So I picked up an iPod.....

[L.J.]

I really could care less about portable audio but a small chain of events had me ending up with an iPod. I was getting some gear installed on the new family vehicle and requested a Alpine CD changer to go along with the deck. The guy at the shop suggested he install an iPod cable in the glove compartment, since the deck has full iPod control.

So I trusted his word and went that route over the CD changer. I picked up the 30gb iPod(about the same price for an Alpine changer) and must say that having my entire collection available at anytime is pretty cool. I have about 3000+ MP3s so this is perfect. I just take the iPod, plug it into the cable and throw it into the glove box. I have full control from the deck after that. It even charges it.

My Onkyo in the bedroom has iPod control also, so this will come in handy after all. Thought I would never use it, but never say never. I'm also using the front aux jacks on my JVC to use this baby in the garage/gym.

iTunes is a snap to use. Really not too much difference from WMP or realplayer. All I have to do now is load this baby up. I gotta admit, I like it.

[audio_dude]

Yay, see, don't bash the iPod, its worth every penny!

well, hope you have fun with it!

PS: if you're going to be doing some portable listening, get a new set of earbuds!

[Woochifer]

I gave my wife an iPod Nano for her birthday, and she loves it. The user interface on that thing is very intuitive, and it did not take me long to figure iTunes out. Sound quality wise, I would give it a decisive edge over my laptop computer for tunes on the go. (Wolfson makes the decoders on the newer iPods, and their digital audio chips are found in a lot of high end components)

I thought about the regular iPod for my wife, but she tends to drop things so I did not want anything with moving parts! Now that there's an iPod in the house, I'm discovering how wide an array of accessories exist for those devices. (Just the variety of components that have iPod docks available is quite impressive) Aside from her favorite albums, my wife also has wedding and vacation pics and pictures of our dog loaded into her iPod.

[L.J.]

PS: if you're going to be doing some portable listening, get a new set of earbuds!

I'll have to check em out

[ericl]

I have the same set up as you in my car LJ. 15gb of music in the car, controlled from i my alpine deck. awesome! the ipod is pretty much dedicated to the car. too bad my speakers and radio reception stink..

[L.J.]

I'm discovering how wide an array of accessories exist for those devices. (Just the variety of components that have iPod docks available is quite impressive).

Same here. I never even noticed until last week. You could spend some serious cash on all the accessories that are available. My wife leaves the same 12 CD's in her car forever so being able to bounce this baby from car to car is gonna be awesome. This will quickly become an item that I will not leave the house without.

[ericl]

Same here. I never even noticed until last week. You could spend some serious cash on all the accessories that are available. My wife leaves the same 12 CD's in her car forever so being able to bounce this baby from car to car is gonna be awesome. This will quickly become an item that I will not leave the house without.

Wooch, LJ, Welcome to 2003!


Just teasing!!

My dad saw my ipod for the first time yesterday. He'd never seen or even heard of one. I was amazed! He's only 65..

[L.J.]

Wooch, LJ, Welcome to 2003!


Just teasing!!

My dad saw my ipod for the first time yesterday. He'd never seen or even heard of one. I was amazed! He's only 65..

The funny part is that if I never would have got a new deck for truck, I would still pass that section of BB/CC up. I didn't even know these things could hold 30 or more gigs. I was going on and on and the cashier probably thought I've been in a cave or something the last few years.

[emorphien]

On a features and sound quality basis, I won't personally buy an iPod for myself (although the new iPods sound pretty much in-line with the majority of players as opposed to IMO the poorer sounding models before). However I do agree that the interoperability of it with many other things as well as the ease of use are great for some people.

For that reason alone (ease of use) my father and I just purchased the black 4gb Nano for my mother's birthday.

[jrhymeammo]

Compressed files at 256 or 320kbp is acceptable when we are active or driving. If I had a better car with much less noise, my opionion will be different.
Perform this test at home.Rip bounch of songs at different rates and play them in shuffle. Close your eyes and see if you can pick out which songs are ripped at which rates. I can tell the difference within 3 sec of each song. Hardest ones for me to pick out is the difference in 128s and 192s. I can only pick them out correctly 7/10 times. Anyhow, if you hear a 128kbp file right after a 320, you would never consider storing your library at lower rates.
You may want to consider these for your earbuds. http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc^eb^SPARKPLUG
These plugs perform extremely well. Isolation is pretty nice while you will not hear your annoying but neccesary heart beats. And most importantly they stay in place, unlike $40 plugs I purchased from Apple ADealer. I used to turn the volume level to around 70% with stock Ipod 'phones, but 30-40% is all I use with KOSS. This is great for me since battery life on IPODs is a joke. Since we listen to compressed files, dont spend alot of money on plugs. Even if you spend $500, believe it or not compressed files will sound exactly like compressed files.

