[RobbW]

I'm brand new to portable audio. I just purchased a pair of Etymotic Research ER6i and Soundmagic PL30 headphones. Tomorrow I plan to purchase a Nano or Fuze. I'll listen mostly to audio books and to music (blues, rock and classical in that order).

Can you recommend software to rip CDs, and the best format for me to convert them into? I assume I'd rip books and music into different formats.

Also, could I get recommendations for managing my music. I've looked at iTunes and it's just not intuitive for me.

Feel free to type slowly, I'm a complete noob at this.

Many thanks!

 

[coolbluewater]

If you go with the Fuze, it will handle WAV and FLAC, an open-source lossless format and also handle .ogg (lossy), mp3 and WMA. The Nano will handle Apple lossless (proprietary). Lossless is what you want for reference purposes; from there, you can convert to a compressed (lossy) format to fit more music onto the player.

Probably the most noob-friendly application for ripping/converting CDs and music files is dbPoweramp Reference Edition ($36):
dbpoweramp.con -> Professional tab -> Reference edition v13 -> register.
There are some freely-available programs but they all come with a learning curve; I like dbPoweramp because it will convert to any format (including Apple), and it's pretty much the Swiss army knife of ripping and conversion apps; plus they have a forum there. Plus I have better things to do with my time (like enjoying the music); YMMV.

My take on it is - if you have a sizeable music collection (or plan to) and have already sunk some $ into hardware, why not save yourself time and headaches.
I'm sure you'll get some input from others here as well; welcome to Head-Fi!

 

[dazzer1975]

I'd recommend exact audio copy for ripping, imo it can be as simple or as complex as you like but it is fairly straightforward to use overall. It is free and provides great ripping results.

For managing your collection, if you're using the fuze which is drag and drop you could just manually organise your files and folders, or use windows media player or media monkey (media monkey has to be purchased for the full version I think).

If you get a nano, media monkey will deal with the syncing if you don't want to use itunes, but I would also look into copytrans suite if getting an ipod, it wont organise your music or anything but has a few really essential and useful features for the ipod like recovering deleted files, and transfering files from the player onto your pc and checking the hdd for errors etc, great piece of software imo but thats something perhaps to consider only if and when you experience a problem with an ipod.

 

[Evoke]

Use Mp3 Tags to manage your music tags.

 

[warrior05]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evoke /img/forum/go_quote.gif Use Mp3 Tags to manage your music tags.

A big x2!

You are going to get a number of differing opinions here. Personally, I use dbPoweramp to rip and convert. Mp3tag for tagging management and foobar for playback. As for managing your library, I'm a big proponent of doing it yourself. Be diligent with your tagging but I also recommend setting up an organized folder structure that works for you. I do genre > artist > album. It makes managing your library - IMO - much easier.

Be prepared to go through a couple of iterations till you land on something that works for you. This stuff takes time and effort if you want to keep a clean and managed music library. Helps if you are a bit ocd.

 

[member1982]

if you got lower end sources (computer, pmp), without amps or better pmp, there is really no need to go for FLAC just 320KB/s Mp3 or ogg. Difference is very minimal. Especially lower-mid range headphones.

iTunes is probably easy, it does Appleloss less, mp3, wav. AAC

foobar2000 does everything if you apply the countless extensions, LAME, FLAC rippers. Lightweight and sounds really good as a player as well. (Yes it can also manage most iPods)

 

[krmathis]

I highly recommend these applications:
Ripping -> Max
Managing and playback -> iTunes

Format/coded depends which DAP you go for. If iPod nano, then seriously consider AAC (or even Apple lossless).

 

[RobbW]

Thanks for all the information and support. It's great to get this kind of advice.

My ER 6i headphones arrived today

, and I just ordered a 16G Nano, so I'm partway there and should have plenty of portable memory! I'll look over the software recommendations tonight, try to make sense of the distinctions, and start ripping.

Given that I went with the Nano, does it automatically make sense to go with iTunes as well, or will the other file managers work just as well/better? If I use Apple lossless or lossy compression, would I have problems down the road if I ever use a non-Apple player?

Thanks again, I really appreciate your time and experience.

 

[krmathis]

Congratulations with the iPod nano. Nice little player that is...

Too me it makes sense to go iTunes when going the iPod route, since they are built to work seamlessly together. But of course there are other alternatives, if you for some reason want to stay clear of iTunes. Example: Songbird - Open Source Music Player

Picking Apple Lossless or lossy (AAC or MP3) not should not cause you any problems if you later switch to a non-Apple player. All players support MP3 and some support AAC. The Apple Lossless files you can always transcode if the new player don't support it.

 

[member1982]

iTunes is much much easier to manage the music if you have an iPod, even if you dont you can directly drag stuff from iTunes music lib onto players, all it keeps are links to those mp3 files.

humm still not alot of players that supports AAC, buy iTunes Plus songs as well if you shop on iTunes

 

[Geruvah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Congratulations with the iPod nano. Nice little player that is... Too me it makes sense to go iTunes when going the iPod route, since they are built to work seamlessly together. But of course there are other alternatives, if you for some reason want to stay clear of iTunes. Example: Songbird - Open Source Music Player Picking Apple Lossless or lossy (AAC or MP3) not should not cause you any problems if you later switch to a non-Apple player. All players support MP3 and some support AAC. The Apple Lossless files you can always transcode if the new player don't support it.

I've heard it was facing a bug that deleted songs without permission. Did they ever fix that?

 

[member1982]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geruvah /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've heard it was facing a bug that deleted songs without permission. Did they ever fix that?

do u have a link to that problem? just tried to find it in google, no luck.

 

[Geruvah]

IPod: Songbird iPod Add-On Randomly Deleting Music, Uninstall Now It seems it'll do it if you have the iPod addon.

 

[member1982]

Yeah addon only, so if people dont have the add-on no problems i thought it was a widespread issue like deleting for no reason

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Are you Mac or Windows? Is this going to be strictly for portable or do you plan on using the computer for audio playback?