Cd's Or Mp3?.

[Calisto]

Hi guys,

I am in a bit of a pickle and need some good advice.

The problem is do I buy a CD changer or start getting into mp3's?.

I have a clarion head unit.

Please help.

[Fizz]

depends on what you want in terms of music quality...

I aint too fussed as long as it sounds good and clear... I used to have a MP3 Player in my Celi :( ... with high quality MP3's i managed to get about 120 on 1 CD.. hit the random button and voila..

[Calisto]

Hey Fizz my mate, dont be sad about your celica. You can only get better. :D

I am thinking more in the way of mp3 I have never downloaded on to them b4. But I have down loaded mp3 on to a normal cd.

Oh the choices I have to make in my life.

[vmail]

downloaded on to what?

MP3 at 320kbs is what you are looking for, no where near true CD quality

all you need to do is stick your MP3 CD into the headunit, depending on which headunit you have got

[Fizz]

MP3 the way to go...

all you gotta do is copy the MP3's as they are onto a CD as a Data CD...

bang the CD into the MP3 player... and ya off...

[Calisto]

Hi vmail.

I have downloaded mp3 music via kazza on to a normal cd but the quality is not good.

Would it be better if I down loaded mp3 tunes on to an mp3 disk.

Oh my god, this is way out of my league.

[Yarisboy]

MP3 at 320kbs is what you are looking for, no where near true CD quality

cd's are encoded at 170kb, 320kb is overkill for an mp3 as well as a waste of space. Unless you're recording from vinyl to mp3... go for 160kb encoding.

Regards to your question cd/mp3, well it depends on how much you quality you want. MP3/WMA/AAC etc all have advantages&disadvantages... but digital encoding is a little way off becoming 'CD quality' yet.

if you use a quality cd recorder with good software you'll get pretty close to 'CD'... in fact you'd have to be a dub to able to spot the difference between mp3 and cd if you used quality gear, you're playing music in your car remember... i.e. you're not completely focused on listening to the music while you're navigating junctions and watching the pillock on the round about doesn't drive into you.

mp3 = MASSES of songs on one cd, as fizz rightly says... 650mb of mp3... random play... away you go

cd = better quality sound, less durable though

cd's actually removed frequencys from vinyl that you supposedly 'couldn't hear' ... latest thinking is that SA-CD (super audio CD) will be the way forward because it will replace the frequencies that was lost from vinyl.

DVD-Audio and SA-CD will be the new standard when they eventually take off in popularity, very much an audiophiles gimmick at the moment though.

Anyway, there's my opinion for you m8... unless ur really serious about your sound i'd go for mp3... much more practical.

sam

[Coyote!]

The problem is do I buy a CD changer or start getting into mp3's?.

Why not a CD Changer whitch reads MP3?

As Yarisboy said, If you have a good SW to make mp3's, then go ahead! I'd do it if I were U...

Cheers

Coyote from BA

Argentina

[Calisto]

Thanks all of you.

I have quite abit to think about.

I will let u know as soon as I know. :D

[vmail]

MP3 Disk?

If you want to go down the illegal route, pop you audio cd into the PC, download nero + Nero MP3 plugin

Then use nero to encode your cds, or download better quality files from Kazza

[Ryan1985]

Go the MP3 route...i have!!!

MP3 means the song is compressed 3 times and should only take out beats and rhythm the human ear cannot hear!!!

Cheers

[vmail]

thats not true, I can tell the difference when played mp3 and cd

i dont know where you got the compressed 3 times from

@ 8kbs = 179.2 times smaller

@ 320kbs = 4.48 times smaller

Mp3's dont come in approx 475kbs unless you encode it manually your self

[Ryan1985]

Sorry do apologise!!! Thot i read it sumwhere!!!

And vmail if u copy a song from a real CD on2 ur computer and then convert it 2 MP3 then u should not hear a difference at all!!! Its the quality of the file from the internet which wos poor not the MP3 file directly!!!

Cheers

[Yarisboy]

lol ryan, if you can't tell the difference between mp3 and cd u need ur ears checking m8

[vmail]

half of what you are sayin is true but, I have a trained ear, if you play a 128kbs file then a 320kbs file quite loud, you will notice that the 128kbs file is distorted, im not saying MP3 is rubbish, cos i use it was well, even on the mobile (96kbs, sound wicked on the earphones)

[Ryan1985]

Thats rite vmail i'm doing a degree in Computing but i don't know s**t apparently!!!

[vmail]

done my degree in Lesiure comp tec, now doin MSc Multimedia comp

try working out the maths for yourself

1 min Audio cd is 10.5Meg Wav

in MSc you learn that what you read may not be true, you need to check out referances

[dazwan]

Why not a CD Changer whitch reads MP3?

As Yarisboy said, If you have a good SW to make mp3's, then go ahead! I'd do it if I were U...

Cheers

Coyote from BA

Argentina

I was going to suggest this as well .

I only know of the sony X-Plod 10 disc changer which will accept MP3 disks. The result: Absolutely LOADS of MP3's and the choice to stick regular CD's in there as well. The only downside to this is that you'll have to have a compatible head unit (most likely Sony :( ). I used to know someone who bought this multi-changer and it was great. Not only can you random play a disk, but random play across 10 disks!

As for the argument WRT sound quality, I record all my MP3's at maximum quality Variable Bit Rate and to be honest I can't tell the difference between that and the original CD. I'm not saying there's no difference, but I can't tell when using musicmatch to make copies. I tried downloading from Kazaa and am dissapointed. It's usually quicker to pop down to HMV and the quallity varies from poor to diabolical.

[vmail]

what bitrate are you getting from kazza?

[dj_davo]

harddrive is the way to go fella

think there is a 40gb system, get plenty of mp3's on there and no skipping over bumps!

expensive mind ya :o

[dazwan]

what bitrate are you getting from kazza?

it varies from 64bps to 128bps and very rarely 190odd bps. Compared to the 300+ bitrate I usually get from VBR they are poor quality and aren't worth listening to IMO. I wanted to find Morrissey (viva hate) a while back and tried to track it down on Kazaa, in the end I gave up and bought it for £4.99 from HMV.

I've found the thing that mp3 has real trouble with at lower bit rates is intruments like pianos, also if you have anything with rain it can cause some interesting effects.

[vmail]

try sharereactor.com, and download eMule, like all P2P software there are a lot of viruses, eMule is better with Full Albums, and can take time to start downloading

[Leeky]

Id say MP3 cd units are the best. None of the wires and hassle associated with hard drive units.

Using budget 10p 700mb cd-r's means average of 200 high quality tracks.

You still have the ability to use normal cd's also.

I got a Sony MPX30 in the GT4 but im not transfering it over into my next car because the stereo in its is mint already.

So its up for sale if anyone wants it! :D

[yannick]

OK - here's my 2p's worth:

I'd suggest a MP3 CD changer (Alpine CHA-S634 or Sony CDX T70MX for example). That gives you the flexibility of choosing between CDs and MP3 with no hassle.

If you're serious about MP3s go for the hard disk. There are now several on the market.

I'm going the MP3 CD changer route sometime soon (as soon as the compatibility issues with the standard Toyota head unit are resolved :D )