| WIKI | FAQ | Tech FAQ | |
 http://csua.com/feed/ | |
| ||||||
| 11/24 |
| 2005/2/24-25 [Consumer/Audio] UID:36397 Activity:moderate |
2/23 How can you listen to non iPods in your car if you don't have a
tapedeck? Are there iTrip equivalents or other car adaptor kits for
things like the Dell DJ ?
\_ There are non-iPod-specific devices that will take in an audio
signal and broadcast on an FM channel. Belkin makes one.
\_ I'd like to add that since they are subject to interference they
tend to work quite poorly in metropolitan areas. Also, even when
working perfectly, your audio quality is necessarily downgraded
to FM. -!pp
\_ Yeah, but is the tapedeck interface better or worse than
the FM interface in a metro area?
\_ Some tape players have very poor tracking, but in my
experience the FM interface is nothing but a giant headache
because you have to synchronize the car and transmitter
frequency, find an open channel (VERY hard), and then
change frequencies once you drive into another station's
tranmission range.
\_ Wasn't someone talking about car stereos that have a line-in on motd
a while ago?
\_ BMW makes an accessory that allows you to connect any regular
mini audio to your car's stereo. This is different than the
iPodYourBMW thing they were advertising a while back.
\_ I posted a link to a site that had adapters that you could
install on any factory radio to get an aux-in. I don't
have the link at the moment, but I'm sure it'd turn up
on a google search.
\_ It was kind of a pain to actually locate one, but I found an
Aiwa deck with a line-in jack on the front which I put in my
car. Some car radios have a line-in jack on the back (how
useful is that?). -meyers |
| 2005/2/8 [Consumer/Audio] UID:36097 Activity:high |
2/8 Question for our local radio experts. How do I find out who's
broadcasting a signal at a certain frequency? I looked at the FCC
frequency allocation at http://www.fcc.gov/oet/spectrum and it is not very
helpful. Is there a number I can call? The offending signal is a
really high power tone at around 463.6 MHz, and what makes it annoying
is that it comes and goes totally randomly. If I could talk to whoever
is making the signal, maybe I could find out when they turn the damn
thing off(it turns off just often enough to make it really hard to
characterize.) Thanks.
\_ I solved my own problem. If anyone cares, it's this search page:
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp and
if you click on "advanced license search", and you can search
by both frequency range and physical location. I'm pretty
sure I've found the culprit. -op
\_ Who was it???
\_ Physical plant of the university where our lab is. I can
literally see the damn antennas out the window.
\_ If they have a license, does that mean they can legally
transmit at that frequency? Maybe you are the one who
shouldn't be using that frequency?
\_ Of course they can, and I'm not transmitting. I'm
just *measuring* in that band. Obviously I'm not
going to get physical plant to just stop using
their system, but just knowing that there's no
way to turn it off is usefull information to me.
\_ How 'bout filing a complaint with the fcc? they would have a lot
more resources to find it. |
| 2005/1/23-24 [Consumer/Audio, Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:35865 Activity:nil |
1/23 My car is about 10 years old and has a cassette tape desk. I have
an adaptor that I can plug an iPod or portable CD player into
the tape desk to play music. Sometimes it works fine, but all too
often, it spontaneously ejects the "tape" and won't play it even
after re-inserting. I've had the same problem with more than 1
tape adaptor, so I think it's something about my car's casette
player. What can I do to fix this? Would a tape head cleaner do
the trick, or is that only for fixing poor sound quality?
\_ get a hybrid car
\_ I may consider that when I get a new car, but since my car
works just fine now, I don't think I'll be spending $10000+
for a new one. But thanks for the suggestion. -op
\_ get a new player. $100-$200. |
| 2005/1/20 [Consumer/Audio] UID:35801 Activity:high |
1/20 Why buy a Shuffle? It has no screen!
\_ Shuttle?
\_ new cheap iPod, sounds like...
\_ Cuz $99 makes it actually competetive with other no-disc mp3
players. I'm not going to spend $300 on an iPod but I might
spend $99 on a Shuffle. Then again, I might not. I'm pretty
stingy.
\_ iriver and creative have displays. shuffle does not.
\_ iriver has the infamous hiss sound. Can't believe they
can release this kind of crap. |
| 2005/1/9-10 [Consumer/Audio] UID:35619 Activity:nil |
1/8 Does anyone know if the creative MuVo TX FM mp3 player can be
set to display chinese? thanks.
\_ http://www.creative.com
Next time, call them and ask. I did, and they said yes. You may need
to dl a language pack.
\_ This is a lot of congecture based largely on Clancy novels
and watching Hunt for Red October, but I think the difference
between fishing boat sonar and nuclear sub sonar is that
fishing boats use active sonar and subs try to stay hidden
and use passive sonar. With passive sonar, you would rely
mostly on accurate sea floor maps for navigation. If mis-
calculate speed, heading, or time then you could be off course
enough to hit things you are trying to avoid in tight spaces.
I'm not sure they still use innertial navigation. It definitely
seems plausible. -saarp |
| 2004/12/23 [Consumer/Audio] UID:35419 Activity:nil |
12/23 What's a good program to convert an mov to an MP3? |
| 2004/11/30 [Consumer/Audio] UID:35132 Activity:nil |
11/30 who has the photo iPod? What makes it Good?
\_ Kool-aid in color!
\_ Portable Porno. |
| 2004/11/23 [Transportation/Car, Consumer/Audio] UID:35045 Activity:nil |
11/23 How well do those car FM transmitters work? Do you recommend
a particular brand? |
| 2004/11/23 [Consumer/Audio] UID:35044 Activity:nil 52%like:35038 |
11/23 Poll:
ipod: ..
ipod mini: .
non-ipod HD player: ..
\_ iRiver 4 EVAH!
other mp3 player:
cd player which plays mp3s: .
PDA: ..
ghettoblaster: .
Soundwave! MORE THAN MEETS THE EEYYYE!!!: .......... |
| 2004/11/23 [Consumer/Audio] UID:35038 Activity:nil 52%like:35044 |
11/23 Poll:
ipod: ..
ipod mini: .
non-ipod HD player: .
other mp3 player:
cd player which plays mp3s: .
PDA: ..
ghettoblaster: .
Soundwave! MORE THAN MEETS THE EEYYYE!!!: .......... |
| 2004/10/27 [Consumer/Audio] UID:34385 Activity:nil 75%like:34374 |
10/27 New iPod campaign: http://www.squelched.com/pics/iRaq.jpg |
| 2004/10/27 [Consumer/Audio] UID:34374 Activity:nil 50%like:36747 75%like:34385 |
10/26 New iPod commercial: http://www.squelched.com/pics/iRaq.jpg |
| 2004/10/26-27 [Consumer/Audio] UID:34362 Activity:nil |
10/26 Might be lost amidst the hype over ipod photo and ipod U2, but the new
iTunes can locate duplicated music files and optionally delete them.
I think about 50% of my music files are duplicates.
\_ Oh, fuck this... it's just name id3 tag matching. I want MD5 hashes
(with and without consideration for id3/meta data) and heuristics
for determining how close a song is to a duplicate. |
| 2004/10/22-24 [Consumer/Audio] UID:34299 Activity:moderate |
10/22 MPEG-4 AAC vs. MP3. Pros? Cons?
\_ It really depends on what MP3 encoder you're comparing it to, as
the quality/bitrate can vary a lot. LAME with the right settings
produces quality comparable to AAC at the same bitrate, but others
(Xing, Fraunhoffer) will not sound nearly as good. MP3 wins hands
down for compatability though.
\_ AAC is supposed to be higher quality/bitrate. MP3 has more player
support. Since Apple has such a huge share of the market, we
might be seeing more AAC support in the future.
\_ OGG VORBIS!
\_ Can one notice the difference in audio quality between MP3 at
160 kHz vs. a regular CD if using speakers that aren't state
of the art?
\_ Maybe. If you play the right kind of music and/or have
been trained to listen for artifacts, then you're more
likely to hear them. What speakers?
\_ LAME's --preset-standard setting does VBR, I think it averages
above 192kbps but goes higher. This is supposed to be
transparent even to trained listeners although there are always
some "problem samples" people can find. 160 CBR is not considered
to be transparent but even 128CBR is "good enough" for a lot of
non audiophiles who aren't doing back-to-back tests.
\_ Trained audiophiles with good hearing can easily distinguish
between CD and higher-bitrate SACD and DVD-A. The quality diff
between lossy recordings and CD is much greater than CD and
SACD/DVD-A is much. Of course, if you aren't using a reference
SACD/DVD-A. Of course, if you aren't using a reference
system for listening it will be much harder to tell the
difference between any of these. Go to Home Entertainment 2004
to listen to some truly reference systems! (http://www.he2004.com
\_ I was impressed with mp3 sound until the day I realized
my speakers had been slowly decaying (after ~15 years).
so I replaced my rotten drivers and was blessed with
enough fidelity to hear big differences. but now I hear
much more difference between audio paths (analog or toslink)
from the same mp3s than between mp3 and CD over toslink...
\_ I can easily hear problems in 160kbit files on most halfway
decent audio systems. All 160kbit files are not alike, however.
Aside from CBR vs. VBR, some encoders (such as LAME) can do a
much better job making a nice file with limited bandwidth.
A well-encoded 160 or 192 kbit MP3 will have barely-detectable
distortion on most systems, but a poorly encoded 160 can sound
quite bad. |
| 2004/10/18-19 [Consumer/Audio] UID:34194 Activity:high |
10/18 Hi, I just got a 46" projection TV. I'm going to upgrade to a
progressive Philips DVP642 DVD player. I guess I want component video
cables since it separates the colors onto three wires.
On Amazon, I see Recoton ones for $15, and Monster ones for $60-100.
Is there really a diff? Is there a better place/brand to buy? Thanks.
\_ The DVP642 is the DVD player that plays divx right? I have this
player, and if you're planning to play divx movies, it will sometimes
crop bottom of picture (some subtitles may be unreadable).
I used standard RCA cables (1 video + 2 audio) for component video
and it worked fine, but I'm pretty indifferent to picture quality.
Give it a shot (you will probably already have the RCA cables handy),
and see if that's satisfactory.
\_ Not really a difference. You could maybe go for gold plating over
silver, but it's not going to really make a difference in the
picture. What makes a difference there is the type of cable, and
in doing component video you should already be a step up.
\_ Monster uses the worst sort of pseudo-scientific BS to try and
justify their product. As PP said, gold plating is good, but
only really matters if you expect their might be corossion.
You should only worry about expensive cables if you're trying a
really long cable run, at which point attenuation and overpriced
shielding become an issue.
\_ I've only heard of people using gold-plated cables for analog audio
connection, not analog video.
\_ What's the difference between an analog audio signal and an
analog video signal? Why would those differences affect whether
the connector is gold-plated or not?
\_ I'm not an audiophile and I have no idea.
\_ Was actually just looking into cabling today myself - trying to
figure out why a 75 ohm coaxial video cable is really necessary
for a digital DVD->receiver link? What would be the effect of
using a vanilla composite cable (rca) instead? (it's also short
distance)? thanks! - !op
\_ You really need someone on motd who can test this for you and
post first-hand knowledge, but from what I've read, well, with
audio you are dealing with sound up to 22 kHz. Video is a LOT
more bandwidth intensive, so speaking in an analog sense, the
data is up there at much higher frequencies, and theoretically
cable quality matters at those high frequencies.
\_ I run plain vanilla rca cable for component video between
the dvd player, receiver, and tv. Works fine for me, and
\_ just wondering, what exactly does "component" video mean,
in comparison to composite video and 75 ohm coaxial
digital video? - 75 ohm coaxial question guy
\_ Perhaps you should read http://csua.org/u/9jf .
\_ OBTW, in cases where the wavelength of a signal is
>> the wire length, the impedance of the wire is
dominated by the R of the wire. In the case of audio
and video cables, unless you plan to have really long
runs (say 10 meters), I would just make sure the cable
is made of something that looks metallic electrically.
I could discern no difference in quality from when I used
"expensive" Monster cable instead. I didn't do any quality
comparison with Video Essential or whatever test disk, and
there are plenty more expensive cables than Monster cable,
so YMMV.
\_ Monster cabling is even more insulting when you consider
that there is a known technique for eliminating interference
with analog audio cabling called "balanced cables." These
are par for the course in the professional audio world.
They work by carrying mono signals on either "stereo" TRS
cables, or XLR cables.
This has never gained favor in the consumer
audio world because the signal degredation caused by
interference is usually too small to make any difference
to almost any listener - including "audiophiles."
For more info see this URL:
http://homerecording.about.com/library/weekly/aa082697.htm
\_ You might be interested in my friend's attempt
connecting a Sony DVD player to a Dolby Labs decoder
via 2 soldered together wire coat hangers.
http://csua.org/u/9je , via the web archive.
\_ too bad the pictures are all broken links, would
have liked to have seen the end result! :)
\-OP: what speakers do you have? If you dont have pretty
nice speakers, the cabling will be irrelevant.
whether the cables make a different with nice
speakers is debateable and possibly dependent
on your hearing, room etc. many things, including
the speaker cables [not the device-device inter-
connects], should probably be upgraded before the
interconnects. ok tnx. <DEAD>--psbspeakers.com<DEAD>
interconnects. Good practical advice here:
http://csua.org/u/9jq ok tnx. <DEAD>--psbspeakers.com<DEAD> |
| 2004/10/14 [Consumer/Audio] UID:34124 Activity:high |
10/14 PollingPoint, a nonpartisan organization in Palo Alto
is conducting a survey asking if Fox Television is
fair and balanced. Answer a few questions and have
a shot at winning an iPod!!!
http://survey.pollingpoint.com/survey/welcome.php?sn=74&cid=102&rid=1519130
\_ I remember when this was called Punch The Monkey.
\_ They should have had one called Stab the Lady.
\_ d00d, whenever I get to the iPod page in Firefox, the site acts
like I hit the Submit button before I even enter my e-mail address.
\_ worked fine for me in windows and firefox
\_ Gee, I wonder how meaningful the polling results will be.
\_ But... but... it is non-partisan! You think there is something
unscientific about an internet poll? Why do you hate the
internet?
[Misleading short URL deleted]
\_ if you mean the shortened version of Trudeau's long link of the day, please
feel free to go fuck yourself .
\_ You claimed it lead to "Doonesbury" which it did not.
[useless empty recap purged]
\_ Bud Day doesn't approve of censorship.
\_ Bud Day did not watch his buddies die face down in the muck so
this fucking strumpet...
\_ I bet BUD DAY makes GREAT quesadillas. |
| 11/24 |
| 2004/10/10-12 [Consumer/Audio] UID:34019 Activity:moderate |
10/8 Please recommend a good portable mp3 player and radio for
under $100.
\_ You're asking for a bit much here- there is the ipod and then
there is a bunch of crap with poor interfaces. I would
recommend the metallic blue panasonic mp3/cd player... poor
button layout and the rest but it was reliable and fit in my
pocket fairly well.
\_ http://ebay.com, search for an iPod.
\_ Are there any good flash-based MP3/FM players in that price
range? -!op
\_ I don't think there are many mp3 players w/ radios.
The Samsung Yepp looked pretty good awhile back though
(no radio).
\_ Doesn't the iriver have a radio? Nice features, but
not too great physical interface (the buttons feel
weird and cheap.) -John
\_ Most (all?) of the iriver players do FM. Only the
CD-MP3 or smaller flash players would be in OP's price
range. I like the interface on the hard drive player,
but not so much on their flash player (space limitation)
\_ i dont' know. i didn't find ipod's interface particulaly
intuitive.
\_ There's always one...
