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General discussion

Want to Replace CD's With MP3 files for home stereo.

Sep 6, 2009 4:34PM PDT

My Sony Juke boxes are dying. Looking to rip and burn the CDs onto other medium --probably a MP3 player..32 gb..one I can use with an aged receiver for my stereo system. Prefer flash drive..Would like abilty to use playlists and random shuffle. Ideas? Is this way best way to do it?

Discussion is locked

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How much do you care about SQ?
Sep 6, 2009 5:33PM PDT

Not knowing the makeup of your audio gear or setup, other than your "old" receiver...

It sounds like you want the player to do double-duty as both a home and portable to-go device. Note that MP3 is a lossy format; there's no getting around the fact that the typical MP3 file will NOT sound nearly as good as its CD source original, particularly with most existing consumer home gear. Only with the latest digital signal processing tricks (i.e., meaning new state-of-the-art, bleeding edge gear) can you make lossy content sound almost as convincing as the CD original. Your 'old' receiver will exacerbate the sonic compression of MP3s, giving you poorer sound quality overall. If you are looking at ripping digital files, at the VERY least you should rip to a lossless format. Personally, for home use I'd look to a media server appliance (or even a computer); that way your storage needs would be only limited by the size of your hard drive. That won't address any portable/mobile needs you may have, but at least with a solid lossless source library, you can always create MP3s for use when you're on the go.

Not knowing how large your CD library is, it's difficult to gauge how much storage cap you'd need. But depending upon a flash-based player will certainly be a hindrance in the future, if not now. A 32GB cap (which is NEVER truly 32GB, of course) gets swallowed up pretty fast, even with lossy MP3s. Go lossless, and it'll get used up even faster.

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Coverting Music from CDs to MP3
Sep 7, 2009 7:31AM PDT

Thanks for your repsonse. I have about 400 CD's..most are lossless and I would keep that standard...that's why I thought 32 GB would work. The media server..never heard of it...I am basically low tech...someone else suggested using an old computer but I can't get my head wrapped around sticking a puter into my entertainment center..maybe a router? Any thoughts about using a Cowon 02 or D2 Media player?..understand they are 32 gigs..any downside to that?..they would give me the portability the puter wouldn't..thanks!

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Maths?
Sep 8, 2009 4:23AM PDT

CD-R has a capacity of 700meg or 80 minutes. Music CD is up to 75 minutes. By rough reckoning 400 music CDs = about 600meg x 400 which does not equal 32g, more like 8 times that.

Possible to store your collection on a 32g player if you convert them to MP3 files. Possible to store them as WAVs (lossless) on a computer with a big hard drive.

I'd suggest copying some of your music to your present computer in MP3 and WAV formats and testing for acceptability by connecting the PC to your hifi via a lengthy walkman plug to phono lead.

If it sounds okay in MP3 format you might buy a player such as one of the Sonys which are known to sound good and which you can also connect to the hifi.

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use FLAC
Sep 11, 2009 1:25PM PDT

Use FLAC if you want to be able to play the lossless files.
Otherwise, for backup, use Winrar best-solid.