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General discussion

Which "compression" for maintaining cd's highest fidelity?

Dec 24, 2004 12:35PM PST

I'm an audiophile...and would like to be able to use an IPOD or similar recorder/player as a portable recorder to record in "full fidelity"...as close as possible to the original 0's and 1's. That way I could record a friend's cd's from the output of his much better cd playback system. Then I'd be able to play them back on my system out of the IPOD or flash memory recorder/player.

What are your suggestions...and is it possible to get an exact copy of a cd (with no compression loss) onto one of the hard-disc or flash memory recorders?

Discussion is locked

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Re: Which "compression" for fidelity?
Dec 24, 2004 2:26PM PST

Recording files at 44,100hz/16bit (CD standard) on a portable wouldn't be very efficient. The resulting file sizes are just too big. About 10MB per minute of music. I'm not sure how many, if any, portable players are even capable of this.
The other problem with using a portable to rip is that there can be a HUGE difference in quality with the resulting file as compared to one ripped on a PC. Even when compressing to the same format and bit rate (say, 192 kbps mp3), how much processing power is available determines how many numbers can be crunched per frame of digital audio. There is also the fact that when using the "line-in" recording method you are not doing true digital audio extraction, but rather you are taking the post Digital-To-Anolog Converter signal (analog) output from your friend's player and then running it along analog switches/cables to your player/recorder's analog input and then going through the Analog-To-Digital Conversion process inside your player. As any audiophile knows, every digital-analog-digital conversion will result in at least a little reduction in fidelity, as will moving a signal from one component to another over analog cables/wires.
You're better off using a PC to rip the CD to a "lossless" format (like FLAC) using a high quality encoder (I like "Easy CD-DA Extractor") and then converting it (again, I use "EZ CD-DA") to whatever format your player (e.g. "i-Pod") can handle. Also much quicker than "real-time".
The recorders on the portable players are mainly there for voice recording such as a college lecture or for recording from an FM broadcast, whose quality is far below that of CD's under even optimal conditions.

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Re: Which "compression" for fidelity?
Jan 7, 2005 4:37AM PST

True, Hi-fidelity and compression don't mix well. There is a open source format called OGG you can download from the net, sounds better than MP3, but still compressed. Winamp will play them. Just Goggle OGG and you will get lots of hits. There is some software that clamies to make them iPod playable. John