Please help me understand this mp3 thing as somewhere I let it all pass me by. I friend showed me his ipod and it amazed me like when I heard a discman. back when Sony first brought them out.

Do the files sound as good as a CD? If I was to use one what would I need? I have ordered the HK stereo. What is this aux upgrade that you guys talk about? Would I need one of those 2?

Thanks in advance for the education.
Scoutd

2.5 mos to go until Blossum arrives...EB/W combo 1,3, lapis, xenon, white 16's HK JCW #1598

 

>>Please help me understand this mp3 thing as somewhere I let it all pass me by. I friend showed me his ipod and it amazed me like when I heard a discman. back when Sony first brought them out.
>>
>>Do the files sound as good as a CD? If I was to use one what would I need? I have ordered the HK stereo. What is this aux upgrade that you guys talk about? Would I need one of those 2?

In my opinion, MP3's recoreded at 128K sound just as good as CD. If you're an audiophile, you may notice some difference, but for me. the convenience of storing my entire CD collection (in MP3 format) onto a 20G iPod is well worth the minor differences there may be.

If you want to use the iPod, you'll need a Firewire adapter (standard on MACs, extra for PC's). Other MP3 players by Archos for example don't need the firewire adapter (I'm fairly certain of this).

The AUX kit gives you to have a convenient way to connect any audio device to directly into your stereo (H/K or standard). It costs $40. I've heard that dealers are charging $100 including installation. The install is pretty easy, and there are multiple threads about how this is done (if I knew how to add the thread to this post, I would). Just do a search on "AUX" and I'm sure you'll get all the info you need.

I'm still waiting for my IB/W 04, but I've already got plans for the iPod and AUX kit.

Hope this helps.

Spike

 

Man,

I just read the post I submitted above. It sounds like my 6 year old neice wrote it. Guess that's what happens when you're trying to do 5 things at the same time.

 

I won't go into the concept of percetptual coding, the theory behing the compression technique... At work we regularly perform double-blind subjective evaluations of different variables in an audio system. Each member of the jury is an audiophile, and a professional in the industry involved daily in design, development, and evaluation of audio components, and each each member goes through regular training and testing to certify their reliability.

Anyway, the point is, we've done evaluations of MP3 material recorded at 192 kb/s vs CD. Each juror detected and noted small differences in spatial qualities and ambiance, but these differences were smaller than the error in reporting. In other words, if these well trained professionals, who love nothing more than audio and work with it 40+ hours per week for >100 years collectively, listened to the same thing twice the difference would be larger than the difference noted for MP3 vs. CD.

I'd say that this agrees with the general statement that anything compressed at >128 kb/s is nearly CD quality. To be safe I usually use 192 kb/s, or one of the variable bit rate algorithms... Perceptual coding is pretty cool stuff!

 

>>If you want to use the iPod, you'll need a Firewire adapter (standard on MACs, extra for PC's). Other MP3 players by Archos for example don't need the firewire adapter (I'm fairly certain of this).


Just a further clarification, the Firewire adapter is so you can connect the iPod to your PC. To get music on to an MP3 player you will need to "rip" your CD's into MP3 files and then transfer them to your MP3 player. This process sounds more complicated than it actually is in practice. Most media-player software, (like Windows Media Player which is already on your PC if you have Windows XP) can quickly and easily convert the songs on your CD into files that you can move over to your MP3 player to listen to.

Although just to get a little more complicated for you, Windows Media Player converts songs into a Microsoft proprietary format called WMA. Not to worry, most if not all MP3 players that are currently on the market can playback not just MP3 files but also WMA files as well.

 

just to clarify..
ipod's don't play WMA files...
they play AAC, MP3, AIFF's though!
b.t.w. itunes for PC is coming soon!

 

I kinda suspected as much given how well Apple and Microsoft get along although I wasn't 100% sure.

 

Wierd considering Uncle Bill (and Micro$ponge) bought a big chunk of Apple a couple of years ago.

 

True but Bill and Steve Jobs have never gotten along. If you remember Apple even sued Microsoft over the Windows 95 interface.