\_ The emphasis on ID3 tag-based navigation bugged me -!pp |
| 2004/9/30-10/1 [Consumer/Audio] UID:33866 Activity:nil |
9/30 For those of you who listen to MP3s with headphones a lot, music that
uses a lot of stereo seperation can be fun, but gets tiring after a
while. I just found a neat Winamp plugin called HeadPlug which
emulates the effects of a crossfeed amp. It's *very* fully featured
and I can detect no loss of quality. Now bands that go nuts with
stereo can be listened to on headphones again. |
| 2004/9/22-23 [Consumer/Audio] UID:33687 Activity:kinda low |
9/22 Anyone else have one of the new iPods? My fiancee and I got one
each and we've noticed that certain mp3s will display all the song
info, but then skip the song. We've tried ripping the CDs with
both CDEX and MusicMatch to no avail. Both iPods mess up the same
mp3s. I'm wondering if it's something about the new generation
of iPods. -bz
\_ Have you tried ripping them with iTunes?
\_ The new iTunes is even more restrictive and garbled up
my song DB, so I removed the thing and started over.
I use xPlay to manage my iPod. Sure, perhaps this software
is the reason things aren't working, but a friend with a
previous gen iPod is using it (and MusicMatch) with no trouble.
Next step is to try my broken mp3s on his iPod. -bz
\_ I've got one mp3 that doesn't play well (garbled) out of 16Gb
\_ Try a different encoder (LAME, Frausomething, etc) or try
\_ Fraunhofer? They're the institude with the patent on
MP3 encoding. Look at http://csua.org/u/967 -John
encoding at a constant bitrate (not VBR) |
| 2004/9/17-18 [Consumer/Audio] UID:33583 Activity:kinda low |
9/16 Ipod question. I am going to install a new HD on a friend's
computer, she has an ipod, so all her music is in there
(probably ripped using apple's software). Since I don't have
an ipod, I am not sure how to transfer the stuff so that it
won't get lost. Can I just find all the mp3s, copy them over
to the new machine, and install itune on the new machine, it
should find (automatically/manually) all the mp3 again right?
\_ iTunes will never transfer files FROM the iPod, and apple claims
that it's impossible to retrieve the files, but that's just RIAA BS.
For fat32 ipods: open them up with Windows explorer, and make sure
you've got "Show Hidden Directories" enabled. The music will be
spread around in folders named F01, F02, ... Fnn. For Mac formats,
open up a terminal and look for the ipod disk (/Volumes/something/)
and the music will be in a .directory. In both cases, you can copy
them on to the new disk, then tell iTunes to import them to the
iTunes folder.
\_ If they were ripped to AAC or bought from ITMS will this still
work, or will there be license issues?
\_ Ripped to AAC: no issues (no DRM)
Bought from ITMS: questionable. You can probably deauthorize
the songs on the old harddrive, do the transfer, and reauthorize.
Worst case scenario is that you lose one of your 7 ITMS-permitted
digital copies (can always burn to disc though).
the songs on the old harddrive, do the transfer, and
reauthorize. Worst case scenario is that you lose one of
your 7 ITMS-permitted digital copies (can always burn to disc
though). |
| 2004/9/13 [Consumer/Audio] UID:33489 Activity:nil |
9/12 I need to get a car stereo with a cassette player only (no CD).
Back in the day, Alpine was a good brand. Is that still the case?
Anyone have any good recommendations? Thanks.
\_ May I ask why you want a cassete player? If it's to take an
external input (iPod?) there are stereos with a line-in, which works
better. |
| 2004/9/6-7 [Consumer/Audio] UID:33373 Activity:kinda low |
9/6 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5909207/site/newsweek Newsweek suggests that parents might want to start refusing to buy iPods for 8 year olds. \_ Military School! W00t! -John \-"Saying no is harder when you can afford to say yes." Come on. This kind of inanity is one thing wrong with america and journalism today. The other thing wrong with america are those women's tops that say things like "princess" in gold sparkles and an ugly font. --psb \_ what about sweatpants that say "juicy" on the ass? \_ Go India! \_ I think "sex me baby" on Japanese (girl) tourist in Paris beats sparkly gold ugly font "princess". -John \_ Did you say, "OK!"? \- i think these may be different phenomena ... one i think reflects or engenders a sense of entitlement the other just seems weird ... i dunno if it reflect promiscuitity ... in the japanese case, maybe it is just their penchant for weird engrish things on their clothes --psb \_ Give me a fucking break, partha. It's random crap on a t-shirt. Stop whining. -- ilyas \_ Give me a fucking break, ilyas. It's random crap on a motd. Stop whining. \_ On the contrary I found it quite true based on my uncles and aunts' experience. "Look, Dad. Why can't I go to USC like my friend Malissa whose parents happen to be doctors? Why do you say I can only go to a UC? Don't you have $X in your bank account? That's just enough to pay four years of tuition and board at USC. What? Your retirement? Oh, don't worry. I'll make sure I find you a nice retirement home with three meals. You do want the best for your kid, right?" |
| 2004/8/31 [Consumer/Audio] UID:33241 Activity:high |
8/30 My friend just ripped a bunch of CDs with iTunes to AAC format.
Are those files going to be DRM-encumbered like the ITMS stuff?
\_ no
what are the limitations currently- 5 computers? 7? What about
her ipod?
\_ Thanks for the answer, now part II: is AAC playable by players other
than the ipod? It's just an MPEG standard with optional Apple DRM on
\_ Thanks for the answer, now part II: is AAC playable by players
other than the ipod? It's just an MPEG standard with optional
Apple DRM on
top, right?
\_ at the moment, only the ipod plays AAC. i bet the HP branded
ipod plays AAC too. i bet the ipod will not be the
only AAC capable player for long, witness Real
\_ at the moment, only the ipod plays AAC. i bet the HP
branded ipod plays AAC too. i bet the ipod will not
be the only AAC capable player for long, witness Real
offering a software program that plays AAC on your
computer.
\_ AAC is a different encoding than MP3; it's not just
the DRM. The HP iPod is just the Apple iPod in an
HP box. -meyers
\_ But it still is an MPEG standard format. Anyway AAC
isn't that big a deal right now. Some folks did a
double-blind listening test indicating that at 128kb,
the LAME MP3 encoder essentially tied with AAC, while
both were beaten by a Vorbis encoder. Vorbis is
supported by several players and also competes well at
high bitrates. I do expect AAC to get wider support
and better encoders over time.
\_ AAC is a mpeg standard however dolby requires
royalties that most arent willing to pay. The
version that apple uses dumps its own DRM on
top of it. Apple DRM != Real DRM. You may very
well see a player sometime soon that plays
Real AAC files while not playing Apple AAC from
ITMS because Apple won't license out their DRM
to anyone.
\_ Just to be clear, the DRM only applies to
files from the iTunes Music Store. If you
rip a CD of your own to AAC using iTunes,
you get a regular MPEG-4 file with just an
audio track. |
| 2004/8/20-21 [Consumer/Audio, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:33037 Activity:kinda low |
8/20 Does anyone use an iRiver hard-drive based MP3 player? Suck or rock?
\_ if you don't get any responses, go to http://newegg.com, http://epinions.com,
http://amazon.com, http://cnet.com, in that order. there are a lot of iRiver
models.
\_ Just read through iriver's forum(off the international website.)
They may have a lot of features, but it's quite unpolished.
\_ Yes. I like my iHP-120. --jameslin |
| 2004/8/14-15 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:32903 Activity:very high |
8/14 I'm looking for (a description of) the rules for 5-6 player expansion
for settlers of catan. brief desc. to URLs to the real mccoy,
appreciated.
\_ http://boardgamegeek.com/game/2807 might be a good place to start
\_ bigger board (can check the dimensions for you if you like), and
build phase after each person's turn. Not much else, IIRC...
build phase after each person's turn. Not much else, IIRC... (!op)
\- see this is one of those cases if you posted non-anonymously
and either i liked you, you you were a generally useful
and either i didnt hate you, or you were a generally useful
member of the sloda community, i'd have just offered to
FAX them to you. your loss. --psb
\_ YOU ARE SO FUNNY!!! |
| 2004/8/12 [Consumer/Audio] UID:32860 Activity:kinda low |
8/12 Heh. iPod vs. Cassette tape:
http://homepage.mac.com/danielturek/PhotoAlbum50.html
\_ HAHAHA! So much for technology advancement.
\_ How about iPod vs. microcassette? |
| 2004/8/9-10 [Consumer/Audio] UID:32796 Activity:high |
8/9 I wonder why they don't make a walkman thing for XM Radio, these
things looks tiny and if I can take it everywhere I might justify
the price of the monthly subscription. Also, why none of it has
digital output?
\_ You'll never fool us you lousy pirate! We know that if you can
walk around with it you'll walk STRAIGHT to your computer and
hit record! -- RIAA
\_ That's exactly what I am thinking. Actually, being able to wire
it up to my recevier via digital input would be a good
improvement over FM. If I cannot record, then I won't waste $10
a month for what I get over FM.
\_ Let me repeat, FUCK RIAA, FUCK RIAA, FUCK RIAA!
\_ Argg! Ye found me out! Belay boarding parties! Cut the grapple
lines! Hard alee! I'll be seeing you again RIAA! Somewhere on
on the wine-dark seas I'll rake you stem to stern and laugh as
blood runs out your scuppers!
\_ You can get digital output of Sirius with the right combination of
Dishnetwork equipment. |
| 2004/7/30-31 [Consumer/Audio] UID:32596 Activity:high |
7/30 So apple is unhappy about RealNetwork's move to have its music
play on the iPod, this sounds like, Sony is unhappy because
their Discman plays CDs from other labels!! Does this sounds
stupid or do they have real control over what can be played on
the ipod?
\_ you can put mp3's on it w/o complaints from apple, but they dont
want you hacking their drm.
\_ I can see not wanting people to hack their DRM to take the DRM
off of songs you bought at the iTunes store, but Real made it
so you can put songs *into* their DRM system. To continue the
Sony analogy, it would be like other movie studios helping you
convert your VHS tapes to play on a Beta VCR.
\_ All which will help the sales of the BetaVCR, so I don't see
what the big deal is. Just when I start to like Apple, they
try to patent GUI again. :)
\_ The problem is the iPod is the top-dog of mp3 players, so
by making it only work with ITMS they can prop-up the
barely-profitable, highly competitive online music sales
part of the company with the highly-profitable, market
dominating music player. If the iPod plays songs from any
store, it'll sell more iPods, but it just became a lot
easier for any other music store to beat ITMS.
\_ But Apple has admitted that iTunes is a loss leader
designed to sell iPods.
\_ ITMS is actually slightly profitable now. I can
see why Apple wants to own the dominant music store
and not let say, Microsoft own the market. When the
online music market has a shakeout, and it will, the
dominant company will be in a better position to
negotiate with record companies. At that point I can
see Apple flexing their muscle a bit.
If Apple has determined that the iPod not supporting
other stores does minimal damage to iPod sales, then
why would you want a slight boost to one product at
the expense of massive losses in another?
\_ They might not like it, but by threatening legal
action they look like assholes, and at least in
the right world, would lose.
\_ two cases: m$ and sco. the former uses this
method and often wins (the battle if not the
trial) while the latter seems to be loosing
with this tactic. it will be interesting to
see how various courts rule on this (if it
gets that far.
\_ You are loosing a battle too. A battle with
spelling.
\_ i fight battles worth fighting. for this
one i accepted a truce - i spell check
when need be.
\_ On a separate note, my iPod does not play some mp3 files without
any explanation, I am suspecting it having something to do with the
mp3 being DRMd. Is there any freeware/software that removes those
stuff and make it to be a plain mp3 file? thx.
\_ Test if a plain-old mp3-player proram can play them, eg. XMMS or
Winamp. If they can, it's a iPod problem, if they can't you're
Winamp. If they can, it's an iPod problem, if they can't you're
going to have to find out what kind of DRM they're wrapped in.
\_ Yes, winamp can play it, so does WMP. So I guess it's an ipod
problem, damn it.
\_ There's a slight possibility Winamp is detecting the DRM
passing it through to some WMP DRM library. Can you try to
play it in some minimalist player program?
\_ Eh? MP3s don't have DRM, unless you're using mp3pro or some
other variant. Maybe the iPod just doesn't like the bitrate or
sampling rate of those files.
\_ He seems to think he might have some DRM'd file named as MP3.
FWIW I've seen un-DRMed AAC named MP3, but Winamp freaked out. |
| 2004/7/28 [Consumer/Audio] UID:32529 Activity:kinda low 57%like:32646 |
7/28 They must serve some strong Kool-Aid in Japan:
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64352,00.html?tw=wn_story_related
\_ it's cool, it and movie stars use it. You don't have one? you
must be some kind of freak! |
| 2004/7/27 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio] UID:32504 Activity:nil 66%like:32646 |
7/27 Kool-aid on your cellphone: http://macnn.com/news/25607 \_ Aww, now it's all sticky... |
| 2004/7/20-21 [Consumer/Audio, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:32382 Activity:insanely high |
7/20 I want to spend money on something cool. Any suggestions? Probably not
willing to spend more than about $2k.
\_ take a pilot class, it is really an eye opener
\_ Go on a trip. Take a helicopter tour over Kawaii. Go visit the
Lourve. (sp?) Or St. Peter's Basilica. You'll remember it
forever: it's worth more than some $2k hunk of junk. --PeterM
\_ Bah. You mill around with the other tourist cattle looking at
pictures of dead white people. Or get sunburned wandering in some
rainy island. Just upgrade your PC and preorder Doom 3!
\_ give me to me, i'll spend it for you and send you a cool
cool greeting card.
\_ You need someone to give you to yourself?
\_ GFE
\_ My girlfriend will give you about 45 minutes for $2k.
You won't regret it!
\_ Does she do anal???
\_ Sure, yermom is a total ho-bag.
\_ How is it dating a whore?
\_ Sky? Is that you?
\_ How much does your girlfriend charge YOU?
\_ Half-a-pound of weed
\_ Sweet!
\_ Used motorcycle and enough gear to keep from getting killed.
\_ Some ideas:
- Canon 10D w/ 28-135 USM II IS lens
- 23" lcd w/ X800XT or nv6800UDDL
- 40 gb iPod + dock + case
- Sony WEGA: 34" HD: http://tinyurl.com/5gdty
36" w/o HD: http://tinyurl.com/5nnjq
\_ Buy and share a RealDoll(tm) with someone.
\_ Buy a RealDoll(tm) with someone else, and share her.
\_ dear op, please consider alternatives to material goods.
Sure you can buy a cool toy or something, but what about
intagible things that'll actually last you a lifetime? Have
you considered using that money on education (chef/pastry
class, 1/3 of a pilot's license, horseback riding,
Princeton Review/MBA, etc)? You can buy cool toys and
they'll be fun for a while, but please consider the
intangible things that lasts you a lifetime.
\_ sometimes those are the same thing, like getting a boat
that you then actually use all the time.
\_ It is weird to agree with someone entirely and still think
they are being a complete pansy. Or, for the majority with
south park clue... -phuqm
\_ Dude, that is so gay. -Stan
\_ Education makes you gay.
\_
"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and
blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails.
You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at
night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only
love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or
know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only
one thing for it then -- to learn. Learn why the world wags and what
wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust,
never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never
dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a
lot of things there are to learn."
-- T.H. White, "The Once and Future King" |
| 2004/7/15-16 [Consumer/Audio] UID:32300 Activity:high |
7/15 Any difference between iriver 700 series and 800 series other than
the shape? They all look very similar...
\_ ipod/itunes is the best. -ditched iriver for ipod
\_ ipod mini hard to find, and no FM, battery replacement $100.
