MP3 Amateur Looking For Guidance

[admin_exported]

For many years now i've been happily using a combination of a Marantz CD-67(mkII) CD player and Marantz SR4200 receiver to play my ever increasing CD collection. But, in an attempt to save space, and a love for embracing technology, I have recently ripped all my CD's to my computer and am now looking for the best way to play them back through my current hifi system.

Having skimmed the current discussion topics, I'm now thinking that I may not have ripped them in the most efficient way. I simply used iTunes to rip them to an external 300Gb Western Digital My Book hard drive, connected via USB, at 320kbps, but have noticed mention of lossless formats. Can someone explain this please? Also, should I really be using an internal drive?

I'd also like some advice on the best sound cards to use to connect my PC with my amp. I've been looking at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 which will cater for both digital and analogue connections and still seems to get pretty good reviews, despite it's age. Anyone have any recommendations or advice here? Any cables will have to be around 4 to 5 metres in length so do I need to consider signal loss?

And finally, once I have all my music ripped in the best way, stored in the best way and being output through a suitable sound card, what media player should I use, if indeed there is a preferred choice?

Incidentally, I use both an iPod Nano and Archos 605 to play media on the go, so any media player that ticks all the boxes and is compatible with either or both of these would be excellent (although possibly a pipe dream).

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there I dont want to claim to be an expert in this area because im not & I cant answer all your questions but I can tell you that I use apple lossless then use my ipod on a onkyo dock played through my hifi, This to me sounds as good as when the cd is played (im sure some would beg to differ on that though?) I also use a good quality interconnect from the dock to the amp....All in all i think A L E is great & if you read the reviews in the mag regular you will see they are great fans of it to ;0)

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="pfox189"]Having skimmed the current discussion topics, I'm now thinking that I may not have ripped them in the most efficient way. I simply used iTunes to rip them to an external 300Gb Western Digital My Book hard drive, connected via USB, at 320kbps, but have noticed mention of lossless formats. Can someone explain this please? Also, should I really be using an internal drive?[/quote]

No, stick to your external drive. Probably best directly connected via wifi to an external dac. Avoid a noisy environment like a pc as best you can. Could also try this combo: hard-drive, cheap/basic soundcard with digital out, coax /optical digital cable connected to your cd-player or dac.

If you want to try good soundcards, here are a few options: Digital Audio Labs, RME or Lynx L22 ($$$$$$$!!!!!)
Look at http://www.stereophile.com/computeraudio/ for more info. The end result of this will most probably not be as good as a hard-drive-wifi-dac combination, due to the electronically and mechanically noisy computer environment.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh Yes, use AEC for ripping cds. Try out different MP3 bit rates ,although I'd stick to WAV 1411kbps- hard-drive space is cheap! This way you have the best of both worlds. Quality sound and mp3 like convenience/cost! EAC is best in my experience, very accurate. Unlike any other cd-ripper it double checks its readout of a cd and syncs with your cd-drive. Good luck!