I finally broke down and bought an iPod. I got an 8 gig Nano. Damn, they're not giving those things away! That's a lotta scratch for this little thing.

I have a delima. I was just going to suck all my CDs in with the Apple Losless deal. I started with the Beatles. I digged all their CDs and the poor little Nano was half full. Not good.

So I gave it a shot at 196kbs. I have to say, it sounds just great and takes up a lot less space. What have you guys done about this delima?

30 GB iPod.

Try 320 kbps, it will still be hugely smaller than Lossless but sound that much better.

Congrats Eddie.

I have a large capacity MP3 player, but I dont use it too much. They are really unwieldy when there is alot of low quality music on it. I "acquired" most of my music in 128-196 kbps MP3 format a few years ago. All of my masters were stolen, so that is what I had for awhile.

I am slowly rebuilding my music collection, one CD at a time. For me, the 1 gig shuffle is more than enough music for me on even the longest plane or car rides.

Enjoy!

I use 320, sounds better than 128. Listening to my ipod through my vintage RCA Victor console as I type. Nice

Once you go FLAC, you never go back!

:D

I have two Ipods...got both for free. A little 128meg Shuffle that comes in handy when I'm mowing the yard back home, or waiting for the bus to campus...and a new 20MB one I got as a present for doing work for someone. The 20meg one is coming up for sale, I need the cash more than I need another translucent piece of white plastic :)

I use my Shuffle for running. The 20 gig for portability. So 128kps is just fine. If you're going to listen to a higher bit rate you'll want to get better headphones or it won't make much difference with them little plugs.

If you do put them on at lossless, create "Playlists" so you can carry your favorites instead of everything. Then just switch the Playlists off your computer.

It is, of course, a trade-off between file size and quality: For my MP3 use - relatively casual background playback - I have found that 192 kbps is a reasonable compromise for a limited storage player. At this bit rate, I am guessing that the average file size would be 10 Mb, which would allow for approximately 800 songs on your player.

Best regards,

I don't have an iPod but I guess that my interest has recently risen just above the zero peg now. With common software, perhaps with whatever comes with the iPod, can you store the music on your computer in lossless format but compress it to 128 or 320 when downloading to the iPod? Hard drives are cheap now and it would be great to have it both ways, max fidelity at home and pretty good fidelity on the portable storage device. Again, I don't own one so I am not at all familiar with the specifics, just the basic concepts. After reading this thread I now understand that you can select the compression / fidelity when storing music on the iPod but I am not clear about the host hard drive and computer. Must they be the same compression rates?

I don't intend to hijack the thread so just a very brief answer or link to another thread will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Use 320kbps. A totally acceptable trade-off in quality vs space.

can you store the music on your computer in lossless format but compress it to 128 or 320 when downloading to the iPod?

Yes. Programs like dbpoweramp and others allow you to "transcode" the file and compress it further.

Everything in 320 for me- if your ears can tell the difference on a noisy plane or train, or wandering around a noisy city on foot, your ears are much more discerning than mine.

']Yes. Programs like dbpoweramp and others allow you to "transcode" the file and compress it further.

Oh! Really? I need to investigate this option. Does dbpoweramp work for sending stuff to your iPod? I couldn't figure out a simple way to get two sets of files with iTunes. I did figure out a way, but I have to import everything twice. I'd like a better solution...

I have all ripped all my CDs to FLAC. When I went them on my Ipod, I transcode the lossless FLAC files to lossy MP3's. I use 192 VBR MP3. I can't hear any artifacts on the Ipod with inexpensive headphones. I probably could though through my main rig and that is why I have the lossless FLAC archive.

For AAC (or mp4) I would use 192 AAC. 320 is overkill just for headphone use.

I use Omni Encoder to transcode. Be sure not to delete the original file.

John

256kbps and the optional VBR (Variable Bitrate) works well for me.

I've got a 60gig iPod and it's full, but still only holds half of what's stored on my hard drive, and only a third of my collection.

I just choose what's my favorite, and load that.

If you want to convert your files in iTunes, then change the default format under Advanced-->Importing in the preferences, right click the song, (or select a lot and right click one) and select "convert to <your format of choice>".

I have all ripped all my CDs to FLAC. When I went them on my Ipod, I transcode the lossless FLAC files to lossy MP3's. I use 192 VBR MP3. I can't hear any artifacts on the Ipod with inexpensive headphones. I probably could though through my main rig and that is why I have the lossless FLAC archive.

For AAC (or mp4) I would use 192 AAC. 320 is overkill just for headphone use.

I use Omni Encoder to transcode. Be sure not to delete the original file.

John
That woudl depend on your headphones. I guarentee some headphones are better than even the absolute best loudspeakers.

But for iPod earbud use? Yeah, it's more than you need. But computer hard drives fill up, too. 320 AAC is good enough to put most music in, I only have a few albums (the ones I listen to most) in lossless.

Just a note- 320 AAC is the top you can go before Apple lossless (Half-file size) or full file size.

For Variable BitRate, you can only go to 256kbps in AAC.

I've yet to determine which is better.

Maybe I'll start a new post about this...

I use 320. Ity works well in the truck and I can still get some of the nuances I enjoy from my favorite albums. I have a 40 gig and had it nearly half full 23 gig left and then it sync'd to my laptop which had all the music pulled off. It then ate all my music and I have to start over.

This time I think I will use a bit more descretion in what I put on it, but whith that much room, you can be a bit crazy. More vinyl this time.