\_ Not true:
http://griffintechnology.com/products/itrip_mini
Or do you mean FM radio? Who listens to the radio
anyway?
\_ FM radio. Sometimes I get sick of listening to
CD/MP3s and just want some normal radio.
\_ Are there any good radio stations
left in the bay area?
\_ 40 hours battery life on one AA. Try that with
your ipod. ;)
\_ Actually, I don't have an iPod. I used to
but then I sold it because my new car only
has a six disc changer and no line in or
cassette player.
I agree that the battery life on the iPod
isn't that good. I used to be into MD and
my MD player could go for weeks on a single
AA battery. I would still be using MD if
Sony made it easier to use with computers
(NetMD sucked).
\_ FM = iTrip. Mini is overrated anyway - 4 gig capacity?
Sheesh! For $40 more you can get a 15 gig regular iPod.
Yup, I'm drinkin' Koolaid...
\_ The minis are targeted at people who have less than 4GB of
music and prize small size and pretty colors over tech
specs. Most sodans probably don't fall into this category.
\_ The mini can be used while jogging, &c. The regular one
can't (the toshiba hd can't handle it). |
| 2004/7/6-7 [Consumer/Audio] UID:31194 Activity:insanely high |
7/6 What do you use for archive your music? 320kbps mp3?
loseless ape/flac? If you answer 128kbps mp3, don't bother
reply. ;)
\_ I use WinLame with the Standard setting, even though the author
says Ogg Vorbis is superior.
\_ Archive!? My CDs _are_ the archive. For listening, I use
-q6 Ogg Vorbis.
\_ lame --alt-preset standard
\_ lame --alt-preset standard -b 192
\_ Stuff that isn't super important to me: 128 kbps AAC. Stuff that
is: the raw audio (AIFF). Though there is a new Apple lossless
codec, which I haven't yet tried out.
\_ 192kbps mp3. Reasonable quality w/ reasonable file sizes.
\_ 192kbps mp3. Reasonable quality w/ reasonable file sizes. I
rip using the iTunes encoder. People tell me I should switch
to using LAME but I'm too lazy to rip with one pgm and then
have to add all the meta data using iTunes.
\_ is lame supposed to be better quality than itunes or is it faster?
ive heard that both codecs are really good.
\_ is lame supposed to be better quality than itunes or is it
faster? ive heard that both codecs are really good.
\_ LAME is supposed to be faster and better quality.
\_ Just grab another copy off the net. It isn't like you paid for
any of it the first time. Why do you need a second archive? |
| 2004/6/27-28 [Consumer/Audio] UID:31030 Activity:high |
6/27 Any suggestions on Apple iPod Mini vs. Cowon iAudio M3? TIA!
\_ you should first consider that with the Cowon you won't be
buying music from iTunes... and of course with the iPod
you won't be buying from the dozen or so other stores.
\_ Think Different! Buy an iPod... like everyone else.
\_ If you're shelling out $300 based on your like/dislike of the
ad campaign, you have way too much money. I got an iPod for my
wife. Coupled with iTunes, it's stupid easy to rip and transfer
music from our CD collection. |
| 2004/6/22 [Consumer/Audio] UID:30945 Activity:insanely high |
6/22 Mp3 players...opinions? iPod? iRiver? Rio? WHAT IS THE STANDARD?
\_ If you own a recent BMW or MINI, get an iPod. They work with
your steering wheel controls now.
http://www.apple.com/ipod/bmw
http://www.bmwusa.com/ipod
http://www.ipodyourbmw.com
\_ Thanks, this is awesome! --aaron
\_ Hey that is pretty cool. I'll go buy a BMW now.
\_ Unfortunately, it only works with bare-bones BMWs...if you have
a nav system or premium audio (in some models) you are SOL.
\_ You're not missing out on much without a Nav. Honda has
some of the best Nav systems out there and even they
have some ways to go.
\_ This may be cool, but it's probably not worth getting
a BMW for it. What I really want, and I see it happen
in a few years, is audio dashboards that can take
mass storage compliant devices such as CF, Memory
stick, USB, etc. I can then just connect my ipod, or
a CF card, and use it just like a CD from the
dashboard. That'll be cool. Heck, even a DVD player that
can read MP3 files stored on a DVD will be nice. 4.7GB
per disk. Who needs ipod in the car?
\_ Anyone with a nontrivial commute. All I want is a
radio with a line-in jack; I'll hook up my ipod that
way.
\_ BMW offers a line-in jack in their 3-series. But
I'm not sure I want to be navigating through an
iPod menu while I'm driving. That's worse than
sipping coffee and talking on your cell phone.
\_ I agree, a standard line-in jack would be so nice.
\_ Audio dashboard? Well, this BMW thing lets you a) power
the ipod b) use the same ipod in your car and portable,
no need to have a fancy car hard-disk system that only
stays there c) just plain beats mp3s-on-cds, that are
limited, bulkier, and don't have the playlist stuff.
There are other ways to set this up, and obviously this
isn't reason to buy a $30k car, but it's cool and uses
the cd-changer interface. There are mp3-playing cd
changers also but get with the program man.
\_ I'd rather take a DVD than an IPOD to my car. Much
lighter and easier to replace. The playlist can be
and should be configured on the dash, much like radio,
or burned on to the DVD. Ipod is like going through the
tape interface to listen to CD in cars.
\_ I'd rather not burn DVDs and replace them when I want
to change playlists or add more stuff or swap dvds
or configure stuff on the dash, or have discs
cluttering the car. It may appear inelegant at first,
but a hard drive system synced using a PC is the
best and the ipod fits this perfectly. It's stupid
that it can't be independent of sat. radio and nav.
A DVD would be actually be fine for me too though.
\_ Tape Walkman is the STANDARD!
\_ Go away, proletarian pig dog.
\_ Oh yeah, you're too cool for a walkman.
\_ No. A 200W portable stereo on the shoulder is the standard.
\_ VICTROLA! VICTROLA is the STANDARD!
\_ E450 is the standard Enterprise class mp3 player. See the url
from yesterday.
\_ Dunno, that struck me more as a "my dick is bigger" type project.
*shrug*
\_ One of the reason to go with iRiver before was with how often they
used to release updated firmwares with new features. But they've
been pretty bad updating firmwares. I'm still waiting for unmanaged
version with OGG support on my iFP395 that was supposed to come out
back in January. I probably won't buy another iRiver again.
\_ I won't necessarily count this as an advantage. Company that
releases firmware every other week are usually pretty buggy,
like the linksys crap. My Garmin/Netgear has far fewer firmware
releases and is a much better product.
\_ Most of iRiver's firmwares are fairly stable and bug-free with
the exception of recording noise bug introduced in the USB-HD
version of iFP players.
\_ Why is rapid firmware updating a good thing in a consumer
device? Why can't they get it right the first time? No one
wants to update their CED every 2 weeks. I don't update my
toaster, my TV, my alarm clock, fridge or BBQ grill. |
| 2004/6/21 [Consumer/Audio] UID:30930 Activity:nil |
6/21 E450 based car mp3 player:
http://www.dme.org/log/2004/06/16/project-icece |
| 2004/6/13-14 [Consumer/Audio] UID:30776 Activity:very high |
6/12 I'm thinking about buying a md recorder to record my lectures next
semester. Has anyone used an md recorder for this purpose before?
Any alternatives? (I also want to make mp3s from the recording,
which seems to be possible with the new 1gb md recorders).
\_ why not just get an mp3 player that can do voice recording...
\_ iPod + Griffin attachment works great.
\_ you might want to look into the iHP-120.
\_ out of curiosity, is this so you can keep the lectures for some
personal reason, or do you just want to re-listen to the lectures
afterwards?
\_ I often miss things in class because I'm too busy trying to
take notes so I want to be able to record the lecture and
then listen to it later so that I can get a better handle
on the things that I missed. I don't really plan on keeping
the lectures for the rest of my life, though I want to hang
on to them while I'm still in school.
\_ Get a $5 tape recorder from radio shack. |
| 2004/6/4-6 [Consumer/Audio] UID:30612 Activity:moderate |
6/4 What is the purpose of the iPod dock that comes with the 20 and 40GB
models? Is it entirely so that your iPod can stand up when its
transferring songs, or is it aimed at something else?
(Clarification: what does it do that the regular cord doesn't do?)
\_ AFAIK it includes a couple of extra options like input/output jacks
of one sort or the other that don't come standard with the regular
cable.
\_ Doesn't it charge the iPod too?
\_ The cable that comes with the 15 iPod charges already through
FireWire.
/ i use it to plug into my stero directly. its cool to be able to
select your mix and then just drop it in and let the music bump. |
| 2004/5/23-24 [Consumer/Audio] UID:30379 Activity:high |
5/23 Is the ipod compatible with Chinese mp3/song names?
It probably won't display the chinese character, but can it
play the song without problem? Thanks.
\_ Works fine with Japanese mp3/song names. I don't see why it
wouldn't work with Chinese.
\_ Does it display the song name in Japanese?
\_ chinese and japanese are both among the menu language
choices, for what that's worth
\_ Yes. On my wife's iPod, we have no problems seeing the song
title and artist in Japanese. --erikred
\_ depends on the encoding. It'd probably do unicode fine. |
| 2004/5/21 [Computer/Companies/Apple, Consumer/Audio] UID:30337 Activity:insanely high |
5/21 Why apple has an iPod division:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040520.html
\_ silly speculation. -tom
\_ How's that kool-aid tasting?
\_ I own a Mac, but I certainly haven't drunk the kool-aid.
Apple has significant challenges going forward, and the
biggest one is that they are still massively reliant on the
desktop hardware business; getting rid of it is not really
possible. -tom
\_ Because the iPod makes them lots of money. Duh.
\_ This from the same guy who has zip understanding of MMORPGs but
wrote a column on their economies. |
| 2004/5/14-15 [Consumer/Audio] UID:30230 Activity:moderate |
5/14 Anyone used Sennheiser HD580? Is it worth $159? Thx.
\_ I have a pair of Sony MDR-EX51LP (available now on slickdeals for
$30) that I like; they're comfortable and fairly good at filtering
outside noise. I considered the Sennheisers but realized I wanted
a cheaper pair of ear sodomizers to try out before dropping bucks.
\_ I don't like the sound quality of Sonys except for the very high
end models. I like the Sennheiser HD212 ($60 and strong bass),
Sennheiser NX100(?) (small and good sound quality) and the
Grado SR60 and SR80.
\_ I have the HD590's (newer model? higher model? not sure). I love
'em to death. One huge plus is that it is the most comfortable
pair of headphones I've ever worn. I tried a bunch of Sennheisers
and Sony's @ Magnolia Hi-Fi before deciding which to buy online.
\_ Did they give you dirty looks?
\_ Salesmen generally ignore me, probably because I look too
young or too poor to be a serious home theatre buyer.
\_ Since they are 'open air' type, does the sound leak out?
ie, will my next cube neighbor hear it?
\_ All open-diaphram headphones can be heard by neighbors. It's
usually not a problem unless you have 1. Extremely offensive
taste. 2. Very close quarters. 3. Very sensitive neighbors.
Closed phones insulate you from external noise, but they tend
to be a bit warmer and somtimes less clear sound. |
| 2004/5/5 [Consumer/Audio, Reference/Military] UID:30017 Activity:nil |
5/5 an MP3 player designed for an AK-47 ammo clip
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_863993.html
\_ What's the point if it doesn't ALSO hold ammo?
\_ to spread peace and love.
\_ AK-47s spread love all the time! Lead, straight from my
heart to yours! |
| 2004/5/3-4 [Consumer/Audio] UID:29972 Activity:high 53%like:30723 |
5/3 What's a good gadget to buy? I have $1000.
\_ 200 nights with yermom
\_ hire thug to steal all of the below.
\_ Apple iMac
\_ IPOD IPOD IPOD IPDO
\_ Garmin GPS 60c
\_ Nikon D70
\_ Second that.
\_ With lens+mem card that's like $1500.
\_ PDA
\_ Treo 600: uberPDA + phone
\_ TiVo
\_ Fancy-schmancy headphones
\_ Tablet PC
\_ Real Doll
\_ too expensive
\_ perhaps he could afford a used one?
\_ What's a Real Doll? - real question
\_ http://www.realdoll.com - nws
\_ Get a fleshlight (fleshlight.com) instead. Check their videos!
\_ nGage
\_ Exotic cat
\_ 24" Sony CRT monotir or 20" LCD
\_ 1TB of disk
\_ a low risk 6mo-1yr investment
\_ Google stock
\_ 1TB and something to house it, or 2TB and a cardboard box. |
| 2004/4/29 [Consumer/Audio] UID:13477 Activity:nil |
4/29 Audiophiles, what receiver/speaker do you use?
\- psb. --psb
\_ haha
\_ anyone use Axiom?
\_ Marantz receiver and B&W speakers. PSB is also nice. |
| 2004/4/26 [Consumer/Audio] UID:13384 Activity:nil |
4/26 If my closing date on a condo is 5/31, is there any way to order DSL
for it through Speakeasy and get the free iPod, given that the deal
expires on 4/30, or am I just ass-out?
\_ Order it and schedule installation for after 5/31.
\_ Not seeing this free iPod offer on http://Speakeasy.net....
\_ http://speakeasy.net/promos/bribe/?source=hp
\_ You're willing to pay ten bucks more a month for four more
email addresses and an iPod? Dood, yr getting played.
Even if you drop them when your 2-year contract runs out,
they're still only out $50. |
| 2004/3/29-30 [Consumer/Audio] UID:12902 Activity:nil |
3/29 Has anyone tried skype? |
| 2004/3/24 [Consumer/Audio] UID:12826 Activity:nil |
3/24 Iriver owners: Anyone know an attachment similar to the itrip that
works on the iriver? -John
\_ The only thing "special" about iTrip is that it gets its juice
from the iPod directly. There's a lot of battery powered FM
transmitters that can be had for about $20-30. I got the Belkin
one, but you can only select from four different frequencies: All
of which are occupied whenever I drive over to my folks' in Modesto.
So just get one that allows you to select more than 4 frequencies.
\_ Yeah I know, but I was hoping for something as small as the
itrip without cables to dick around with. Thanks tho. -John
\_ The Belkin one has a very short cable, only about 3-4 inches.
I don't think iRiverhas enough pop culture status in US for
any US companies to make the effort. I have run across a
Taiwanese company that made rubber skins for iRiver stuff,
so you may have to look into Asian markets for such a product.
You have it iHP? Are the headphone plug and the power plug
on the same side? That's what made sense for iTrip.
\_ Speaking of the iTrip, it seems to give a stronger signal
when I also have the iPod plugged in with a car charger.
Kind of makes me wonder if the combo transmitter/charger
unit from Monster would be even better ... more juice? |
| 2004/3/22-24 [Consumer/Audio] UID:12804 Activity:low |
3/22 ipod or the clones? that is the question? i am looking to get one, the
ipod 15gb is $299. What clones of comparable price and feature? thx.
\_ If you look at everyting as "bang-per-buck", then you'd be
buying Hyundais and living in a ranch in Montana. The question
you have to ask is "Do I like the way it feels and operates?
Do I like the user interface?". If you're not going to use
all 40GB, then disk space isn't the issue.
\_ This is a fucking mp3 player, not a fucking house. The iPod
is an overpriced piece of shit. If you're not into gimmicky
crap and just want a functional mp3 player with enough
storage at a reasonable price get something like a Nomad Zen
and save yourself 200 bux and get a couple more hours of
battery life.
\_ Most people who buy mp3 players opt for an iPod and
most iPod owners are pretty happy with their players.
