Best setting on IPOD Classic ?

[ziggy47]

Hi, so I got my IPOD Classic for Christmas, now the problem of how best to use it........as I mentioned in a previous post, my intention is to use it simply to hold lots of CDs, as a jukebox on shuffle.

I don't need ultimate quality, but do want to be able to use it other than on the dock into the hi-fi, ie: in the car and with headphones.

I've been reading various threads and it seems that if I rip the CDs at certain formats/quality, some options are not possible?

I have never had an IPOD before, so am happy to admit being ignorant of what I need to do..........mp3, flac, lossless,aac etc, etc ?

Any constructive help would be appreciated, cheers Richard.

 

[idc]

I would recommend importing at the highest bit rate that storage space allows. In itunes on the tool bar go to edit then at the bottom of the drop don box preferences then in the pop up, general then half way down import settings then in that pop up import using. I use Apple Lossless. The others are variations with MP3 the lowest bit rates.

There have been enough blind tests to say that most can tell the difference between a low MP3 bit rate (on itunes that is 'Good Quality 128kbps) and Lossless, but not enough to convince that there is an audible difference between different lossless codecs.

The biggest difference to sound is the EQ settings in your ipod and I would spend far more time trying them out than trying our different bit rates.

 

[manicm]

I disagree - you have the iPod Classic why not make use of the space? Rip in ALAC or AIFF (my personal preference).

 

[ziggy47]

Thanks guys for the replies, will have to play...lol......cheers Richard.

 

[Anonymous]

Apple Lossless works for me. I haven't bothered with the EQ as it's not customisable and the presets sounded horrid to me.

 

[Anonymous]

i take it there are no problems streaming lossless formats over Sonos?

 

[iMark]

Sonos supports ALAC.

 

[Anonymous]

ziggy47:
Hi, so I got my IPOD Classic for Christmas, now the problem of how best to use it........as I mentioned in a previous post, my intention is to use it simply to hold lots of CDs, as a jukebox on shuffle.

I don't need ultimate quality, but do want to be able to use it other than on the dock into the hi-fi, ie: in the car and with headphones.

I've been reading various threads and it seems that if I rip the CDs at certain formats/quality, some options are not possible?

I have never had an IPOD before, so am happy to admit being ignorant of what I need to do..........mp3, flac, lossless,aac etc, etc ?

Any constructive help would be appreciated, cheers Richard.

I've just been through this myself.

I settled on 256K CBR AAC, because I couldn't hear any difference between that and Lossless (ALAC) on my Sennheiser CX300s. I get much better battery life on my Classic with the smaller file sizes, too.

If you want to use it docked to your HiFi as well I'd use 320Kbps AAC. I used a selection of albums/tracks that I know extremely well, and even with my Solo and HD650s I couldn't tell the difference between Lossless and 320K. (I settled on 256 because I won't be using it for HiFi usage, just portable.)

Do a listening test like I did. I would be very, very suprised if you could hear any difference between Lossless and 320K!

Cheers, Veii.

Edit: I should mention that I ripped all my CDs in Apple Lossless first, so that I have a 'master' file that I can convert to AAC/mp3 for portable usage without any of the quality loss that you get from cross transcoding, and for archiving. I then set up 2 smart playlists based on Bitrate, one at 256K, and one at over 320K for Lossless, I then sync the 256K. (Lossless won't fit as it's 149GB and the iPod 'only' has 148GB.)

 

[ziggy47]

Thanks for all the useful advice chaps, regards Richard.........

 

[Anonymous]

will i pod touch sound as good as classic ie flash vs hard drive?

 

[manicm]

gradosomeday:will i pod touch sound as good as classic ie flash vs hard drive?

Of the current range? No, the Touch will not sound as good as the Classic, it will sound much much better 🙂