How many songs to !gb?

kokoshka

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Yawn. It's that question again. I confess that I've read the answer in this forum many times, but have never been quite so close to buying my first Mp3 player. I've been waiting for the release of the latest and last MD player from Sony, but although it's stunning in looks and capability, no one is able to tell me for sure exactly how well it works with Macs. I've posted questions on MiniDisc forums, asked at the Sony retailers etc., but drawn a blank. One piece of information though was worrying, that MD users are finding it increasingly difficult to source blank discs. So plan B for me is to buy an iPod, no other Mp3 player interfaces quite so well with a Mac, or so I'm told. But what capacity? Ideally I'd like to load about 250-300 cd's at around 192. I would also like help with suggestions for alternative power supplies. I intend using the player in the car, in the garden, on holiday, on the beach,. I guess 3-4 hours continuous use, once or twice a day. Would any of the piggy back battery boxes work well, or would I be better off with a mains charger/car charger? Finally, if anyone has seen the new Sony MD player, the MZ-RH1, then you'll know what I like in terms of appearance. Black, robust, buttons and switches. Is there a case or cover for the ipod that wouldn't look too much like a contraceptive?
 
Just dont bother with sony mp3 players, dont do it to yourself.

Hours of stress etc with sonicstage/connect....

....and on a mac? just not worth your time!
 
You can say a CD at 192 will take roughly 90 to 100MB - so that's ten to the GB.
So a 30GB player should just about manage the 250 to 300 CDs you're looking to hold.
It does, of course, depend a lot on how long the CDs are, but it's a reasonable working figure. :thumbsup:
 
kokoshka said:
I would also like help with suggestions for alternative power supplies. I intend using the player in the car,

What car head unit have you got. I plug my iPod into the CD autochanger socket of my Kenwood HU via a special lead. Not only does it charge the iPod it gives full control on the HU and displays tags.

As for size 30Gb will do nicely for 300CDs at 192.
 
I have an oldish Ford, which still has the original cassette player. When listening to my MD player, I used a cassette adapter in the UK, and a wireless transmitter once I reached foriegn shores. I'm quite attracted to the £15 multi-adapter that I've seen online, which currently comes with a free car charger. I love the idea of total portability though, hence my interest in battery backup. But realistically, I'm never going to be too far from a power source. And I've read that the battery backups only work if there is still some juice left in the internal battery. Thanks for the help with capacity, it seems that 30 gb is about right. I'm assuming that 192 will give me a reasonble sound quality.
 
kokoshka said:
I'm assuming that 192 will give me a reasonble sound quality.

192 should be fine. I use 256K generally but I'm just as happy with 192. Anything lower and I start to notice.
 
Re your bit-rate question - as a relative new-comer to this technology (just got an in-car CD player that will play CDs encoded with MP3 and WMA) I did a bit of reading and learnt that WMA has roughly the same sound quality as MP3 at half the bit rate.

So I encoded a few CDs using the variable bit rate of between 85-145kbps using WMA (WMP v10), and in the car they sound fine. Variable bit rate saves a bit of space on the disc.

128kbps sounds rubbish on the hifi though!
 

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