I'm sure you can make the argument about how fucking
stupid all those people are but I'm sure most of those
people who do get iPods don't really give a rats ass
what you think. I used to have an iPod myself until I
realized that I'm not much of a music buff but if I
ever had to do it again, an iPod would be it. 200 bux?
The cheapest iPod is $250 and I wouldn't spend my
money on a crappy $50 player.
\_ News flash: Apple is a FUCKING HARDWARE COMPANY.
\_ All hail Steve!
\_ See above Re: Evans Bathroom.
\_ I like the iRiver iHP-120 (20 GB for ~$300, only a bit bigger than
an iPod, good battery life, no desktop software necessary, voice
recorder, FM tuner).
--jameslin
\_ the ipod is by no means perfect, but it's the best out there
in nearly every aspect except for price
\_ ipod mini. how much music do you have? i've filled my 20gb ipod
but would have bought the mini if it were available 4 months ago.
\_ I find it ironic that so many people would spend so much on an
overpriced dinky hardware toy to store and play back all of their
stolen music....
\_ Clever, and dated. Wake up: people do pay for music these days.
\_ You'd have to be spending a lot on music to fill up 40gb.
\_ Don't by the Muvo. my coworker had the HD crash on him after 3
months. I guess it's a common problem. He had a previous product
from Rio/SonicBlue also crash after <1 year. iPodMini seems to be
more hip than the original ipod. |
| 2004/3/17 [Consumer/Audio, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:12723 Activity:nil |
3/17 I want to change my stereo and add a DVD player. Anyone know of a good
shop and a good brand?
\_ Depends on your budget. Rotel and Parasound make well regarded
entry hi-end stuff. Also check out brands like Nad, Adcom, B&K,
etc. Nothing wrong with better quality consumer grade DVD players
from Panasonic. There are a whole set of different brands if you
want hi hi-end. I've mostly hacked the installation myself.
It's really not that hard to hack on X10 stuff for home automation,
so no reason to pay a custom installer if you can afford the time.
\_ I've heard good things about Outlaw components if you don't mind
buying stuff that 99% of the world has never heard of.
They don't spend any money on advertising.
\_ A friend has the now discontinued Outlaw receiver. There
were some video features that never quite worked correctly,
but 90% of the receiver worked well and sounded great.
\_ I know you didn't ask, but if you are also looking for speakers,
Ascend makes some great ones that are quite inexpensive.
\_ Also check out the eponymous PSB.
\_ I didn't know partha made speakers!
\_ In fact he was hawking his speakers on motd, back when
there was neither ebay nor craigslist. |
| 2004/3/17 [Computer/SW/Database, Consumer/Audio] UID:12715 Activity:nil 50%like:29878 |
3/16 [ car stereo query deleted because op has an attitude ]
\_ What? I'm the original poster and this is the first I've
even seen the thread. Why do you think I have "attitude"?
I never even got a chance to see the replies.
\_ "for my asshole. -op"
\_ I think he meant "Car stereo query deleted because it attracted
useful responses."
\_ Whew! 'Cause I tried putting a DVD there and it broke.
\_ there is no authentication on the motd, you know. -you |
| 2004/3/16-17 [Consumer/Audio, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:12698 Activity:nil |
3/16 Any recommendations on stereo installation places?
I want to get a new stereo and a DVD player installed.
\_ For your car?
\_ for my asshole. -op |
| 2004/3/10 [Consumer/Audio] UID:12601 Activity:nil |
3/10 iPod used in Murder:
http://www.liquidgeneration.com/rumormill/ipod_killing.html
\_ try *that* with one of those cheapo MP3 players! -tom
\_ And I thought they were overpriced as music players. That's way too
much for a simple blunt instrument.
\_ Notice this at the top of the page:
RELATED NEWS
Get great deals on the new Apple iPod mini. Starting at under $250
\_ Amusing, but fake. Try clicking on any of the link.
\_ Well no shit... |
| 2004/2/7 [Computer/Networking, Consumer/Audio] UID:29786 Activity:nil |
2/6 Any wireless headphone recommendations? |
| 2004/2/6-8 [Consumer/Audio] UID:12134 Activity:nil |
2/6 How do you listen to MP3s/CDs in your car? What's your setup?
Do you even use your cassette tape deck?
\_a freind of mine works for phatnoise, they make a mp3 hardrive
that works with any car stero that can interface with a cd changer:
http://www.phatnoise.com
\_ you can get an mp3 cd player with a carkit for pretty cheap.
take a look at the iriver ones.
\_ iriver rocks!
\_ Alpine CD/MP3 player
\_ does it show tags?
\_ In jail! Pirate!
\_ I'm waiting for Alpine's upcoming units designed specifically
to handle IPods. Might be worth a look. In the meantime,
anyone tried some of those wireless FM transmitters?
\_ They work great if there's an open frequency where you want to use
them, but in the Bay Area, it's very hard to find a frequency
which doesn't have some weak station outcompeting your transmitter.
OTOH, the cassete-tape dealies work pretty well.
\_ I tried the iTrip and the iRock with my iPod. They do
not work very well in the bay area since it is hard to
find a free station.
\_ I've had no problems with 87.9 with my iPod/iTrip all
over the bay area. -meyers
\_ tapes work better than FM transmitters
\_ why don't audio units come with auxiliary input?
\_ Some do. That's why I bought the model I did.
\_ newer ones: it should be almost mandatory
\_ http://www.logjamelectronics.com/auxinpconv.html
If they have your model listed, maybe that'll work
best.
\_ thanks for the info! |
| 2004/1/28 [Reference/BayArea, Consumer/Audio] UID:11984 Activity:nil |
1/28 I have a pair of Sennheiser headphones that I've had for a long time
and I really like but recently I've had a problem where the sound in
one ear (or occasionally both) cuts in and out. I think it's a
problem with the connector and not the headphones themselves... I can
order replacement connectors online but is there somewhere in the bay
area I can take these where i can try out new connectors before I
buy them and make sure that's the problem? (South Bay would be great
but I'll go to SF or East Bay if necessary).
\_ Fry's? Some audio-video place? Try wiggling the connector
around to see if the sound changes.
\_ Take it to Magnolia Hi-Fi across from Valley Fair. They carry
Sennheisers, and I'm sure they'd let you connect yours to one of
their cables. But don't buy from them... way overpriced (i bought
my HD-590's for over $100 cheaper online) |
| 2004/1/28 [Consumer/Audio] UID:11975 Activity:nil |
1/27 Does anyone own or have used the iRiver iHP-XXX hd-based MP3 players?
If so:
- Does it have variable playback speed (1/2x, 2x, 4x, etc)?
- Can you schedule it to record FM broadcasts?
- Can you access the hard drive natively through a Windows Explorer
(XP)?
I'm very interested in getting it if it can do the above. I've
emailed iRiver, but haven't had a response, and I haven't come across
any reviews describing the aforementioned features. -TIA
\_ Learn how to format to 80 lines.
\_ reformatted
\_ I recently bought an iHP-120. I'm not sure about the variable
playback speed (I don't there it has that). Definitely no to
scheduling FM recording; I don't believe you can record from FM at
all. Yes to Windows Explorer; you don't need to install any
software on the PC. Overall I'm really happy with it. Also see
this thread: http://csua.org/u/5qd -- jameslin |
| 2004/1/26 [Consumer/Audio] UID:11936 Activity:nil |
1/25 I often see cars on the street now with these tiny little fins
sticking out the roof near the rear window. What is that? Some
sort of GPS or XM receiver?
\_ yes, sirius or some satellite radio.
\_ They're receiving signal from Mars base. -John |
| 2004/1/23-25 [Consumer/Audio] UID:11913 Activity:nil |
1/23 Drink the Kool Aid!
http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/1984/1984_480.html
\_ so why did they bother adding the iPod to that commercial? |
| 2004/1/15-16 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio] UID:11799 Activity:nil |
1/14 Has anybody else tried iTunes (the player) simply as a winamp
substitute? I'm nearly weeping at how *nice* it is. Would someone
kindly point me toward the kool-aid?
\_ does it play mp3s, or does it need to convert to their format?
\_ it plays mp3s.
\_ what does it do that is so improved over winamp?
\_ free kool-aid
\_ english translation?
\_ I'm not a mac/ipod person but I love iTunes. It's got a great
UI for organizing and finding your music if you have a lot of
files. For me it's replaced 4 programs (player, CD ripper,
CD burner, and id3-tagger) and it does all of their functions
well. It's also cool to use it at work if your coworkers use
it because you can check out everyone's music at your leisure.
Can someone explain the kool-aid references? I've heard this
before but I don't get it. - !op
\_ google "jim jones" and cult
\_ Wait wait, so anything Apple related is a cult? You're
so phunny!
\_ I didn't say Apple was a cult, but I was pointing them
to the origin of the kool-aid reference.
\_ yes, they managed to sell millions of people a device
with a non-rechargable and non-replacable battery. and
the evil little things continue to sell like hotcackes.
if that isn't a cult I don't know what is. I don't
know of any other company that could get away with that
sort of shit without 99% return rates.
\_ non-rechargable?!?! Why do I not believe you?
\_ http://ipodbatteryfaq.com
\_ thanks for the faq. as it says, it is going
to cost bucks to get the battery problem taken
care of. it's a cult. and to the person who
doesn't believe me, don't interrupt. i moved
your thread down here where it belongs, not in
the middle of my statements. it's rude and
makes the whole thread hard to read.
\_ I posted both the question, AND the faq.
your statement was false - it IS
rechargable, just not easily replaced.
\_ My error in word choice but not intent.
I intended to say that once the battery
is dead it is dead. I did not mean that
you get 6-8 hours of play and then it
turns off forever. I stand by my
statement that only a cult could sell a
device by the millions that will die in
18-24 months and just be dead without
shelling out an additional $50 to $100. |
| 2004/1/14-15 [Consumer/Audio, Reference/RealEstate] UID:11779 Activity:nil |
1/13 I just bought a house. I'm gutting the walls right now. I'm debating
2 in-wall speakers vs 4 normal speakers. Pros vs Cons? Where my TV is,
I'm going to do 5+1 surround, this is for the more formal living room.
\_ Is it a pre-1970 house (lead paint=>lead dust contamination)?
\_ yes. pre-WWII.
\_ Hmmmm, well children are more susceptible to lead
poisoning, so if yer worried, get tested. A normal
vacuum won't work for cleanup (lead dust is too fine
to be caught by normal filters - I think you may need
a HEPA filter). Just an FYI in case it interests ya.
\_ thanks. you have to sign a million disclosure acceptances
when buying an older home. once the house is repainted,
are there still hazards (i only skimmed teh disclosures).
\_ very soon, half of the responses below will be posted by jealous
poornuts who will tell you that it's stupid to buy a house in the
Bay Area
\_ still can't get over it, eh?
\_ i don't live in the bay area
\_ it's so stupid to buy a house in the bay area! i'm doing much
better renting and voting for people that will write and strictly
enforce draconian rent control laws which lower the quality of
rental housing while reducing availability! so take that! you
evil and foolish home owner! hah!
\_ did i say anything about the bay area or CA for that matter?
\_ try posting a random string of ASCII characters, and see
how long it takes to turn into a Bay Area housing flame
war. of course, what people on both sides refuse to
acknowlege is that the common denominator of crapulence
is the Bay Area, not renting or owning. I'd rather
own *or* rent anywhere but the Bay Area than own *or*
rent in the Bay Area. You've all fucked yourselves with
your communal idiocy on renatl policy, and yes, the
price of housing is a ridiculous bubble in the bay area.
\_ Are you gutting plaster walls and replacing with dry wall? I
wouldn't. As for speakers, WTF do you want them in the wall?
They are going to be as useful as the intercoms that people
used to love to install.
\_ in-wall vs "box" speakers is a waf question, imo. in the past,
i've found in-wall speakers acoustically compromised. if you
openning walls and laying in wires, why limit yourself to 5.1?
\_ Your question boils down easily: How much do you value the
aesthetics of in-wall speakers? That's a question motd can't
answer for you. As far as convenience, normal speakers
are better: easier to upgrade, easier to install. As far as
sound quality, normal speakers are better: speakers require
a cushion of air behind them to correctly spatialize the
sound. The only advantage in-wall speakers have is aesthetics.
Also, if you don't like cables everywhere, consider just
in-walling your cables, and feed them through a jack. -nivra
\_ perfect answer, thanks. |
| 2004/1/8-9 [Consumer/Audio] UID:11721 Activity:nil |
1/7 Someone was asking about which hard drive is in the iPod mini:
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5136124.html?tag=st_rn
\_ So is the drive 4 Gigabytes or 4 Gibibytes?
\_ giga, mebi! |
| 2004/1/6 [Computer/SW/OS/OsX, Consumer/Audio] UID:11692 Activity:nil |
1/6 4GB ipod mini: flash based, size of credit card, $249
\_ don't get this, for $50 more you can get a full Ipod at 15gb.
Reminds me of the days when they had the original Mac. vs.
the Mac XL (refurbed Lisa). The size is't that much smaller.
\_ it's hard drive based
\_ I stand corrected. -op
\_ the above poster is probably right -- you can't buy 4 GB of
flash memory for $249.
\_ Apple lied. they tried to quell the rumor that they were releasing
the product.
\_ Does anyone know if it uses the IBM Microdrive? That's the
only thing that would seem to working in that ff.
\_ IBM never made the microdrive cheaply or in quantity. There's a
4.4-gig drive from GS-Magicstor and a 1.5-gig from Cornice. |
| 2004/1/6-14 [Consumer/Audio] UID:11682 Activity:nil |
1/6 Entry-level NOC jobs at http://Shopping.com. They're pretty low level, but but if you're good, you'll advance fast. Mail casey@shopping.com -ccook \_ Looks like we have some openings for more senior SysAdmin types as well if you're interested. -ccook \_ For those who don't know a NOC is the Network Operations Center. NOC people generally sit around and watch pretty lights, reboot machines and type what they're told. If they do it right they can eventually get a job where they can make a decision. NOC is pure entry level stuff (as the op says). Usually these are shift jobs and the new guy gets the night shift. \_ This is fundamentally correct, but 1. you won't necessarily get the night shift (it's a new NOC) and 2. We're (mostly me) attempting to get smarter people than a typical NOC would have and going to give them more interesting work on the side if we feel they're capable...it's definitely still very entry-level though. Thanks. -ccook \_ btw, I wasn't trying to be an asshole. just explaining what the typical NOC job is to the entry level folks. sorry if I came off that way. it wasn't intentional. \_ don't NOC night-shifters just end up playing Counter-Strike, or is that just a false rumor? \_ the day shifters do at the ISP one of my client companies has their hosted machines. \_ Just read http://www.userfriendly.org to see what Noc guys do. Mostly Quake and nethack according to them. \_ I have 2 Indian friends who will work for the price of 1 American, but the catch is that they need a company to sponsor them for H1B greecard. Can your company do that? |
| 2004/1/2-5 [Consumer/Audio] UID:29740 Activity:nil |
1.5 pages of the kind of positive advertising money can't buy.
So, does XM programming really represent a rebirth
of the radio DJ? is Sirius not that far removed from Clear
Channel-controlled FM radio? --elizp
\_ I think this varies from channel to channel. I can attest
to the much higher program quality for a few XM
channels I tried. |
| 2004/1/2-5 [Consumer/Audio] UID:11649 Activity:nil |
1/2 Have the musical programming merits of XM vs. Sirius been
debated on the motd recently? If so, would someone be kind
enough to summarize? Otherwise, your humble opinions would
be much appreciated. Most reviews of satellite radio programming
I'd googled had been limited to technical interest sites and the
talk boards of XM/Sirius loyalists (who often troll each others'
discussions) until last Friday, when one of the NY TIMES pop
music reviewers wrote a paen to XM DJs that amounted to
1.5 pages of the kind of positive advertising money can't buy.