-JRA

[Woochifer]

Compressed files at 256 or 320kbp is acceptable when we are active or driving. If I had a better car with much less noise, my opionion will be different.
Perform this test at home.Rip bounch of songs at different rates and play them in shuffle. Close your eyes and see if you can pick out which songs are ripped at which rates. I can tell the difference within 3 sec of each song. Hardest ones for me to pick out is the difference in 128s and 192s. I can only pick them out correctly 7/10 times. Anyhow, if you hear a 128kbp file right after a 320, you would never consider storing your library at lower rates.
You may want to consider these for your earbuds. http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc^eb^SPARKPLUG
These plugs perform extremely well. Isolation is pretty nice while you will not hear your annoying but neccesary heart beats. And most importantly they stay in place, unlike $40 plugs I purchased from Apple ADealer. I used to turn the volume level to around 70% with stock Ipod 'phones, but 30-40% is all I use with KOSS. This is great for me since battery life on IPODs is a joke. Since we listen to compressed files, dont spend alot of money on plugs. Even if you spend $500, believe it or not compressed files will sound exactly like compressed files.

-JRA

I think a lot of the differences that you hear with different bitrates will also depend on which MP3 encoder you use. I use Cakewalk Pyro for dubbing and audio editing, but its MP3 encoder at 128k sounds audibly inferior to the 128k files that I create using the Real Player.

With the Real Player, I'm hard pressed to hear differences between 192k and 320k files unless I'm listening really carefully or playing them through my main system. Since my MP3 playback is primarily in the car, through ear buds plugged into a laptop computer, or through computer desktop speakers (Cambridge Systemworks Works sub/sat), I encode most of my MP3s at 160k. In the car or at my computer, I don't really do critical listening. Plus, my hard drive space has been limited (I only recently upgraded my laptop drive from 20 GB to 60 GB).

[kexodusc]

Yep Real Player does a super job of ripping at decent sound quality...personally, I find 128k, even in my car, to be unlistenable...too much weird smearing of sounds...variable bit rate around the same size does better, but 160k-192k or higher in a car or on crappy systems can often pass.

MP3's have become better sounding at the same bitrate since I've used them, but I still find them to be the poorest of the bunch. I much prefer WMA on my computers - better sound and compression, but MP3 is much more versatile and universally accepted...

192K sounds the best to me for constant bitrates...above that I continue to hear artifacts, but lose compression efficiency...VBR is usually noticeably better, but sometimes its a lot bigger file for not much improvement.

I like my MP3/WMA player better than my wife's ipod, though it never generates the same looks of awe and coolness as the ipod...oh well.

[L.J.]

Unfortunately, a huge portion of my files are 128k. I ain't complaining though because it didn't cost me a cent. Most of it is hard core rap that I listen to strictly while driving. The music I listen to at home in front of the kids is totaly diff. Mostly oldies, smooth jazz, R&B.

Kex, what the diff between constant and VBR?

I went with the 30g iPod so I can rip at a high bitrate. The iPod supports wave and apple lossless. Gonig that route will fill up 30gigs really quick.

[L.J.]

Kex, what the diff between constant and VBR?.

Never mind, I stopped being lazy and looked it up.


VBR Vs CBR - encoding acronyms explained
Constant Bit Rate (CBR) encoding means that you encode a file at a fixed rate, such as 128 Kpbs. For many people this is a common method of encoding MP3s. You can usually tell CBR files because they have consistent file sizes and sound quality. OK, file sizes aren't the kind of thing most of you will look out for. We know that.
Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoding is a method that ensures high audio quality bit-allocation decisions during encoding. The encoder allocates an appropriate amount of data per second, depending on the complexity of the audio file.

If there are very complex parts in a song it will use a quite high bit rate and a lower bitrate for something such as silence. The average bit rate may not be as high as the bitrate of an MP3 of the same quality with constant bitrate.

You should use VBR encoding when consistent audio quality is the top priority.

[kexodusc]

Never mind, I stopped being lazy and looked it up.


VBR Vs CBR - encoding acronyms explained
Constant Bit Rate (CBR) encoding means that you encode a file at a fixed rate, such as 128 Kpbs. For many people this is a common method of encoding MP3s. You can usually tell CBR files because they have consistent file sizes and sound quality. OK, file sizes aren't the kind of thing most of you will look out for. We know that.
Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoding is a method that ensures high audio quality bit-allocation decisions during encoding. The encoder allocates an appropriate amount of data per second, depending on the complexity of the audio file.

