[s-cars] iPod questions... NAC (Long Reply Warning)

[calvinlc at earthlink.net]

Dave,

I suggest getting Exact Audio Copy, or any other free piece of software that
can extract good quality mp3's from CDs.  Then you need what is called the
LAME encoder.  It is a variable bit rate encoder.

As you might imagine different passages of music take different amounts of
information to accurately reproduce them.  If you have lots of high
frequency content you need more bits to represent that part of the passage.
However, if you just set the bitrate that high all the time, then a passage
of somebody constantly beating on a bass drum takes up the same amount of
space, which it doesn't have to...this is where the LAME encoder comes in.
It will encode at different bitrates, thereby saving space where you can and
giving you the extra bits where you need them.  There are 3 different common
"presets" that LAME recognizes, called "alt preset standard", "alt preset
extreme" and "alt preset insane".  This is like when you have a photo editor
program and you can pick low/medium/high quality.  Of course just like with
photo editors you can customize the settings, but unless you know a lot
about audio filtering techniques I would suggest sticking with one of the
presets.

I have done extensive testing with my ears on a pretty high end home audio
system, and with what hearing I have left (I used to build competition car
stereos in my younger years) I can tell a difference at "standard" between
the original recording and the MP3.  At "extreme" it is rarely ever
noticeable, and certainly not noticeable rolling down the road with 80+db of
car/road noise.  This is where I have encoded all 500+ of my CDs at.  It
winds at an average of about 7 MB per song...a little higher than the iTunes
format but MUCH better quality.  BTW, the iTunes encoder is known to be one
of the worst out there.

Exact Audio Copy also does a fantastic job of ripping the CDs.  It ensures
the accuracy better than just about any other program out there and it's
free.  Then, after you are done encoding, simply point iTunes to the right
directories and you're done.

Now, if you aren't into the audio thing that much, the fixed bit rate of
around 192 kbps will probably be just fine for you.  When you buy anything
from the iTunes store it comes in the AAC format.  In order to convert that
to MP3 there are some roundabout ways, but Apple doesn't make it too easy on
you.

If you are interested in this route let me know and I can e-mail you the
whole zipped package, it's only like 2MB, and I can e-mail you my settings
file which should ease the startup pain.

BTW, my iPod solution in the car is an Alpine deck with iPod "full speed"
controls that works awesome and is only like $230 from Best Buy including
the cable.

--Calvin




-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of Matt twentyV
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 10:11 PM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] iPod questions... NAC


>>28 bit MP3s are commonplace and are very good
>>> quality

I wouldn't say that!  320 is quite good but 128 sounds
pretty bad on any decent sound system.

S-car content:  I recently installed an iPOD adapter
(DICE) in the '00S4.  The 95 S6 avant still just has a
tape adapter which sounds like crap by comparison- the
DICE adapter sounds great and works well.  If the S6
has the same CD changer connector this adapter might
work- I need to try it.

-Matt
'91cq//20vt
'95.5S6//avant
'00S4//30vtt

--- John Cody Forbes <cody at 5000tq.com> wrote:

> auctionpics at cox.net wrote:
> > Ok this is a joke right?
> >
> > i think you need to spend a few minutes reading
> about a thing we
> > people in the late 20th century called the mp3...
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3
> >
> > good luck dave
>
> I think what he would have said had he woken up on
> the proper side of the
> bed this morning is something like this:
>
> The data stored on your given audio CD is in a
> format that takes up gobs of
> space. A standard audio CD cam hold about 80 minutes
> of audio, which is
> roughly 700mb of data. While the quality is
> excelent, there are better
> formats such as the MP3 format that your I-Pod (and
> nearly everything else)
> uses. The MP3 format when properly configured can
> play back audio at a
> quality level completely indistingushible by any
> person from full CD
> quailty, but take up a teensy fraction of the space.
> When converting to MP3
> normally you can select a 'bitrate', which is in
> simple terms a measure of
> how much audio you want stuffed into a unit of
> space. A higher bitrate will
> yeild a higher quailty level. 128 bit MP3s are
> commonplace and are very good
> quality, but some prefer to go as high as 320 bit.
> The MP3 is how a um...
> "certain person that I may sorta know" has over
> 20,000 songs stored in under
> 60gb of space.
>
> Many current generation car stereos can play MP3
> format, which allows you to
> store HUNDREDS of songs on a single disc, a very
> nice feature!
>
> -Cody
>
> _______________________________________________
> S-CAR-List mailing list
> S-CAR-List at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-car-list
>


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