Question: does XM programming really represent a rebirth
of the radio DJ? is Sirius not that far removed from Clear
Channel-controlled FM radio? The input of those who play
instruments and/or listen deliberately to music would be
most appreciated. --elizp |
| 2003/11/25-26 [Consumer/Audio] UID:11215 Activity:nil |
11/24 I'm thinking of buying a HD based MP3 player. And I'm considering
iRiver iHP-120, iPod, and Rio Karma, in that order, so far. Just
want to know what people use and think.
\_ I've used them all and iPod is the most well rounded players of
all in terms of reliability, support, weight, and ease of use.
iPods do cost more, but you really get what you pay for.
\_ is it possible to elaborate at all? ie, specify a few key
features where iPod is better? your post is helpful but
still sounds like an Apple commercial.
-!op, also considering purchase
\_ there was a cnet article recently re: 5 bad things
about the ipod. you might want to search for it. what i
remember is something about if 6 hrs battery life isn't
enough, and the battery not being replaceable.
\_ I've found the iPod works well for me, though I do wihs
it had an FM tuner. It has a nice UI, works very well with
my mac, has a fast transfer time, and is reasonably small.
(I also use it to store phone numbers/addresses) Not an
apple commercial, I just like it, and it saved my ass
by being easy backup when my hard drive crashed. There is
also an official apple battery replacement program now,
though I'm not sure how long the batteries are supposed
to last. -chialea
\_ Too bad it has issues playing back variable bit rate
mp3s. Specifically the r3mix'd kind.
\_ really? I've been playing r3mixed and alt-preset
standard vbr mp3's on it for almost a year with
no problems at all. what are these issues you're
talking about?
\_ http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com
\_ I've got a 5 gb original iPod and the battery
hasn't had any problems. Most of the people
I know with iPods haven't had any problems
either. These people sound like a bunch of
whiners.
\_ Actually, the iRiver costs more than the rest, I think. BTW,
do iPods do crossfading? That's one reason I'm not jumping on
the iRiver, and considering Karma. -op
\_ You may want to consider one of the Creative Nomad Jukebox
players. I have a Nomad Zen 60 GB and I'm happy with it.
\_ you're all just a bunch of music stealing pirates. god will
punish you all with non stop britney on a short loop with her
lesbo mother/daughter kiss burned into your retinas.
\_ i was stealing music long before digital music.
\_ I get really turned on by mother/daughter lesbian porn. Actually
watching Gilmore Girls that's all I think about!
\_ sounds like incest, not lesbian
\_ who says you can't have both at the same time?
\_ California Penal Code Section 285.
\_ i film my privately, not for pay.
\_ Read the Code: Any incest is illegal.
\_ ew! now I'll never enjoy m/d porn again! |
| 2003/11/21 [Consumer/Audio] UID:11167 Activity:nil |
11/21 iPod Sharing:
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,61242,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
\_ You and other people, please use motdedit! |
| 2003/11/17 [Consumer/Audio] UID:11108 Activity:low |
11/17 I have an older but high-end TEAC receiver and four Bose speakers. Any
time the system is on I hear buzzing through the speakers. What does
it take to get rid of the buzzing. (Already checked grounding).
\_ probably picking up interference. are they near some other power
source like your computer or monitor?
\_ Near a TV but the sound occurs whether or not the TV is plugged
in.
\_ your speaker is not magnetically shielded?
\_ was it always like this? Maybe it just broke. Loose connections? |
| 2003/11/5 [Consumer/Audio] UID:10951 Activity:high |
11/5 Used market question (example: Speakers):
Since speaker technology doesn't change that fast, and since
more and more speakers are produced, will the price of used
speakers tend to hold well? Or will the price of used speakers
go down because more speakers are produced (greater supply)?
\_ It's called fucking ebay. Use it.
\_ I was hoping for a theoretical discussion.
\_ You also have to consider the rate at which speakers are destroyed
and/or blown-out. |
| 2003/10/28-29 [Consumer/Audio] UID:10832 Activity:nil |
10/28 The left ear of my Sennheiser HD535 headphones just died. I'm looking
to buy a new pair. Recommendations around $100 would be appreciated.
\_ are you sure it's not the cable? You can order them for about
$10-$15.
\_ Hmm, possibly. I was unaware the cable was replaceable.
\_ An expensive brand fails on you and you're eager to plunk down
for another pair? Wow, well, good luck. Let's hope the next one
you get was made properly. If not, then maybe the third or
fourth pair will be. Keep giving them your money so they can
afford quality control someday.
\_ An expensive brand that lasted me 6+ years. I've gotten a lot
of mileage out of it. Yeah, it probably should've lasted a lot
longer, but I'm not exactly complaining.
\_ umm... Sennheiser rocks... One of the many reasons is because
they can be dissassembled and replaced part-for-part. You don't
have to buy a new pair of headphones, even if it's the left ear.
\_ Agreed, Sennheiser headphones are superior to everything I've
tried. I use their high-end closed ear HD25 (not to be
confused with the cheaper HD25SP) for studio work and music
production, and they sound fantastic. They put the highest
end Sony headphones to shame. Mine have lassted 3 and a half
years so far, and I don't see any reason to think they won't
last as long as Sennheiser keeps making replacement parts.
Note that I have no experience with their consumer grade
products, and some casual music listeners may find studio
headphones to have too flat a frequency response curve for
their tastes. --lye
\_ The Germans and the Japanese are superior at making things that
are good. No wonder they had better war machines and better
kill ratios in WW2. But I guess in the end it doesn't matter,
it's the production power/raw material/mass that matters.
\_ Um... what the FUCK is the point of trolling this thread?
You're lame and deserve to be censored.
\_ I recently bought a Sennheiser HD212Pro. It's quite affordable,
and the sound does sound fantastic. I wonder how it compares
to more expensive Sennheiser models. Are those another big
leap over mine, or would I get diminishing returns? |
| 2003/10/28-29 [Consumer/Audio] UID:10830 Activity:nil |
10/28 10/28 What hardware MP3 players have adjustable playback speed? It'd
be good if they can play .wma's too.
\_ http://www.nomadworld.com
Time Scaling Up to 1.5x faster or 0.5x slower for audio playback
\_ Specifically the Zen and Zen NX
\_ Thanks! What's your experience with it?
\_ Don't have one. I'm researching this.
I hear from people - don't get Archos.
\_ What's wrong with the Archos?
\_ my archos had crappy sound. my ipod is a much
better approx. to hifi.
\_ I have the Zen, I like it. A friend has the NX, he likes it
too but has had a few problems with drivers / firmware
upgrades which were eventually resolved. The Zen is better
value for the money than the iPod.
\_ Zen plays wma too.
\_ Their features page says it can be used to store files. If I
connect to it via USB 2.0, does it show up as another drive
letter in Explorer?
\_ serious question: why would one want to do this? |
| 2003/10/19-20 [Consumer/Audio] UID:10693 Activity:nil |
10/18 I need a good place to buy higher-end audio stuff. Like a good pair of
headphones, good receiver etc. in the South Bay. Any suggestions?
(I want to look at stuff so no online). Thanks.
\_ Laserland & Bay Area Audio, both on Saratoga-Sunnyvale near I85.
Both have very friendly staffs, in my experience.
\_ You might want to do some research on-line first. For headphones
start at http://head-fi.org since B&M store selection can be quite limited.
link:Headphone.com for more organized written info. I personally just
got into the hi-fi headphone stuff a little over a year ago. Also,
there may be an occassional Bay Area headphone meet once in a while.
You can get usually get a good sampling of the cans, amps, and
sources at meets.
-amateur headphone geek-oid
\_ meets? jeez. I wasn't planning on making this a way of life.
Well, I did check around a bit online a little while ago, but
there's only so much to learn there, with various people
contradicting each other. I thought of trying maybe Sennheiser
590. Thanks for the links.
\_ NP. Senn 580 or 600 (used) are good starting off points. If
you prefer a brighter sound, Grados are the way to go. If you
want earbud-type portability, I'd go with Etymotics. I would
check out the FS/WTB forum as you can probably find some
pretty decent deal for used equipment.
-AHG |
| 2003/10/16-17 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio] UID:10663 Activity:nil |
10/16 When you buy a song from iTune, what format, and bit rate are
the delivered version?? thx.
\_ http://www.apple.com/itunes/overview.html
About the middle of the page, under "AAC: MPEG-4 audio"
\_ i've read it, it says nothing about the technical aspect,
what bitrate? are there different versions of the song? one
with higher bitrate?
\_ the implication from the page is 128 kbps.
\_ on a related topic: are there any iTunes-wanna-bes that are
selling songs in some DRM-less format?
\_ http://eMusic.com (MP3 format), monthly fee (not per song). |
| 2003/9/2 [Consumer/Audio] UID:10036 Activity:nil |
9/1 I own a Honda Accord. I want to attach a laptop to the stereo system
so I can play MP3s. How do I do this? (Essentially I want to figure out
how to install/find the line-in into the car stereo). Are there kits
available that I can use? And no, I don't want a cheezy FM
rebroadcaster. I was thinking there just has to be a kit that does this.
\_ Why a laptop? use a Mini-ITX system. less expensive.
\_ Why not? I already own one, I also have a transformer and an
extra power port in my car. The point is that the source doesn't
matter, it can be an ipod, jukebox, whatever. What I need is a
line-in to the car audio. I want to be able to plug something
physically into it.
\_ get an archos mini jukebox, nomad, or ipod instead.
Also, there are cassette tape interfaces.
\_ I don't have a cassette tape deck, that's ancient. Cassette
interfaces suck anyway (I used to own one). What I would like is
a line-in to the car stereo. The source doesn't matter, what I need
is a line-in. There just has to be a way to do this.
\_ Or low power FM transmitters
\_ Apparently you don't read, I said I didn't want a cheezy
FM rebroadcaster. They just suck, the reception is usually
iffy at best, and it's just another kludge.
\_ you've nixed lots of the choices: fm retransmitter, cassette
interface. Other choices are a built in input to your audio
system. or buy a new audio system. Or a special jukebox add-on
to your current system. What else is there? Maybe some special
connection to a CD changer? or is there a special amp in your
trunk? |
| 2003/8/15-16 [Consumer/Audio] UID:29353 Activity:moderate |
8/14 please recommend good freeware to rip cd's into wav/mp3's.
\_ CDEX is ok. http://www.cdex.n3.net -John
\_ Exact Audio Copy. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de
\_ Seconded. Easiest program I've used. Oh, and download the
latest version of LAME so EAC can use its .dll.
\_ wav is easy ... just use WinAmp. For mp3, iTunes is great if you
have Mac access.
\_ I thought you could use WinAmp for WAV files but it didn't
work for me (I've gone from mp3 to WAV using WinAmp before).
Is there something I'm missing?
\_ I thought you could use WinAmp to make WAV files from CDs but
it didn't work for me (I've gone from mp3 to WAV using WinAmp
before). Is there something I'm missing? |
| 2003/8/5 [Consumer/Audio] UID:29234 Activity:nil |
8/4 Any recommendations for a mini audio system with the following
capabilities: am/fm, mp3, cd/cdr/cdrw support, internet
streaming radio. I know the Philips Streamium MC-I200 has these
features, but I'd like to know what else is out there. Searching the
web yields a lot of random results. I'm hoping Soda users can
provide their personal experience. |
| 2003/7/30 [Consumer/Audio] UID:29178 Activity:kinda low |
7/30 Suggestions for MP3 ripping software and file-naming convention
for a ripping orgy of my entire CD collection.
\_ I use CDEX. It's free. It works. Haven't tried other stuff
though. As far as naming convention, make sure to begin the
filenames with their 2 digit track index, so that songs
automatically get sorted in the normal play order when you
tell whatever mp3 player to sort by filename. -bz
\_ for Windows? Exact Audio Copy. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de
\_ Make sure you also have the latest version of LAME with it. |
| 2003/6/24 [Consumer/Audio] UID:28823 Activity:very high |
6/24 I am buying one tomorrow. iPod vs Archos vs everything else.
I want to be able to listen to all these harddrives worth of
music. I would like to be able to record voice, but it's not
necessary. I would like to be able to record out of a DJ mixer
But that's not vital. I want to be able to put it in my pocket.
vote now:
iPod: ...
\_ http://www.epinions.com
\_ I have an iPod, and if I could do it all again, I wouldn't.
\_ I have an iPod, and I love the thing to death. I'm probably
the only person who uses it as backup and to store contacts/
calendar, though. -chialea
Archos (which):
neither: (please specify)
\_ I got the Archos Recorder 20. Happy with it. The UI it comes
with sucks, but there's an open source project with a much
cooler UI that you can throw in. If 20GB isn't enough, (or
you break it), you can just buy a larger HD and plug it in.
-bz
\_ HD-based mp3s all suck IMO
\_ http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-05-28
'nuff said.
\_ Cmon, we all know Penny Arcade is just not funny.
\_ To quote Homer: "It's funny because it's true."
\_ Lots of things are true. That doesn't make them funny.
\_ You're buying one tomorrow but haven't finished researching it?
\_ oh no! you might wind up with a sub-optimal mp3 player!
what a horrible tragedy that would be!
\_ Yes it would. Money down the drain. OP cared enough to ask
here. And yes, you're an asshole.
\_ I have an old Creative Nomad Jukebox that I'm very happy with
(except for the HD capacity, because it's so old). I can't vouch
for the newer models... the 'Zen' is their answer to the iPod.
One weird difference I noticed between my Jukebox and a friend's
iPod is that with the iPod you can't seem to queue up new songs
while it's playing, which I think is lame.
\_ if you don't want a hard drive player, look up CW200 / CW300
on http://amazon.com |
| 2003/6/10 [Consumer/Audio] UID:28694 Activity:nil |
6/10 Anybody would like to predict when I'll be able to buy a device that
has the following functionalities (all in one device). This is stuff
I need for business on a daily basis. Having to carry 5-6 gadgets is
getting quite ridiculous.
* cell phone
* address book and notes that can be backed up onto a PC
* FM/AM radio (no mechanical frequency changer, but digital tuning)
* digital recorder that can record from microphone, phone
conversation, or from the radio. Must be able to download the voice
recording onto a PC. And upload conversations onto device for
playback.
* upload MP3s onto the device.
* integrated GPS and navigation
* basic internet that can receive email and fax. Doesn't need
fancy web browsing. But need something like yahoo's directory
listings that is tied in with GPS. E.g., ability to tell the
device to give me a list of gas stations within 1 mile radius of
where I am. And display them in a map relative to where I am.
* color screen at least 3x3 inches.
* And the most important feature: batteries that last for 1 week
with active use.
Yes, I'm asking a lot. We will get there. But when? Predictions?
\_ I suspect that some of the high end Sony CLIE models may do what
you want. See also the Palm Tungsten T (don't know if it's out
yet).
\_ Everything except the battery within 2 years. Oh, I just
noticed that you did not specify a size requirement. In that
case, the device already exists.
\_ You actually *need* and/or *use* mp3s and AM/FM radio for your work?
Are they hiring? I want to slack off and get paid, too!
\_ answer the fucking question. |
| 2003/6/8-9 [Finance/Banking, Consumer/Audio, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:28670 Activity:kinda low |
6/8 recommendations for settings to use for cdrecord
in unix/linux to make cds that will play in one of those
cheap mp3/cd players? I tried burning at 4x and
getting rid of spaces and joliet extensions.
