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Originally Posted by RobbW /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Strictly portable. I'm on a notebook and don't use it for music ever.
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If were were going to do any listening at the computer I was going to suggest using J. River Media Center or J. River Media Jukebox. The main advantage is they do proper gapless playback which is critical for classical. Downside is they are not free (J. River Media Jukebox charges about $10 for MP3 support and J. River Media Center is about $40). There is free software that will do what you need so might as well go with that. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the alternatives so can't offer a suggestion.
I will offer a cautionary note about ripping classical music. Some classical CDs and some (very few) early 80s rock CDs are mastered with pre-emphasis. Pre-emphasis ads an EQ curve that boosts the treble. The CD player is responsible for adding a de-emphasis curve to get the audio back to a flat response. Unfortunately when you rip a CD the de-emphasis does not get applied so you end up with music that has a distinct boost in the treble.
I didn't know about pre-emphasis when I ripped my classical CDs. Just last month I discovered the issue and now have to check all of my CDs and rerip and correct the ones that have pre-emphasis.
The best explanation I have found for pre-emphasis is
here. Scroll down to "A De-Emphasis Test CD" and download the pdf of the article.
The good news is that iTunes is one of the few (only?) rippers that will automatically apply a de-emphasis to the ripped music if it detects that the CD has pre-emphasis. It does it all for you automagically. Unfortunately its de-emphasis routine compresses the stereo separation of the music (at least to my ears).
A better solution is to use
SoX to manually apply the de-emphasis to the WAV files (it's a command line tool) and then manually convert the WAV to MP3, AAC, FLAC, ALAC or whatever. The SoX de-emphasis is audibly better than the iTunes de-emphasis.
How to check for pre-emphasis:
Open the CD in EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and check the "Pre-Emphasis" column on the far right
Open the CD in dBpoweramp CD Ripper and check the "Track Technical" column that is on the far right (you'll have to manually add the "Track Technical" column)
So far I have found most of my BIS CDs have pre-emphasis along with a Deutsche Grammophon, a Delos, and a Telarc. The original CD release of "Pink Floyd: The Wall" also has pre-emphasis.
Probably way more than you wanted to know, but if you have a reasonable classical collection you're going to need to be aware of it.
