Formats

Howard · 01-09-2003, 10:41 PM

Which of these portable music formats is your preference and why?
I need a new portable device because my CD player is getting a bit knackered, and I have a really expensive and nice portable cassette player, and was just wondering what everyone else likes/has got

Theo · 01-09-2003, 10:43 PM

You missed Vinyl... which is personally my preference for listening at home. However... you did say portable in your post, so I'll say minidisc - small, good sound quality etc, fit's nicely in my coat pocket with a packet of cigs.

Howard · 01-09-2003, 10:46 PM

Sorry, I edited it so it now indicates portable

fondie · 01-09-2003, 10:56 PM

CD at home, 'cos they've got the best sound quality

mp3 on the road, because the players are so damn small and light, and you can fit loads of tunes onto them

Knoxville · 02-09-2003, 12:14 AM

mp3 definatly

just had my 128mb player go walkabout from the cinema

my replacement 256mb gets delivered tommorow

jon bda · 02-09-2003, 12:55 AM

Haven't got a portable player as such (i'm a lazy get, i don't walk anywhere

), but i have an mp3 HU in my car, basically due to the amount you can fit on one disc...

Slick · 02-09-2003, 01:19 AM

Originally posted by fondie
CD at home, 'cos they've got the best sound quality

Mp3s are just as good sound quality as CDs if you encode them at a high enough bit rate.

I'd definitly go with a hard drive based mp3 player, zen or if you can afford an iPod go for it and you won't regret it. Small, light portable and large enough to fit all your music on.

I wouldn't get a small memory based mp3 player though, I use to have a 48mb one and thought it was a hassle uploading bout 12 new songs every couple of days on a usb1.1 connection. If you like to listen to the same songs a lot though this may not be an issue.

I wouldn't go minidisc as I think they're poor quality and over priced.

If you want a cheap solution go for a simple CD player, you can get one for about £20-£30 now and if you've allready got a CD writer I'm sure that would come in handy

fondie · 02-09-2003, 01:32 AM

Originally posted by Slick
Mp3s are just as good sound quality as CDs if you encode them at a high enough bit rate.

mp3 is by it's nature a lossy compression method, the greater the bit rate you encode them at the less information is lost, but information is still lost and therefore they will never have the ability to produce as accurate playback of material as a CD, assuming you are starting with the same material of course. while you may not be able to tell the difference between a cd and an mp3 recorded at a high bit played through your equipment, that's not to say the difference isn't there, just that the equipment you play it through isn't capable of exposing the differences. go along to any decent hi-fi shop with your mp3s and the same music on cd and i'm sure they'd be happy to enlighten you.

Slick · 02-09-2003, 01:40 AM

lol I hope you're not insulting my speakers

Even with the world's greatest speakers I'm sure you'd find it extremly hard to decide which is a CD and which is a 192kbps mp3 between the two. Also this is being used for portable audio, with a pair of headphones and background noise added in it would be impossible to decide between the 2, except if the cd was skipping

fondie · 02-09-2003, 02:02 AM

no insulting of your speakers is going on, but you can't claim that mp3's have the same sound quality as CDs if you're just comparing them using an audigy 2 and pc speakers because they're not exactly the most musical of devices!

i can tell the difference between mp3s and cd's! i've tried, and mp3s don't have quite the same detail, and it certainly doesn't take the worlds greatest speakers, my HT set-up will do fine, and it's by no means the most musical of systems!

i realise this thread is about portable music formats though, and i've already said that mp3 was my preffered portable format! i agree that due to the limitations of portable audio devices, headphones and background noise the difference would be considerably (if not entirely) diminished.

Trash Man · 02-09-2003, 06:45 AM

Originally posted by Slick
lol I hope you're not insulting my speakers

Even with the world's greatest speakers I'm sure you'd find it extremly hard to decide which is a CD and which is a 192kbps mp3 between the two. Also this is being used for portable audio, with a pair of headphones and background noise added in it would be impossible to decide between the 2, except if the cd was skipping

I never used to be able to the tell the difference between the 2 using my old headphones. But when I bought my new Grado headphones I could hear quite a bit of difference between the original and the 192kps mp3.

That's why I have started ripping my entire CD collection (around 800) to MPC instead. This is still a lossy format but it is much better than mp3.

Bindibadgi · 02-09-2003, 08:49 AM

Gotta be MP3 cause u can store HUNDREDs in such a small space (say a 1gig mircodrive) unlike CDs which are a bit bulky and Minidisk which is smaller but as restrictive as CDs :/ Tape is just not worth even considering.

Paul Adams · 02-09-2003, 12:23 PM

No contest - MP3.
Solid state, no moving parts in the player.
Loads of tracks stored one one storage medium.
High quality recording.

This is for portable/car/PC use - for "proper music listening sessions" in the house, then CDs rule.

Lead_Head · 02-09-2003, 02:01 PM

Originally posted by fondie
CD at home, 'cos they've got the best sound quality

I have to disagree with you there matey.

If you got the best setup for a CD player, and played a song. And then got the best setup for a vinyl system and played the same song.

The vinyl would sound sooo much better.

Vinyl is old technology, it's analog - granted. It is inconvienient (lifting the stylus etc) but it is still the best quality you can get.

CD's were invented because ppl r lazy and have to use remote controls in there nice back massaging chairs, instead of sitting back and listening to the whole vinyl.

Analog is capable of producing sounds that CD's cant even get near.

Oh, and for the original question......

mp3 for portability, CD for home use

Nick

Slick · 02-09-2003, 02:54 PM

If you want the best quality for home listening dvd audio kicks cd's and vinyl's arse. Only problem is you can hardly get any albums recorded in the format, but it's bound to get bigger in the future.

Theo · 02-09-2003, 03:13 PM

Vinyl isn't about sound quality. It's about experiencing the music how it SHOULD sound

View Poll Results: Which format?
Tape	0	0%
CD	6	25.00%
Minidisc	5	20.83%
MP3	16	66.67%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 24. You may not vote on this poll

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