\_ 4x? If you were serious you'd burn at 1x.
\_ many of those cheap mp3/cd won't do above 128k bps, or VBR |
| 2003/5/27-28 [Consumer/Audio] UID:28562 Activity:insanely high |
5/27 Want to see the latest super-expensive home theater & audiophile gear?
http://www.he2003.com in SF June 6-8 -eric
\_ yeah but it sounds pretty much the same as the sub-$1000 crap.
\_ I always find it fascinating how people can still build expensive
audio replay equipment when everything involved is basically really
old technology which has been more or less replicated by $30
digital equipment. As for the quality difference, only if you are a
dog can you really hear the difference. It's like Rolex, a $5
digital kid watch probably keeps better time.
\_ that's why it is for audiophiles and not for everyone.
\_ Ever met a real audiophile? If you think $30 digital crap from
best buy can equal a $5k tube system in quality, you're tone
deaf or you've never heard the tube system. I'm not at all an
audiophile nor do I have a great ear but I can hear it easily.
\_ Define what a "real audiophile" is. I've met "real" physicians
and studied under them. I know that the human ear is
incapable of telling the difference that the majority of
this equipment is claiming to reproduce. The
ear just isn't that sensitive, and the rest is just
placebo. Next thing you're going to tell me that "real"
chronometerphiles have an inbred ability to tell
time better than everyone else and that's why
they need a Rolex. Face it, it's the same
as buying a Fendi bag vs. just a regular handbag. It's
all just snob value after a certain price point.
\_ Nice try. I knew a doctor on TV once, too. That makes me
know all about TV broadcasting equipment. Or something
like that. Just because you know *nothing* about a field
doesn't mean others don't. I don't believe in Java, Unix,
or Intel chips. They just can't possibly work! I knew an
engineer once so I know this is true! Yeah! That's the
ticket! I'm a midnight motd posting uber genius, like you!
\_ Can you provide an example of something an audio equip.
manufacturer claims to reproduce that the human ear
ear is incapable of detecting?
\_ can ordinary people distinguish $1500 and $6000 equipment?
\_ this is for audiophiles, and not everybody.
\_ It starts getting crazy when these people can hear differences
just by using different cables.
\_ I once auditioned speakers around the $300-600/pair range. I was
surprised I could actually hear differences among them (I was quite
skeptical that I could), but the problem was, I couldn't tell which
speakers actually sounded "correct." I read reviews with words
like "warm" and "neutral sound" and "imaging" and I'm thinking WTF?
\_ If you are buying, then you should trust your ears. Go with
whatever sound you like.
\_ for those who like speakers, what speakers do you have and how
much did you get them for?
\_ B&W DM601 (first series I believe). $500/pair at the time.
Absolutely no complaints with them. The center channel cost me
an extra $250.
\- the audiophile stuff is sort of like wine: you should
feel welcome to listen to/drink the $100speakers/$5bottle.
if you think there isnt a difference between $100 speakers
and $1000 speakers or a $10bottle and $100bottle, you are a
moron or physically defective. yes, the expensive stuff is
sometimes hype. yes some people go overboard ... like the
"magic liquid stereo cable" people or the "grapes grown 10feet
apart have different terroir effects" ... and have their head
up their ass. --psb
\_ $100 to $1000 is easy... i'm a total nonaudiophile and
i can tell the difference there. it's $1000 -> $10000
for speakers and $100->$1000 for wine that are
much harder to differentiate..
\_ I find it hard to believe that anyone who says
there's no difference between $10/bottle wine
and $50-$100/bottle wine can actually have
gone up to Napa and *tasted* some of the
expensive stuff. It's easy to tell the
difference. (Whether it's worth the price to
you is another, more personal matter.) Above
$100 you start getting into real hype, yeah.
(ps: whoops, originally misread psb... read
"is" for "isn't". We're all violently agreeing...)
\- well i think part of the qustion is "does a
$60 reidel glass make the wine taste better
than a $5 wine glass" ... supposedly there is
a reason for the different shapes of wine
glasses. i think that is where a lot of the
bunko is. same for some of the ridiculous
claims about audio cables. --psb
\_ Try drinking wine from a coffee mug.
\_ I think wine is a bit different. I've tasted expensive
wine, and I will agree it tastes different from a $10 or
$50 bottle, but whether it's better is debatable. It's
just different with no negative or positive connotation.
I suppose if I knew what to look for when tasting (beyond
just if I like the taste or not), then I could appreciate
and perhaps even justify ordering the pricier stuff at
a restaurant. |
| 2003/4/7 [Consumer/Audio] UID:28020 Activity:very high |
4/5 Hey I missed out on that Ghandi thing but anyway, if he really
thought peace at all costs was better than a few deaths in the
name of freedom and liberty how come he lead so many of his
own people to take actions against the British which got them
killed? What's up with that?
\_ Gandhi was not opposed to deaths, but he thought that
people should have the choice of dying for a cause, not
have that choice made form them by external agents. E.g.,
re the Jews circa WWII, he did not that that they should
accept their fate but that they should engage in incidents
of collective suicide so as to alert the world to their
plight. See Orwell on Gandhi.
\_ Gandhi was a complete ass. India would have had freedom
much earlier and on much better terms had he put aside his
own political ambitions and supported Bose and
others. Instead of doing what was best for India and her
people, he did what was best for Gandhi and relegated India
to fifty plus years of socialist poverty and despair from
which it is only now beginning to rise.
\_ 90-column freeper twink strikes again
\_ Bose was a map collaborator. He's rotting in his
smoking ruins in a jungle somewhere.
\_ He's most likely dead. Bose may have picked the
wrong sides, but he was fighting to free India
for the sake of freedom rather than for revenge.
Under Bose there would have been no partition.
\_ He's most likely dead (he would be ~ 105 yrs old
this year). Bose may have picked the wrong allies,
but at least he was fighting to free India to
establish freedom for her citizens rather than
fasting for revenge.
\_ Who's Bose? Can someone educate me? A google search
turned up mostly speakers.
\_ google. bose india independence.
\_ Subhas Chandra Bose.
\_ Is Gandhi's no violence principles successful because
the threat people like Bose poses is an unappetizing
alternative for the Brits?
of the underlying threat people like Bose poses? |
| 2003/2/23-24 [Consumer/Audio] UID:27503 Activity:very high |
2/23 I'm trying to organize my MP3 collection, where can I find an official
band-to-genre mapping? For example if band is X, is
X considered Altenative, Rock, Pop, etc? Thanks.
\_ if such a mapping exists for your MP3 collection, you need better
taste in music. -tom
\_ for once, i agree with tom, even if it is a pointless insult.
it is a well-justified pointless insult.
\_ classical and blues. jazz is more problematic, but i
usually lose interest around bebop anyway. quite easy
to classify, really.
\_ If all you listen to is classical and blues, I'd suggest
putting classical under "classical", and blues under
"blues". -tom
\_ Damn you and your simple, sensible, and obvious system
of classification.
\_ tom where do I file Johnny Mathis?
\_ what the hell is so wrong with classifying your music?
\_ It's inherently flawed.
\_ how so?
\_ most interesting bands straddle classifications.
Either your categories will be too general to be
useful, or too specific to be accurate. -tom
\_ Classify Sleater Kinney.
\_ "Bands I'd most likely find danh at."
\_ Hmm "Bands I'd most likely find <csua member> at."
seems to be a decent classification system.
\_ except it only works for about 20 bands. -tom
\_ I use "loud" and "fucking loud"
\_ probably <DEAD>gigabeat.com<DEAD>, which was cool but like many dot-coms
went belly-up.
\_ but does your Amp go to 11?
\_ Lick my love pump.
\_ Classify "Cliff Richard".
\_ I find http://www.allmusic.com to have the most complete and serious
coverage. There was this other site that shows related artists
in a "genre-spiral," but I forget its name. If anyone else knows,
I'd be interested to find out. -- alice
\_ <DEAD>gigabeat.com<DEAD>, but it went under as many dot-coms did.
\_ I just noticed that the band X is a good example of how hard it is
to classify music. -tom
\_ X is clearly punk rock.
\_ I think tom means "The Clash".
\_ X is EASY to classify, sheesh. It's Alternative not pop or rock.
\_ it's so easy that two people came up with different
classifications. -tom
\_ People with clue did not come up with two diff class.
\_ well, that depends. If you have a "punk rock"
category, X probably fits into it well. But if
you don't--if, say, the only punk rock album you have
is the X one with "Breathless" on it--"Alternative"
sort of fits amorphously. In the same vein, is
Green Day punk? -tom
\_ Try moodlogic. They classify bands by similar likeness, which should
please the people who want "Pop, Rock, Classical" as well as the
tom's who want a more varied classification. It's sort of like
a Winamp plugin to allmusic. FYI I think moodlogic sucks. |
| 2003/2/3-4 [Consumer/Audio] UID:27288 Activity:kinda low |
2/3 Looking for mp3 player I can control from desktop. Basically, I want to
have a playlist playing from Linux, but be able to connect to player,
change the playlist/etc. and disconnect. (From Linux or windows
preferably). Anyone know of a tool like this?
\_ xmms has a -enqueue or some such option that allows for this
sort of thing.
\_ freshmeat is stuffed like an engorged intestine with projects that
do this. stuffed to bursting, i tell you. --aaron
\_ could you name one?
\_ could you search freshmeat?
\_ Did a search. Now I'm wading through them to find win32
clients. They're also pretty devoid of comments or
instructions. |
| 2003/1/20-21 [Reference/Celebration, Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio] UID:27158 Activity:kinda low |
1/19 Anyone know where I can get an mpeg (or other format) of that
Saturday Night Live christmas skit where Chris Kattan, Jimmy
Fallon, Horatio Sanz and someone else are dressed up as holiday
figurines and they sing a funny little lame song. Sanz plays
a ukelele-like instrument, Jimmy Fallon plays a keyboard that
Kattan is holding, and the other guy just stands and wiggles
around. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
\_ yeah that rocked. someone find this. sanz is singing
"i wish christmas was todaaaay"
\_ Looks like Kazaa has the mp3 but no video.
\_ what did you search for for the mp3?
\_ actually i saw the video. search "snl christmas"
\_ look at http://snltranscripts.jt.org/01/01isnowglobe.phtml |
| 2003/1/4 [Consumer/Audio] UID:26991 Activity:nil |
1/4 iPod says it can store 4000 songs. What if you have a lot of really
small files, will it store more than 4000 songs? |
| 2002/12/20-21 [Consumer/Audio] UID:26875 Activity:kinda low |
12/19 Just curious, how does one change the battery for iPod? It's not
documented anywhere. -iPod owner
\_ Try this first:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61705&SaveKCWindowURL=http%3A%2F%2Fkbase.info.apple.com%2Fcgi-bin%2FWebObjects%2Fkbase.woa%2Fwa%2FSaveKCToHomePage&searchMode=Assisted&kbhost=kbase.info.apple.com&showButton=false&randomValue=100&showSurvey=false&sessionID=anonymous|160185009
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61705
\_ applecare_url_formatd was here
Then this:
http://www.home.no/deep/ipod/disassembly
\_ Firewire
\_ change not charge
\_ there is no battery in the iPod, it runs forever and ever. |
| 2002/12/8-9 [Consumer/Audio] UID:26752 Activity:moderate |
12/8 Somebody gave me an audio CD that only has one track about 50 minutes
long. I want to "re-burn" and break it up into 4-5 tracks that are
shorter in length (so I can skip forward and such). What FREE tools
are there to do this? I'd imagine I need to turn it into an MP3 and
then break up the MP3 into smaller chunks and then turn it back into
an audio CD. Or is there a tools that does this directly? Thanks.
\_ you're not making any sense. When you rip the audio from
the CD, you get a WAV file. There is no extra step of
"encoding to WAV". Just rip and split. I think Exact
Audio Copy can do it. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de
\_ could be as simple as cdda2wav and split, and your favorite mp3
encoder ...
\_ If you're just going to record it back to CD again, you might
not want to convert it to MP3 at all -- just split up the WAV
file into smaller WAV files, and burn those. Not only will
converting to MP3 lose some audio quality, it tends to add a
bit of silence at the beginning and end of the file, which will
disrupt your otherwise continuous audio.
\_ I need to turn the audio tracks into WAV files first don't
I? Is there ONE tools that does all this? I know I can
download an encoder to turn it into a WAV file, and may
be another tool to split it. But I'm asking for an integrated
program.
\_ you're not making any sense. When you rip the audio from
the CD, you get a WAV file. There is no extra step of
"encoding to WAV". Just rip and split. I think Exact
Audio Copy can do it. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de
\_ http://audacity.sourceforge.net
Don't bother encoding to MP3. Why would you think you need to? |
| 2002/10/3 [Consumer/Audio] UID:26084 Activity:high |
10/2 I want to Rip WMAs or MP3s. What are the fastest (and most accurate)
RIPpers out there?
\_ You seem to be confused boy. Ripping is the process of pulling
music data off of a CD. This produces uncompressed data
(on windows, .wav files). Encoding is the process of converting
uncompressed audio data to mp3 or some other compressed format.
\_ well some programs do both at once (from CD to MP3/WMA).
What's the fastest program to do both steps end to end?
\_ why on earth would you want to convert to WMA and lock
yourself into a Microsoft-owned, DRM-laden format? For
ripping, Exact Audio Copy is the most accurate (but not
fast). CDex is good too and probably significantly faster.
You can easily set up EAC or CDex to encode with LAME
automatically.
\_ EAC + lame --r3mix is the STANDARD. There are faster ways,
but this method produces excellent quality mp3s for a
minor slowdown. It's worth it.
\_ ED!
\_ Aw, c'mon! Don't Rip on the poor kid!
\_ Don't make me encode your ass boy. |
| 2002/9/18 [Consumer/Audio] UID:25935 Activity:high |
9/18 I've got a random mp3 on my hd that I want to know more about. It's
by a group called The Freak People. Any tips? Google's not being
helpful.
\_ Got this from google: link:csua.org/u/2bc
Looks like part of a compilation album called "Lyrical Masturbation"
Also check http://www.soundclick.com/bands/mcpm.htm
\_ Thanks-- it looks like they were involved with the
post-production work, but the sample I have is more techno and
less pimp rap. |
| 2002/9/12-13 [Consumer/Audio] UID:25858 Activity:high |
9/11 So can you export audio in linux in a similar manner as exporting
\_ nope
DISPLAY ? if so, how? How about from one "player" to multiple
exported "sound displays"?
\_ Check out esd (Enlightenment sound daemon.) I believe it allows
you to serve/access sound remotely. -John
\_ Is there a ewd so I can serve warez along with my mp3s?
\_ Yes, it's called ftp. -John
\_ You're so old school. I want streaming p2p warez.
\_ In a word, no.
\_ You don't seem to understand what $DISPLAY is all about. This is
an "X11" (and X10, etc) thing. Not a Linux thing. You can not
stream your stolen mp3s to your buddies from your pirate mp3 server
with a simple variable setting. |
| 2002/8/7-8 [Consumer/Audio] UID:25513 Activity:high |
8/7 I'm thinking of ripping my music collection.
Should I do 128 mp3? Or WMA?
\_ .rm!!
\_ ??
\_ r3mix. I'm kind of mad I sold all my cds back and ripping them only
to 128kb/s. r3mix will leave you with an audiophile optimized var
bit enc that winamp can stream over ssl.
\_ he means http://r3mix.net, which recommends Exact Audio Copy using LAME at
vbr.
\- Why not use OggVorbis? <DEAD>www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/index.html<DEAD>
Before you flame ogg, please first state if you have ever tried
the 1.0 release. -alexb
\_ the name is too damn dumb. like most "open" projects...
