While this doesn't address your question, I strongly suggest you avoid iPods as their battery life is short [6 hours - which neuters the purpose of having a 30 gB HDD], they're fairly pricey, the preamp sound quality could be better and you will end up paying to get more features [if you want to record with your iPod, you have to buy an add-on that will let you record to 32kbps mono MP3 - not good for much other than voice.]
Your best alternative would be the iRiver iHP-120. It boasts a 16 hour battery charge life [it achieves this regularly], superb sound quality, high quality MP3 recording, Ogg Vorbis support, digital + optical line in/line out, frequent firmware updates with new features/enhancements/bugfixes for free [the newest update added lyrics support, for instance], text file viewer [read e-books], USB 2.0 High Speed, fabulous build quality... it goes on:-) You don't even need special drivers or software to transfer files from/to computers, so it works as a portable 20 gB device, including under Linux.
Also check out reviews from ign.com and CNET. Don't miss the customer feedback, but watch out for trolls & astroturfers.
I know I sound like an iRiver pimp, but this company has truly lived up to its hype and therefore deserves my pimping services:-) [personally, i own an iMP-550 and find it outstandingly good in every way. I do not work for them, though I would love to.]
For those who ignore AC posts, here's a repost. And turn on AC comments, please.
===
MS. FARRELL Those savings enable me, if I am an investor, to consume more and therefore contribute to job recreation.
She is stating a fact to support a deception.
The number of people who have enough money to put into the market so that its ups and downs make any material difference to their immediate economic situation is vanishingly small.
She is talking about the "investor class", which is not he same as the class of people who are invested, in some form, usually IRAs or 401ks, in the market. It's hard for me to believe that she is not perfectly well aware of this.
The investor class actually has so much money, that the market can make them hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Those are apparently the people she is used to hanging out with.
The vast majority of poeple in the market are hoping that their investments will accrue enough so that they can retire at 75 or 80 now that Congress has given the money they paid into Social Security to the people in Mr Farrell's circle of friends in the form of tax cuts.
It's hard to get your mind around how far away they are from us. To them, we're something like unfortunate insects whose place in life is to accept our fate at the hands of forces they control.
We're that vast bobbing mob that history "happens" to that and who they read about in books.
They, on the other hand, have been intelligent enough not to get caught in our situation.
The differences in our fates is clearly due to their superiority and it is wrong for us to begrudge them their deserved success or in any way attempt to curtail the implementation of their globalist vision, which will make them richer yet and us poorer. What's the moral basis of all this? Well, in the long run (after you're dead), it'll all work out for everyone.
Understand this- by worrying about what happens to you in your lifetime, you're being petty and shortsighted. Thank god for the chiseled jaw CEOs with the long range vision and the fortitude to keep a firm hand on the wheel and steer us through these trying times into safety.
I assumed the OP considered 192 kbps CBR MP3s as the best tradeoff between quality and filesize, while the --alt-preset standard setting will give far superior results for around the same bitrate.
What exactly is revolutionary about the information posted there? I didn't find anything that isn't pretty obvious.
The guide is based on best practices while still aiming to be newbie-friendly. While I don't consider it revolutionary, it is accurate [in terms of encoder and ripper settings] and aims to give the best possible results while still remaining accessible to the newbie [hence the reason it's not based on Exact Audio Copy.] Judging by the mail I receive, it's on the right track so far.
The target readership?
Windows users who are totally new to ripping CDs, and
Musicmatch/Audiograbber users who feel [or have been ill-advised] that 128kbps CBR is the way to go.
Not everyone's aware of LAME, the --alt-presets or cdparanoia. At least they won't end up with MP3s they later regret [once their ears become attuned to MP3 artifacts.] The OP had mentioned 192kbps CBR, which was the reason I posted the link in response.
I will soon add an Ogg Vorbis section, plus more detailed sections to accomodate portable/advanced users.
