| Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
July 4, 2016 - 8:14am
#1
car audio
| Loudspeakers Amplification Digital Sources | |
Analog Sources Accessories Featured | |
Music Columns Retired Columns | |
Show Reports | |
Features Latest News Community | |
Resources Subscriptions |
© 2024 StereophileAVTech Media Americas Inc., USA
All rights reserved
I bought a used ipod from Gamestop to keep in my car. I think it was $60 for a 60 GB unit. Converting CDs to MP3s is as simple as downloading iTunes (free) or JRiver ($49.99) and using it to convert your CDs assuming you have a computer that still has a CD player.
You will want to adjust the resolution up to 320 kbps from standard as I think iTunes defaults to a lower resolution (192 or 256). You might want to just run a test to see if the car can handle ALAC or FLAC files as these are lossless but will take up more space. Then again, 60GB is a lot of space. The biggest issue is ripping CDs is slow.
I'm not sure I can bring myself to listen to MP3s. I assume cassette decks are no longer an option.
Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica
I thought I had to pay for Itunes. It's free? So if I go on Itunes I can download music into my computer? My computer has a CD player and a HDMI input.Would it be easier to load a CD into the computer? If I did that, would the computer know what to do with it? Would it convert it to a file that I could then download to an IPOD?
The actual software package iTunes is free. You can rip all of your music for free. It will recognize when you put an audio CD into the computer and ask if you want to rip it to AAC which is apples version of MP3. The default will not be lossless but will work flawlessly with any iPod. I think it is 256kbps resolution. You can buy individual songs or digital albums from Apple. That is the only thing you would have to pay for but that is your choice.
unbelievably(to me) I figured out how to use iTunes to convert my CD's to files I could then download into my ipod. I made two different files of the same song (Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band). The first file I made a 320kbs AAC and the second I made an uncompressed WAV file. Then put both onto my ipod,went out to my car, and listened to both versions,and call me crazy but the WAV sounded significantly better than the MP3 file. The WAV file took up about ten times as much space in the ipod as the MP3 version, so I can understand why you would want the MP3 instead. The hardest part was navigating the iTunes site to change the import settings from MP3 to WAV.
The WAV file absolutely should sound better as it is uncompressed and lossless. It is the CD file while the 320Kbs file has had data stripped from it in the compression. A happy medium is an ALAC file which is a compressed, but still lossless format. If your car will play it, this is optimal if you have the storage space. My experience is ALAC files are 3 to 4x larger than the 320Kbs file so it will take up more space than the standard AAC but much less space than the uncompressed WAV file and my experience is that ALAC files sound identical to WAV files. The issue is, not every device supports ALAC. If your car does, it is a great solution.
are my songs on itunes stored in my computer or are they in the itunes cloud? Does an ipod have a DAC? You're probably right about ALAC but I'm kind of anal about the best possible sound,even when it doesn't make sense.
Theres enough space on the new ipod nano for about 450 songs in the WAV format. Probably could hold 1200 in ALAC.