder. the best way to determine which you prefer would be to play the same file on both players with the volume matched (and the same headphones).

you may also find you don't need to use such high bitrates on either device.

 

[Ricardo Dawkins]

You can use VBR mp3s on the Zune, too.

 

[Yesfan70]

Sorry for the hi-jack, but I felt this question was similiar.

I have a friend at work who owns an iPod. He claims he can NOT transfer any files from his iPod to his computer. I have heard this with the Zune as well. I have no problems transferring music files from my Zen to a folder on my PC. What I think the problem is (and I tried to get him to understand it as best as I could).

He is trying to transfer files that were downloaded straight to his player instead of his computer first. I downloaded a couple of albums from Urge to my PC, via WMP 11, and had no problems transferring them to the Zen. I have not tried to see if I can transfer these files back to the PC in another folder though.

If he is transferring files that were ripped from a CD straight to his player, he should still be able to moves those files from his iPod to his computer.

Am I right? I just wanted to know what the real deal is. In my case, all of my music is ripped to lossless, to my hard drive. I then connect my Zen and any music files selected to sync is converted to 192 WMA in the background and transferred to my player.

I don't have the problems he is having and I wonder if it's because my source is my CDs and not iTunes or any other online store like that.

Sorry for the hijack.

 

[zip22]

your problem is not similar, but i will give you an answer.

in the itunes/ipod system, files transfered to the ipod to play go into hidden folders with garbage filenames. the files are in iPod_Control/Music/F01 (F02, etc) in no particular order with short, junk filenames. the files are there, and the tags are still there, itunes just stores them in a way that makes it difficult to illegally share them with other people.

if he wants to transfer the files to another computer, he can just drag the files onto the ipod's hard drive in 'my computer' and use it like a portable drive. files added this way won't play on the ipod, but can be accessed on any other computer. there are also a handful of programs that are able to grab files from the ipod's hidden folders pretty easily and transfer like that.

i believe the zune is worse in this respect, as i don't believe you can even get to the files on the zune without some sort of registry hack.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AudioDwebe /img/forum/go_quote.gif My question is about ripping sound quality. The Zune's best quality is 192 kbps.

Nope, as others said, up to 320kbps or even VBR. There is confusing preference setup when quality slider allows you go only up to 192, bu if you select Auto (recommended) option, slider gets disabled, and files will be sync keeping their original bitrate.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 /img/forum/go_quote.gif i believe the zune is worse in this respect, as i don't believe you can even get to the files on the zune without some sort of registry hack.

Come on, it's so simple.
http://www.zunesphere.com/2006/11/28...registry-hack/

 

[Clincher09]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 /img/forum/go_quote.gif i believe the zune is worse in this respect, as i don't believe you can even get to the files on the zune without some sort of registry hack.

You can sync files from the Zune to your computer.

 

[Ricardo Dawkins]

ey...stop there all. You can reverse sync any media file from the Zune to any computer running the Zune software. This feature is called "Reverse Sync" and when used on different computers is called "Guest Sync"

Just drag n drop your media content inside the Zune from the left pane to the right Sync pane...then clic the Sync button. The media on the Sync queue goes back to the computer hard disk drive under the My Music, My Videos or My Pictures folders...

wassup ppl. Zune can do that w/o any hack.

 

[Ricardo Dawkins]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 /img/forum/go_quote.gif your problem is not similar, but i will give you an answer. in the itunes/ipod system, files transfered to the ipod to play go into hidden folders with garbage filenames. the files are in iPod_Control/Music/F01 (F02, etc) in no particular order with short, junk filenames. the files are there, and the tags are still there, itunes just stores them in a way that makes it difficult to illegally share them with other people. if he wants to transfer the files to another computer, he can just drag the files onto the ipod's hard drive in 'my computer' and use it like a portable drive. files added this way won't play on the ipod, but can be accessed on any other computer. there are also a handful of programs that are able to grab files from the ipod's hidden folders pretty easily and transfer like that. i believe the zune is worse in this respect, as i don't believe you can even get to the files on the zune without some sort of registry hack.

Zip...your last paragraph is wrong. You know better than that. ok.

The Zune is better than iPod on this.

 

[zip22]

no, it is not. how many computers have the zune software installed? wouldn't you much rather have an executable on the (UMS) drive that can simply be run without installation?

 

[rockin_amigo14]

i agree with zip22 on this one. the fact that the iPod can double as a portable HDD is extremely useful.

i actual think this is just a HUGE flaw on the Zune's part. It's one of the only players I've seen that can't do this. I mean, even the F series Gigabeat could do it, and that player was crippled beyond all belief before rockbox showed up.

 

[PrototypeX2]

The reverse sync trick mentioned by Ricardo was a guide actually made by Cesar Menendez, who is part of the Zune team. I find it extremely fast, easy, and useful.

 

[rockin_amigo14]

reverse sync is a nifty little feature, but you need Zune software on the other PC (which the other person may not even want installed), not to mention, it's limited. good idea, but the way it's actually done needs some work (much like the Wi-Fi idea).