I'll often go to the library and just grab 30 CDs off the shelf, bring them home, and rip them into MP3
If you have to rip to MP3, please read my guide to ripping CDs to high-quality MP3. The results are guaranteed to be as close to transparency as can be achieved with the MP3 format.
Lucky you:-) In any case, please accept my sincere apologies if my previous comment came across as rather snide - it wasn't intended that way [it does now to me.]
Somehow I doubt retailers were arm twisted into selling only Windows.
This was one of the main points of the antitrust case against Microsoft. From The Register:
One of the reasons for the failure of BeOS, Hacker identifies, was the inability to induce OEMs to provide true dual-boot machines. Be adopted a non-confrontational approach, seeking to provide a Windows alternative rather than a replacement. It later produced a version that boots from inside Windows, and it even offered OEMs BeOS for free. However
Microsoft OEM contracts forbid a visible dual-boot option, and although OEMs were keen to differentiate themselves by offering Be's "Media OS" as an alternative, they risked breaching the OEM agreements.
I get flamed for being a so-called "Microsoft shill" constantly for pointing out the obvious--operating systems are as secure as their admins/makers.
You get flamed because you're not Overly Critical when an exploit is revealed in closed source software. In fact, you're downright silent. When you get that sorted out, notice the flames dying down.
The iRiver folks plan to include gapless MP3 playback in a future firmware update; however I hope they don't use any hacks [such as trimming silence off the files' extremities.] The best way to do it would be as detailed in my previous post.
...and even non-nogap mp3s (the Karma will now drop silent frames starting and trailing mp3s)
This is an imperfect hack as certain tracks have deliberate silence that will be inadvertently trimmed off with this method, therefore failing to preserve integrity.
The best [and flawless] approach to this is two-fold:
Use an encoder that stores two important variables, encoder delay and encoder padding, such as LAME 3.90.3 (recommended version.)
Play back MP3s that knows how to use these values to achieve perfectly gapless playback - I only know of foobar2000 that does this at present.
This has been tested to work successfully - a long-awaited dream come true:-) I'm sure I'm not alone here, hence the inspiration for this post.
I also recommend you use --alt-preset standard as the encoding parameter for MP3s virtually indistinguishable from the original.
Slashdot Mirror
One of the most rugged budget SLRs ever made, and great value for the money.
While this doesn't address your question, I strongly suggest you avoid iPods as their battery life is short [6 hours - which neuters the purpose of having a 30 gB HDD], they're fairly pricey, the preamp sound quality could be better and you will end up paying to get more features [if you want to record with your iPod, you have to buy an add-on that will let you record to 32kbps mono MP3 - not good for much other than voice.]
:-) You don't even need special drivers or software to transfer files from/to computers, so it works as a portable 20 gB device, including under Linux.
:-) [personally, i own an iMP-550 and find it outstandingly good in every way. I do not work for them, though I would love to.]
Your best alternative would be the iRiver iHP-120. It boasts a 16 hour battery charge life [it achieves this regularly], superb sound quality, high quality MP3 recording, Ogg Vorbis support, digital + optical line in/line out, frequent firmware updates with new features/enhancements/bugfixes for free [the newest update added lyrics support, for instance], text file viewer [read e-books], USB 2.0 High Speed, fabulous build quality... it goes on
Also check out reviews from ign.com and CNET. Don't miss the customer feedback, but watch out for trolls & astroturfers.
iRiver are a company that respects their customers and earns their money. You will see it in the tone of their announcements; hell, they even offer to replace the iHP-100's [and most likely the iHP-120's] lithium battery for free if you use it a lot. They have gained success by selling products that are worth buying and do not go obsolete as easily.
I know I sound like an iRiver pimp, but this company has truly lived up to its hype and therefore deserves my pimping services
Excellent commentary with biting wit.
For those who ignore AC posts, here's a repost. And turn on AC comments, please.