\_ Yes. O.V. is superior at low (>=128) bit rates, but grossly
inferior if you care about quality. r3mix is THE STANDARD.
-dans
\_ I've read this comment before but it does not match my
personal experience. When I tested I could hear the
difference between 128 and 160bps mp3, but 192bps mp3
sounded the same as CD audio. 128pbs ogg and CD was hard
to distinguish, and at 160pbs ogg sounded like CD.
Perhaps my biases clouded my observations. Can you give
me a reference to a double blind test or similar?
- alexb
\_ does looking into a mirror and saying "I'm right" count?
\_ Actually what he was referring to was the fact that lame now has
the http://r3mix.net settings easily accessible with a single flag:
lame --r3mix
\_ despite what all the people above say, --alt-preset standard is
recommended over --r3mix, even by the LAME authors. --jameslin
\_ fuck this shit. use libphilcompress. |
| 2002/7/15-16 [Consumer/Audio] UID:25364 Activity:very high |
7/15 Which format, .MP3 or .WAV, usually produces smaller files for the
same song and same reproduction quality? And by how much? Thanks.
--- yuen
\_ MP3 is a lossy compression algorithm. Quality varies widely
based on encoder used and bit rate you encode at. Many folks
feel that encoding with LAME at 256 bits CBR is virtually
indistinguishable from originals. If you want to save more
space, you can use VBR, though, from my understanding, LAME is
the only encoder that does decent VBR. See
http://www.r3mix.net for details.
WAV is not lossy, but file size ranges from 2-10 times that of
MP3s. Understand that when making MP3s, you record WAVs first
then compress to MP3. -dans
\_ I see. I thought MP3 is lossless too. Thx. --- yuen
\_ Anyone try OBB Vorbis? Quality comparable? Winamp now
supports it.
\_ you tried variable bit rate encoding? shrinks my mp3s it does.
\_ from those crazy open source communists? there could be
viruses in it! and wtf does "ogg vorbis" mean anyway? BTW,
I saw some numbers today on total # of cd's sold in this
country over the last few years. In 98/99 when the net was
the new cool thing everyone was doing, cd sales dropped like
a rock and stayed there. Must be Nsync or Britney.
\_ Maybe if they made music that didn't
suck, people would buy it.
\_ Maybe if they made music that didn't suck, people would
buy it. [formatd]
\_ If it sucks so much why are they downloading it? Why
did they buy it before the net was a big deal in 98?
Standard nonsense from a music thief.
\_ Ogg comes from netrek, obviously, and Vorbis is a
Terry Pratchett character.
quality, encode to MP3 using lame at CBR 256 bits or VBR with
the r3mix settings. -dans
\_ DOOSH DOOSH!
\_ Learn to format your posts.
\_ it was formatted. whats yer problem?
\_ Ogg Vorbis is better at lower sampling rates (128 bits or
less), but mp3 is still much better quality at high sampling
rates. So if you want the best tradeoff between size and
quality, encode to MP3 using lame at CBR 256 bits or VBR
with the r3mix settings. -dans
with --alt-preset?
\_ .WAV files usually are uncompressed, but they don't have to be.
.WAV is a container format and can use any of a number of audio
codecs, such as PCM (uncompressed), ADPCM, and--yes--even MP3.
Comparing .WAV to MP3 is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Also,
a lot of people think that the r3mix guy is full of himself,
\_ re-ripping with recent lame versions (compared to
the one from a couple years ago) makes a big difference
even if you stick with the basic presets or custom
settings. but i got a usb/toslink adapter recently
and was amazed how crappy my notebook sound card was
in comparison... much worse than mp3 artifacts.
and as of LAME 3.90, --alt-preset standard generally is
recommended over --r3mix. --jameslin
\_ d'oh! now I have to re-rip all of my cd's again and encode
With --alt-preset?
\_ no one's forcing you to. if you can hear the difference
and if it matters that much to you, then go ahead. |
| 2002/6/14 [Consumer/Audio] UID:25094 Activity:nil |
6/13 Can somebody id this song? It's usually played in old b&w movies
with settings in paris. I hear it's something like rose colored
life or something. It's in french and I'm trying to find the mp3.
Thanks.
\_ "Vie en rose". Most famous version is by Edith Piaf.
-- ulysses
\_ well, "la vie en rose".
\_ Heh. This is what I wrote first. Then I googled and the
first result listed "Vie en rose". Go figure.
\_ Can someone post the URL for the MP3? I searched "vie en
rose" and found several songs that are different. I don't
know which one is the right one.
\_ Try searching for "edith piaf" instead.
\_ Is it this one?
do - - ti la so mi do
ti - - la so mi do ti
la
\_ Woah, cool. The motd is showing emergent behavior.
\_ How so? |
| 2002/6/9-10 [Consumer/Audio] UID:25050 Activity:moderate |
6/9 What's a good CD to MP3 encoder? RealOne only does 96KBps
\_ You are still using real? Dude, they have marketing tactics that
rival M$ with their stupid start center, take 5 and etc. And now
registration?!
\_ Real has a craptastic MP3 encoder. Use LAME with --alt-preset
standard
\_ I forgot to add: for CD ripping, use Exact Audio Copy or CDex.
\_ Audiograbber + LAME encoder. The freeware version lets you
encode only half the tracks on a CD, but you can keep restarting
the app until the the tracks you want to rip are available.
\_ Grip + lame --r3mix. (really good variable bit rate encoder.
I listen to mp3s with a pair of AKG studio monitors)
\_ --alt-preset standard is supposed to be better than --r3mix
now... |
| 2002/6/9 [Consumer/Audio] UID:25047 Activity:high |
6/8 Can anyone actually tell the difference between a 96Kbps MP3 and
a 128Kbps MP3? I justed recorded the same piece and can't tell the
difference! On the other hand 64Kbps is not as clear and the degration
is slightly noticeable.
\_ after a certain point, the human ear can't tell the difference.
\_ But this is not that point.
\_ some people are less sensitive and can't tell the
difference.
\_ Question concerned existence of positive, not of negative
\_ your ear isn't trained for it. many people can tell. you're just
not one of them.
\_ I can. I am musically trained and do audio engineering, however.
I find 128kbps acceptable; I don't encode any lower than that
in stereo for my repeated listening.
\_ Don't forget that there are other elements to this than your ears
and the MP3 file. What about the speakers or headphones? The amp?
the DAC? I can easily hear a difference between CDs and SACDs on
my stereo, but I'm using some really good equipment. If you're
listening to this through the sound card and speakers on your PC,
then it's no wonder that you can't hear a difference.
\_ you are 3l1t3 you use SACD! |
| 2002/6/5 [Recreation/Dating, Consumer/Audio] UID:24978 Activity:nil 57%like:25016 |
6/3 To those with an Asian fetish:
http://www.learningannex.com/lookup.taf?course=911NNYA
\_ With a course number "911NNY", it's highly suspicious.
\_ true. So you are saying they are scammers?
And http://LearningAnnex.com is not legitimate somehow?
\_ http://www.attractasianwomen.com/ming_profile.html
\_ "... after lots of men tried to pick her up ...". Hmm, is that
real considering her look?
\_ What look? She's totally hot. Anyone got anymore beers? I'm out. |
| 2002/5/25 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio] UID:24943 Activity:nil |
5/25 Anyone know where I can find an mp3 of that Winamp soundbyte
that says "Winamp, it really kicks the llama's ass" ? |
| 2002/5/20-21 [Consumer/Audio] UID:24886 Activity:high |
5/19 I'm looking at DVD players and all of them say they support MP3.
Do they actually support playing of MP3 CD's?
\_ I have one which does play MP3's.
\_ if they say they support mp3's, then they do.
\_ But some will only play them sequentially, or make it hard
to select the ones you want to hear.
\_ try before you buy. |
| 2002/5/7-8 [Reference/BayArea, Consumer/Audio] UID:24736 Activity:kinda low |
5/6 And if you can't make it to Berkeley for your IP fix, the meeting
topic of the Silicon Valley WebGuild (http://www.webguild.org is on
intellectual property with a panel of speakers, including a
representative from the EFF. Same date (5/8) at Cypress
Semiconductor in San Jose. 6:30pm. See website for details. - cathyg
\_ Are there any speakers on why patents are good or is this one
sided advocacy from the EFF?
\_ It will be a panel. I'm not familiar with the other speakers,
but they are listed on the website. [formatd] |
| 2002/4/20-21 [Consumer/Audio] UID:24501 Activity:high |
4/19 Which way produce better sound quality: software decoding
mp3 to regular audio format and play it with cd player OR
play mp3 file with mp3 player?
\_ Anybody can tell me if the software can restore the missing
data in mp3 because of compression to the digital waveforms
very close to the original recording.
\_ I guess when you compress the data using mp3, once the
data is lost, there is no way you can recover the original
bits no matter how smart your software is. Not sure though!
\_ Yes, MP3 is lossy.
\_ No, use the new .phil format for music files! Convert all
your mp3s to .phil today!
\_ admittedly, "phil files" has a nice ring to it.
\_ Assuming you are just comparing the MP3 player vs. the CD player
(e.g., using the same headphones), it will depend on the quality
of the digital-analog converters in the MP3 player vs. cd player.
If it's a cheap portable CD player, I doubt the sound quality
will be very different one way or another.
\_ I am not familiar with the mpeg2 algorithms, but is it really the
best data shrinking mechanism out there? Or it's just a bunch of
mpeg jerk using their power to make money?
\_ There is no "best data shrinking mechanism" for all types of
data. Lossy compression (such as MPEG) isn't appropriate for
some data types. Generally different data types are best paired
with different compression algorithms. Even restricting
the domain to video doesn't sufficiently narrow the scope;
MPEG2 video can produce better picture quality than MPEG4 video
at high-bitrates. MPEG4, on the other hand, is tailored for
relatively low-bitrate video. What were you asking, again,
and what does it have to do with MP3?
\_ depends on how you record to the CD, and the media quality. I
did a blind test of this and people could hear the difference
between the CD-R and original source CD without recoding!
\_ decoding an mp3 offline for conversion to pcm audio (and later
burning to an audio cd) would allow you to apply smoothing and
other audio processing techniques to the decoded audio correct
for (de)compression artifacts prior to burning to the CD. It
is possible to do this on the fly in a portable mp3 player, but
I don't think many if any do anything more than DA conversion.
I think you'll be more limited by how good/bad your headphones
are or what shape your ears are in. (and of course, there is
less one can do about bad pops and skips, but one has more of a
chance correcting that offline) -jon
\_ Somehow, this whole line of discussion seems much sillier while
listening to an SACD. MP3s -- how quaint. |
| 2002/4/8 [Consumer/Audio] UID:24363 Activity:high |
4/7 Anyone have XM radio? Good? Bad?
\_ wait until XM buys Sirius or vice versa.
\_ why pay money to hear bad songs on the radio when you can
get it for free?
\_ Why not spend money on a Mp3 cd player, burn all your songs
onto a CD instead?
\_ XM Radio: product still looking for a need.
\_ but Fortune magazine got paid enough to say that it's
the product of the year!
\_ Maybe but not any year I've lived in so far. |
| 2002/4/4-5 [Computer/SW/P2P, Consumer/Audio, Computer/SW/Virus] UID:24327 Activity:very high |
4/4 What's the mp3 finder of choice now aside from kazaa?
\_ AudioGalaxy
\_ you know, this trojans your browser
\_ probably, but a fun way to run audiogalaxy is on a linux
box somewhere, and to do searches with your web browser
\_ gnucleus... Open-source gnutella client :)
on the computer of your choice, so there's no way you
can be trojaned.
\_ I use Grokster with all the spyware chopped out by AdAware.
\_ You think so.... |
| 2002/3/12 [Consumer/Audio] UID:24086 Activity:high |
3/11 Are mose/all auto/portable mp3-cd players limited to playing 128kb
encoded mp3's? Any pointers for comparison shopping?
\_ The iPod will play MP3s encoded at a higher bitrate than
that. It will also play raw AIFF audio.
\_ Thanks. Not interested in iPod. I'm interested in playing mp3's
off a cd. I'm especially interested in playing mp3's encoded at
64 kb/mono.
\_ I don't know anybody who wants to listen to AM radio
quality songs.
\_ I'm deaf in one ear. I do! |
| 2002/3/1 [Consumer/Audio, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:24008 Activity:nil |
3/01 Have iPod, will Shoplift:
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,50688,00.html
\_ Wired is a pack of idiots. (This is not news). Firewire hard
drives have been available for years. -tom
\_ FW HDs in the form factor of the iPod have not been
available for "years". If you walk in with a 5 1/4"
enclosure or even one of those "portable" drives
under your jacket people are going to notice. But if
you walk in with a iPod (walkman sized) its a whole
different story.
\_ we have a VST firewire hard drive, purchased at least
two years ago, that's maybe 20% bigger than the iPod. -tom |
| 2002/2/10-11 [Consumer/Audio] UID:23831 Activity:insanely high |
2/10 Can anyone recommend a good portable mp3 player? I had one of those
Iomega hipzips, but it's no good. Any ones without moving parts (and
hopefully low price)?
\_ There is a triangle of "no moving parts", "low price", and
"decent capacity". Choose two of three.
\_ Why the HECK would it have moving parts!? What for?
\_ maybe a hard disk
\_ or to play MP3 CDs. Not everyone goes jogging with their
their portable players, so moving parts may not always be
more important than media costs.
\_ because the hipzip had removable disks, so it was
having to read from the disk. which is why it
failed, in my opinion. -op
\_ agreed. i love my 6GB archos jukebox which is the size of
a tape walkman from the early 90s and heavier. but then
i got it for airplane flights, not for noodling around town.
\_ 1/4 of the /. 'stories' these days are about mp3 players.
\_ iPod. Its the best mp3 ever. If you want to try mp3 cds
I'd recommend the sony. Other possibilities include the
sony memory stick players or the Samsung YePP. A couple
of guys at work like the intel player, but I prefer the
YePP.
\_ I need a mac for the iPod though, right?
\_ http://www.mediafour.com/xplay
\_ digisette. |
| 2002/2/6-7 [Consumer/Audio] UID:23799 Activity:insanely high |
2/6 I am putting my speakers on speaker stands finally. The IKEA stands
I get require holes to be drilled on the speaker's bottom to bolt it
to the surface of the stand. Is this a good idea? I am reluctant to
modify my speaker (NHT 1.5, if it matters) in some permanent way.
\_ I would be very cautious drilling holes on the speaker.
Attaching something like velcro or something like that is okay,
but drilling holes? Be careful.
\_ stay the hell away from Ikea.
\_ I heard that speaker stands need to be VERY rigid so that the
speaker on the stand won't recoil when the electromagnet pushes the
membrane forward. That way the acoustic characteristics of the
speaker is preserved. I don't think anything Ikea sells is up to
that standard. Drilling holes to mount the speakers probably
has the advantage of making the speaker and the stand one more-rigid
body, but the benefit won't pay for the drawback that the acoustic
characteristics of the speaker box is destroyed. If your speaker
is a low-end one you probably don't care as much about the
acoustics, but then in that case why bother drilling holes? -- yuen
\- dont get a stand for a decent speaker at ikea. for big speakers
there are stands that stand on spikes for more isolationand ones
that have hollow tubes that can be filled with lead shot ... some
such stands are actually not that expensive, compared to the
speakers. go to a real stereo store for suggestions ... once again
BAA gives good advice. --psb
\_ where is BAA? What about The Sound Well? - ! orig poster
\- BAA is roughly at Sunnyvale-Saratoga and Hwy 85. I believe
the now have a WEEB site. I am not familar with the sound well.