If there are very complex parts in a song it will use a quite high bit rate and a lower bitrate for something such as silence. The average bit rate may not be as high as the bitrate of an MP3 of the same quality with constant bitrate.

You should use VBR encoding when consistent audio quality is the top priority.

VBR doesn't allocate the same amount of information to encode a second of silence and a second of O Fortuna!
I find VBR usually has a higher than average bitrate on "busy" songs, and lower on simple songs. Vocals only will drop to 96k quite often, but the dynamic range and frequency response is considerably smaller than a guitar, bass, drums, and singer...For me, VBR seems to eliminate the warbly, wooshy, weird noise MP3's sometimes have more than CBR at a higher bitrate.

Though I confess, all my car music is 192k MP3...good enough for my car, I can rarely tell the difference from the original source - I think the noise floor, reflections, and poor imaging and soundstaging in a car make this possible...I have some 160k mp3's that are pretty darn good too...Even on headphones I can do fine with 192k and probably even 160k.

[dean_martin]

Both my sons have 30gig video iPods. Fortunately for me the grandparents kicked in some dough so I was able to upgrade their earbuds immediately. One of my sons likes the idea of earbuds because they're unobstrusive. I suggested headphones, but he likes the light weight inconspicuous size of the earbuds. So, I got him these:

http://www.headphone.com/products/he...ser-mx-500.php

Although "the experts" recommend against earbuds, these were a substantial improvement over the stock ones.

The other son definitely wanted headphones. He had a pair of Sennheiser PX100s that he loved but after travelling literally thousands of miles with them for over 3 years, they finally shorted. He talked me into these fancy cans (I can't really blame him because I showed them to him):

http://www.headphone.com/products/he.../akg-k-27i.php

He loves'em.

Somehow we wound up with an iPod Travel, which from what I can tell (I don't get to play with these toys very much) is an FM transmitter that allows you to play your iPod over your car stereo. I think it's overpriced compared to other fm transmitters and I didn't particularly care for the sound in the car. What I heard sounded like an AM broadcast on one of those old single, center-of-the-dashboard speakers. Yes, I remember those.

[audio_dude]

well, as a long time iPod owner, i am currently using a 30gig white iPod with an iSkin eVo3 case and Shure e2c earbuds. i hook it up to my stereo with a simple 1/8" mini-jack to stereo RCA cable hooked up to my stereo.

when i'm at home, i ether use my stereo, my AKG k71 headphone (fugly) and my Grado SR-60 (best. value. phones. period.)

need any advice for iPods, headphones, earbuds, MP3 players, anything to do with portable audio really...

(PS: i'm the one who put in the suggestion for this section.)

[L.J.]

Both my sons have 30gig video iPods. Fortunately for me the grandparents kicked in some dough so I was able to upgrade their earbuds immediately. One of my sons likes the idea of earbuds because they're unobstrusive. I suggested headphones, but he likes the light weight inconspicuous size of the earbuds. So, I got him these:

http://www.headphone.com/products/he...ser-mx-500.php

Although "the experts" recommend against earbuds, these were a substantial improvement over the stock ones.

The other son definitely wanted headphones. He had a pair of Sennheiser PX100s that he loved but after travelling literally thousands of miles with them for over 3 years, they finally shorted. He talked me into these fancy cans (I can't really blame him because I showed them to him):

http://www.headphone.com/products/he.../akg-k-27i.php

He loves'em.

Somehow we wound up with an iPod Travel, which from what I can tell (I don't get to play with these toys very much) is an FM transmitter that allows you to play your iPod over your car stereo. I think it's overpriced compared to other fm transmitters and I didn't particularly care for the sound in the car. What I heard sounded like an AM broadcast on one of those old single, center-of-the-dashboard speakers. Yes, I remember those.

Hey Dean,

I'll look into those earbuds. Nice price too! I don't need anything fancy so those should work fine. Thanks

[audio_dude]

senn makes a few good earbuds, BUT, there is a new one they have that is REALLY kick ass, i'll do some looking and find it for ya

[HAVIC]

L.J. If you are going to re-encode music the best lossy format the ipod offers is aac. mp3 format is probably the worst lossy format. If you stay mp3, 192k bit rate is best.

[Spiritboxer]

I went with the 30g iPod so I can rip at a high bitrate. The iPod supports wave and apple lossless. Gonig that route will fill up 30gigs really quick.

I have all my music ripped at 320 aac and from what I've heard it's hard to tell the difference between 320 and apple lossless. Files are half the size as well IIRC.