My wife told me she wanted to get me an mp3 player for my birthday and if I could have a think about exactly what I wanted.
I'm going to outline what I tried and used and the thought processes I went through which might be of benefit to anyone thinking about setting up a media library or just plain amusing to anyone who's already done it.
Ok. I consider myself a bit of an audiophile and quite the technology nerd but quite ignorant of mp3 technology sticking firmly to CD. I've quite discernable hearing and live with a singer/musician (wife) so music is quite important to us.
A few months ago my Denon system finally gave up the ghost and rather than get it fixed I looked at my other equipment to see if I could get a good listening experience.
I have an xbox 360, Yamaha RXV-359 and a set of 5.1 Tannoy eFX. I had a few ripped albums (mp3 format) on my laptop with media sharing on already (more a tech experiment when I first played with streaming) and for the last few weeks I've found myself streaming these albums to my 360 and despite the niggle that it could sound a lot better it was pleasant enough and did the job.
With talk of an mp3 player I decided to look into exactly what I could achieve. Temporary ripping? Media library? Streaming over Media Center?
So after research I downloaded EAC and LAME and ripped a few albums at 192kbps. They sounded pretty good and showed up on my 360. I noticed album art was missing in the Media Center so used mp3tag to add it. Lovely. For an MP3 player I liked the look of the new iTouch; a friend had one over a few weeks ago, sorted.
Well so I thought.
I knew about the new 80GB Zune and saw a few people recommending it and even though it can't officially be bought here I saw it was readily available for circa£160/170.
The more I read, 80GB vs 16GB, wireless sync and wireless streaming with the 360, nice large screen, the more I read the more I was interested. I downloaded the software and soon realised I preferred it to iTunes (never liked it). There's a great review of it here: http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/zune2.asp
Ok, so this led me to Audio Formats. Who'd have thought there were alternatives to mp3! (stop laughing! I'm new to this). I decided against lossless as I had so many albums and space was a premium. I also wanted a format I could easily transfer to a portable device. I decided 192kbps was good enough for me and read so many confilcting opinions I decided on a blind test.
I ripped the same few tracks as follows:
EAC with LAME mp3 @ 192kbps
WMA Pro @ 192kbps
And I got myself and my wife to listen to them a few times.
It was unanimous. We both picked WMA Pro in every test. My wife consistently said the vocals (female) were much better.
So I deleted the 30 odd albums I'd already ripped and started again.
I used WMP 11 to rip them and add the album art and I'm very pleased. It only didn't recognise 1 album (quite a new obscure folk album) and let me add the details painlessly. It's also substantially quicker than the EAC/LAME process.
Here's the media center on the tv:
With my Logitech 525 now set with an activity that turns the 360 on to the Media Center my wife was blown away with how it all looked. Ensuring I set the Amp to 'Straight' the sound is also superb; at least on par with my Denon system (I think it's better).
I've discovered that the Zune software is great but can be a little flaky. Here's a screen:
It can get itself into a bit of a mess if you're actively importing tracks / albums whilst it's running so an important download is the ZuneMediaCollectionResetTool.exe from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945319. If you set up your library with WMP 11 though it's not that painful to rebuild your Zune library. Once your library is set up though the software is robust and far far better than iTunes. You can access the marketplace but can't buy (need a US account).
Summary:
CDs ripped with WMP 11 / WMA Pro @ 192kbps
Zune 80GB / Zune software
360 Media Center
So next steps?
Get a Zune and have the 360 stream music from it so I don't need the PC on all the time.
Discover the best places to buy music (suggestions?)
Complete the library and rip all my CDs and wifes tapes (suggestions?)
I known there will be many of you laughing at all this but I fancied outlining what I'd done (before I forgot it all) and it may be of interest to anyone thinking outside the obvious (apple + mp3).
Thoughts, comments, abuse all welcome
I'm going to outline what I tried and used and the thought processes I went through which might be of benefit to anyone thinking about setting up a media library or just plain amusing to anyone who's already done it.
Ok. I consider myself a bit of an audiophile and quite the technology nerd but quite ignorant of mp3 technology sticking firmly to CD. I've quite discernable hearing and live with a singer/musician (wife) so music is quite important to us.
A few months ago my Denon system finally gave up the ghost and rather than get it fixed I looked at my other equipment to see if I could get a good listening experience.
I have an xbox 360, Yamaha RXV-359 and a set of 5.1 Tannoy eFX. I had a few ripped albums (mp3 format) on my laptop with media sharing on already (more a tech experiment when I first played with streaming) and for the last few weeks I've found myself streaming these albums to my 360 and despite the niggle that it could sound a lot better it was pleasant enough and did the job.
With talk of an mp3 player I decided to look into exactly what I could achieve. Temporary ripping? Media library? Streaming over Media Center?
So after research I downloaded EAC and LAME and ripped a few albums at 192kbps. They sounded pretty good and showed up on my 360. I noticed album art was missing in the Media Center so used mp3tag to add it. Lovely. For an MP3 player I liked the look of the new iTouch; a friend had one over a few weeks ago, sorted.
Well so I thought.
I knew about the new 80GB Zune and saw a few people recommending it and even though it can't officially be bought here I saw it was readily available for circa£160/170.
The more I read, 80GB vs 16GB, wireless sync and wireless streaming with the 360, nice large screen, the more I read the more I was interested. I downloaded the software and soon realised I preferred it to iTunes (never liked it). There's a great review of it here: http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/zune2.asp
Ok, so this led me to Audio Formats. Who'd have thought there were alternatives to mp3! (stop laughing! I'm new to this). I decided against lossless as I had so many albums and space was a premium. I also wanted a format I could easily transfer to a portable device. I decided 192kbps was good enough for me and read so many confilcting opinions I decided on a blind test.
I ripped the same few tracks as follows:
EAC with LAME mp3 @ 192kbps
WMA Pro @ 192kbps
And I got myself and my wife to listen to them a few times.
It was unanimous. We both picked WMA Pro in every test. My wife consistently said the vocals (female) were much better.
So I deleted the 30 odd albums I'd already ripped and started again.
I used WMP 11 to rip them and add the album art and I'm very pleased. It only didn't recognise 1 album (quite a new obscure folk album) and let me add the details painlessly. It's also substantially quicker than the EAC/LAME process.
Here's the media center on the tv:
With my Logitech 525 now set with an activity that turns the 360 on to the Media Center my wife was blown away with how it all looked. Ensuring I set the Amp to 'Straight' the sound is also superb; at least on par with my Denon system (I think it's better).
I've discovered that the Zune software is great but can be a little flaky. Here's a screen:
It can get itself into a bit of a mess if you're actively importing tracks / albums whilst it's running so an important download is the ZuneMediaCollectionResetTool.exe from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945319. If you set up your library with WMP 11 though it's not that painful to rebuild your Zune library. Once your library is set up though the software is robust and far far better than iTunes. You can access the marketplace but can't buy (need a US account).
Summary:
CDs ripped with WMP 11 / WMA Pro @ 192kbps
Zune 80GB / Zune software
360 Media Center
So next steps?
Get a Zune and have the 360 stream music from it so I don't need the PC on all the time.
Discover the best places to buy music (suggestions?)
Complete the library and rip all my CDs and wifes tapes (suggestions?)
I known there will be many of you laughing at all this but I fancied outlining what I'd done (before I forgot it all) and it may be of interest to anyone thinking outside the obvious (apple + mp3).
Thoughts, comments, abuse all welcome
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