===
MS. FARRELL Those savings enable me, if I am an investor, to consume more and therefore contribute to job recreation.
She is stating a fact to support a deception.
The number of people who have enough money to put into the market so that its ups and downs make any material difference to their immediate economic situation is vanishingly small.
She is talking about the "investor class", which is not he same as the class of people who are invested, in some form, usually IRAs or 401ks, in the market. It's hard for me to believe that she is not perfectly well aware of this.
The investor class actually has so much money, that the market can make them hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Those are apparently the people she is used to hanging out with.
The vast majority of poeple in the market are hoping that their investments will accrue enough so that they can retire at 75 or 80 now that Congress has given the money they paid into Social Security to the people in Mr Farrell's circle of friends in the form of tax cuts.
It's hard to get your mind around how far away they are from us. To them, we're something like unfortunate insects whose place in life is to accept our fate at the hands of forces they control.
We're that vast bobbing mob that history "happens" to that and who they read about in books.
They, on the other hand, have been intelligent enough not to get caught in our situation.
The differences in our fates is clearly due to their superiority and it is wrong for us to begrudge them their deserved success or in any way attempt to curtail the implementation of their globalist vision, which will make them richer yet and us poorer. What's the moral basis of all this? Well, in the long run (after you're dead), it'll all work out for everyone.
Understand this- by worrying about what happens to you in your lifetime, you're being petty and shortsighted. Thank god for the chiseled jaw CEOs with the long range vision and the fortitude to keep a firm hand on the wheel and steer us through these trying times into safety.
===
Did you really write that all by yourself, Rob? Near-impeccable grammar and spelling [only one typo "wiil"], and made for quite an interesting read.
Well done.
So long, and thanks for all the fish :-P
I assumed the OP considered 192 kbps CBR MP3s as the best tradeoff between quality and filesize, while the --alt-preset standard setting will give far superior results for around the same bitrate.
You raise a good point - I shall add the necessary info. Thanks for the suggestion :-)
The guide is based on best practices while still aiming to be newbie-friendly. While I don't consider it revolutionary, it is accurate [in terms of encoder and ripper settings] and aims to give the best possible results while still remaining accessible to the newbie [hence the reason it's not based on Exact Audio Copy.] Judging by the mail I receive, it's on the right track so far.
The target readership?
Not everyone's aware of LAME, the --alt-presets or cdparanoia. At least they won't end up with MP3s they later regret [once their ears become attuned to MP3 artifacts.] The OP had mentioned 192kbps CBR, which was the reason I posted the link in response.
I will soon add an Ogg Vorbis section, plus more detailed sections to accomodate portable/advanced users.
Thanks for the hearty chuckle :-)
Anyone who browses Slashdot with his/her family around should know better.
Lucky you :-) In any case, please accept my sincere apologies if my previous comment came across as rather snide - it wasn't intended that way [it does now to me.]
Cheers,
CD
Google better and you jaw may well drop.
You must be new here.
Good luck!
They also have Opeth, Dimmu Borgir and Emperor. What more could you want?
Sounds like a bunch of pirates to me...
Auto as in Ford
how do you propose to get her out once the inevitable happens?
Hi ckimyt,
FWIW I've detailed how to get true gapless MP3 playback on your PC earlier.
The iRiver folks plan to include gapless MP3 playback in a future firmware update; however I hope they don't use any hacks [such as trimming silence off the files' extremities.] The best way to do it would be as detailed in my previous post.
Cheers,
CD
The best [and flawless] approach to this is two-fold:
- Use an encoder that stores two important variables, encoder delay and encoder padding, such as LAME 3.90.3 (recommended version.)
- Play back MP3s that knows how to use these values to achieve perfectly gapless playback - I only know of foobar2000 that does this at present.
This has been tested to work successfully - a long-awaited dream come trueI also recommend you use --alt-preset standard as the encoding parameter for MP3s virtually indistinguishable from the original.