The good things about BAA: 1. they know their stuff 2. they are
reasonable people interested in building a relationship with
the customer (this include stuff like they may lend you stuff to
try at home, they wont nickle and dime you ... in at least one
case they gave be a sale price on some stuff that would have gone
on sale in a few weeks instead of making me come back) 3. they
treat you reasonably even if you arent looking to drop 5 figures
on a stereo. --psb
\__ IKEA sucks.
\_ Sounds good... sounds alot like the Sound Well... maybe you
would be interested to check it out... about half-way down
University, on the south-side of the street. - rory
\_ I once built my own subwoofer for my car about two years ago
with all the research etc that goes on with that, using design
programs to measure everything, down to coeffiecients of different
woods, everything. Anyways, I've never heard of a speaker stand where
\_ I've never heard of a speaker stand where
using a BOSE speaker then you will be fine. (bose has significantly
more internalized designs and pathways... its not a good imaging
company, only makes an expansive, 'bose' sound out of every song..)
you must drill INTO the speaker box, but as long as you are not
using a BOSE speaker then you will be fine. (You dont want to
drill into a bose. it has alot more sound redirecting tubes on
the inside all crammed usually... than any other company..)
Acoustically it will not change anything otherwise, but its
wierd and I'd feel uncomfortable about doing it even though
it will not change anything. |
| 2002/1/29 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio] UID:23704 Activity:high |
1/28 I have a bunch of .avi files which quicktime won't open and windows
media player just plays the audio track without any video, (though i
these files are clearly meant to be video). Is there anything i can
do to play them or are they just bad files.
\_ Perhaps they're DivX files?
\_ this is asked all the time. check the motd archive. you don't have
the right video codec.
\_ http://www.divx.com
\_ This may sound stupid, but eFax viewer (the new one) reads .avi
files as well. http://www.efax.com to download.
\_ You'll still need a decompressor. If you don't have the right
codec, you're still screwed. |
| 2002/1/16 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:23573 Activity:high |
1/15 As hard as it may be to believe, I liked "real jukebox." It was a good
interface, organized my music for me and generally did everything i
wanted it to do easily. Now I have a new computer and i see that real
(unsatisfied, i guess, without my COMPLETE loathing (their player has
always sucked)) has gone to some damn subscription product. Anyone know
of a similarly good mp3 player?
\_ you CAN get a free version, except, you'll get a prompt to buy
their product every once in a while. The new version is smaller
(binary size) and much faster than before. |
| 2001/10/19 [Consumer/Audio] UID:22775 Activity:nil |
10/18 Looking for a cheap MP3 player that takes in burned CD. AdviceP
\_ #t
\_ I got a memorex cd/mp3 player that plays my stuff fine and was
like $70 at target (with "car kit.") However, it doesn't deal
well with wierd characters (e.g. songs that start with spaces
or chinese characters), it only recongnizes 200 songs and, despite
the claim of "45 second" skip protection, it doesn't do so well
in the pot-hole hills of berkeley. (sometime it just stops
altogether). It's great on the freeway though. (oh and obYouUsed
thei P notation WRONG).
\_ People, learn what the "P" part means. |
| 2001/10/12-14 [Consumer/Audio] UID:22703 Activity:low |
10/12 Nero users...anyone had the problem where you drag an mp3 onto
the list of songs to burn, and it shows it as only being like 2
seconds long, or something really short like that? Any solutions?
\_ I bought the CD and stopped pirating mp3s. That worked great!
\_ Hey look, it's a little bitch!
\_ I like the Specials. |
| 2001/8/30-31 [Consumer/Audio] UID:22293 Activity:nil |
8/30 Is there a program/research project out there that can take a
single-track audio recording (say an mp3), assumed to contain
both music and voice, and attempt to remove the voice part, or
at least a substantial portion thereof?
\_ Yes. It's called the original master theft program.
\_ Do you mean voice as plain talking (like rap) or do you mean the
vocal part of a song which follows a melody (like opera)? -- yuen
\_ XMMS has a voice-removal plugin included by default. It works ok. |
| 2001/8/14 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio] UID:22111 Activity:nil |
8/14 Because of the intense public interest in the SDMI Research paper and
the legal wrangles it has endured, USENIX and Dr. Dobb's Technetcast
have teamed up to broadcast the paper presentation and subsequent
panel discussion with Dr. Edward Felten LIVE on the Technetcast Web site
The broadcast will be available in two formats: RealVideo and Ogg Vorbis
a general purpose, compressed audio format that is a non-proprietary,
patent and royalty-free alternative to MP3. The broadcast marks the
first time in USENIX history that we have provided conference content
over a public media.
Log onto http://www.technetcast.com/sdmi-challenge.html on Wednesday,
August 15, 2001, 6:00 to 7:30 PM Eastern. Capacity for simultaneous
access is limited, but users will be able to view the recorded
presentation on the Technetcast archives immediately after the
broadcast. --jon |
| 2001/6/12-7/20 [Computer/Networking, Consumer/Audio] UID:21494 Activity:high |
6/12 How about wireless MP3 players........ you pay $10/mn for a
"keychain" wireless service which connects you to your "personal"
Mp3 archive. I read an article about apple and how they should
make the attached product. But who want video???? I want music
and portable access to MY music. YOu could probably sell these
things like hotcakes? You don't need to worry about big clunky
devices such as palm and ipaq, external HD's, just build a form
follows function device fit for playing MP3's by connecting to
remote device using wireless. For christ sake you could plug
into metrocoms network or something. ATT has supposedly also
build out a very nice "personal" wireless service. - kinney
\_ Why not just treat it as a wireless accessible personal
file server / data storage. If the files are mp3 files,
so be it.
\_ You missed a crucial caviat. Connect to Personal network. In
effect what you are saying is your computer up in Berkeley with
YOur MP3 collection can not be used by YOU. That is bogus and
they can't do anything. That is like saying MP3 is illegal. Now
if all of a sudden 10,000 people are hitting your computer that
is different. So What might be required is documentation saying
what MP3's you have and who owns them- That is straight forward
and can simply be solved by MASSIVE HD space. Each person would
need their OWN directory- that way they can only listen to THEIR
COLLECTION which is legal-- How the person obtains their own
collection is their own business. Thus the connection device will
come with its own personal remote secure folder using some the
dirt cheap co-location space available.
The key player will only be able to access that one directory.
RIght now there is going to be a huge shift to remote storage of
MP3's. My solution fits the market exactly and tied with a
wireless portable play you can't lose. And to the best of my
knowledge it is legal as there is NO SHARING.
Of course the sharing may be implied- "how did the user amass
that 20gig collection?" but again that isn't my concern- answer
"No idea. Go ask the user?" But then that answer does protect
the users. So a better answer is- "Here is the schematic of the
network- By design we are legal and since this is a private
personal network no one- Not even me- has the rights to know what
MP3's the user has?
\_ That idea is DOA. RIAA will want their cut of the
action and will insure any players will first pay
their dues through them. http://mp3.com was already
proposing the idea, I believe, or something similar
and look what happened to them. My co-workers have
been talking about general file servers connected to
high bandwidth lines so that they can work from
anyplace. I think you have to provide privacy
protection licensing in order to at the very least
fend off copyright infringement laws in these cases.
But as far as a company running it, forget it. Forget
the hardware as well because the RIAA will go after
them as well unless they strike a deal with them. - keithyw
\_ Why not just treat it as a wireless accessible personal
file server / data storage. If the files are mp3 files,
so be it.
\_ You missed a crucial caviat. Connect to Personal network. In
effect what you are saying is your computer up in Berkeley with
YOur MP3 collection can not be used by YOU. That is bogus and
they can't do anything. That is like saying MP3 is illegal. Now
if all of a sudden 10,000 people are hitting your computer that
is different. So What might be required is documentation saying
what MP3's you have and who owns them- That is straight forward
and can simply be solved by MASSIVE HD space. Each person would
need their OWN directory- that way they can only listen to THEIR
COLLECTION which is legal-- How the person obtains their own
collection is their own business. Thus the connection device will
come with its own personal remote secure folder using some the
dirt cheap co-location space available.
The key player will only be able to access that one directory.
RIght now there is going to be a huge shift to remote storage of
MP3's. My solution fits the market exactly and tied with a
wireless portable play you can't lose. And to the best of my
knowledge it is legal as there is NO SHARING.
Of course the sharing may be implied- "how did the user amass
that 20gig collection?" but again that isn't my concern- answer
"No idea. Go ask the user?" But then that answer does protect
the users. So a better answer is- "Here is the schematic of the
network- By design we are legal and since this is a private
personal network no one- Not even me- has the rights to know what
MP3's the user has?
\_ That's what Aimster claims as well even though they
are a "sharing software." Look at what has happened
to them
\_ The RIAA will have something to say about that because you can
still distribute it across computers.
\_ That is like saying MP3 is illegal.
\_ In Taiwan they passed a law that treated (illegal)
.mp3s distrbuted through university networks like
"dangerous substances such as drugs."
\_ this is why capitalism sucks.
\_ no, this is why taiwan sucks. |
| 2001/6/12 [Consumer/Audio] UID:21487 Activity:high |
6/12 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010612/sc/minerals/medicine_gadolinium_dc_1.html "...... many centers allow patients to listen to music during the scan ...... All magnetic objects such as keys must be removed." How do they manage to play music while speakers and headphones contain magnets? \_ Here's an obvious guess. You know the tube-based earphone they use on airplanes? They're made of nothing but plastic tubes and plugs. \_ So maybe the clinics use very long tube-based earphones connected to magnetic speakers far away. \_ i've noticed that recently, the "wire" that cops have going to their ear to listen to their radio with is also a tube. cool. |
| 2001/6/9-11 [Consumer/PDA, Consumer/Audio] UID:21464 Activity:nil |
6/9 Hi, in regards to the Mini Disc player/recorder I've been waiting
to buy for ages (these are Sony models btw):
Trying to decide between the mz-r700 that I can buy a 10% discount
or pay full price for the mz-g750 with the built-in tuner...
am I better off just sticking with the 700? After all, you could
buy the tuner separately as for $35, instead of throwing an
extra $50 for the 750's tuner. I guess what it boils down to is, how
good is the 750's tuner? It can't possibly be better than the
separate $35 unit, can it?
Please email me at steviembeaumont@yahoo.com if you've had
any experiences with the G750. Thanks. |
| 2001/6/8 [Consumer/Audio] UID:21454 Activity:nil |
322432.3 Hey nobody told me where i can get an mp3 if the kirk-spock
ritual battle music! What kind of geeks are you!? |
| 2001/5/29 [Consumer/Audio] UID:21375 Activity:high |
5/30 Are Monster cables worth it?
\_ no.
\_ do you have a kickass stereo system? Where kickass == alesis
monitors, JBL, bose angle speakers, high end reel2 reel for input
\_ do you have a [consumer's idea of a] kickass stereo system?
Where kickass == alesis monitors, JBL, bose angle speakers,
high end reel2 reel for input
if so, then yeah. |
| 2001/5/15-16 [Consumer/Audio] UID:21278 Activity:high |
5/14 Any good web radio stations you listen to? I used to listen to
http://polonium.iixc.net, and sometimes radio xcf, but they're both gone now.
\ http://www.planetmp3.com --mars
\_ next semester. radio xcf baybee.
\ http://www.planetmp3.com --mars
\_ <DEAD>www.squidradio.com<DEAD> http://www.monkeyradio.net
\_ I like http://launch.com. Register. Pick an artist you really like.
Listen to that artist's fan station. Rate songs/albums/artists.
Skip songs you don't like or rate them badly. After you've rated
a good number, switch to your personal fan station that's been
created from your previous ratings. Good stuff. Professional.
\_ http://kalx.berkeley.edu/kalx.ram duh!
\_ http://www.abc.net.au/streaming/triplej.ram Aussie radio rules! -erikred
\_ http://www.kcsm.org (FM 91.1) |
| 2001/4/8-9 [Consumer/Audio] UID:20903 Activity:high |
4/8 Which is "better"? MP3 Players, or MP3/CD players. I know it
depends on many factors, but it would be nice hearing some
constructive opinions.
\_ better for what?
\_ any general use. I don't plan to be running or jogging
that much with it.
\_ the rio volt.
\_ where can I buy it? (not mail-order)
\_ I've seen plenty of them at Fry's
\_ tape deck.
\_ fucking moron.
\_ Get a minidisc unit and you'll be much happier. See:
http://gadgetsquad.com/pmd/mdvsmp3
http://www.minidisc.org |
| 2001/3/18-19 [Consumer/Audio] UID:20835 Activity:nil |
3/18 Any recommendations for a good minidisc player?
And where to buy from?
\_ By player I'm assuming you mean a portable player and not
a player/recorder deck or a portable player/recorder.
I have two Sony portable players, one that came with my deck
another one I bought a Fry's for $99. Both of them are pretty
good (ie they sound fine in my car) and are pretty sturdy. I've
dropped them several times without damaging them or the MDs
they had inside. I also carry them around in my backpack and
haven't damaged them to date (I've had them for ~ 2 yrs).
The one that came with my deck has more buttons and a bigger
display but it needs two AA batteries and it can only play for
about 8 to 16 hrs before having to replace the batteries. The
$99 one can use either the power stick or a single AA battery
and can play for about 12 to 16 hours before needing a new battery.
My brother has a Sony portable player/recorder and its okay, but
he had to get it fixed within 3 weeks of buying it. Its been about
six months since then and he says that it works pretty well for
recording CDs and lectures. Just by looking at it, I'm pretty sure
that its not as sturdy as mine and it probably couldn't survive a
fall from a desk or a backpack.
Several people at work have the cheap sharp players and they seem
to work fine, but they are pretty big compared to the Sony players
(about 2x or 3x as thick depending on the model).
I'll post model numbers tomorrow morning.
If you are looking to buy one I'd recommend checking out
http://minidisco.com, http://minidisc.org and http://cameraworld.com along with Fry's. If
you don't mind driving to Folsom, you should also check out the Sony
outlet, they usually have good deals on new and refurb players and
player/recorders.
\_ thanks, the URLs are especially useful. Anyone used MDLP?
\_ I would recommend the MZ-E90. I've had it for about 3 months and
really like it. It's the second smallest player on the market and
is really about the size of a MD itself! The only caveat is the
40sec shock doesn't work as advertised, kinda ranges from 10-30. See
reviews on MD's at http://epinions.com, pretty accurate. The MD community
has websites in which people post problems they have had with
specific units (http://minidisc.ch/problems.asp All resources
for MD can be found at: http://www.minidisc.org I got mine for
$200 from http://shopping.yahoo.com. Haven't tried MDLC, the ATRAC
compression is the most I want my ears to handle.
\_ I have a Sharp, one of the funky looking ones with the jog dial.
I primarily use it for live music recordings, and it works very
well. I chose it over the Sony because of reports of its
reliability. It *is* fairly thick compared to the other MD
players out there, notably the Sony, but I was looking only for
something good to record with, not portability. One other thing
of note, the Sharp I have doesn't have a belt band, so I've had
to have guest speakers have fairly loose pockets to hold the MD
player when they speak. -chaos |
| 2001/2/6 [Consumer/Audio] UID:20510 Activity:nil |
2/5 The WMA to mp3 conversion programs I've tried don't seem to work.
Which WMA to mp3 converter works well and is convenient for batch
operations? |
| 2001/1/27-29 [Consumer/Audio] UID:20449 Activity:high |
1/26 What are good CD MP3 players?
\_ This is the duh answer, but stay away from the cheap Chinese
imports (Kiwi and the look-alikes.) They vary widely in
quality, and overheat after ~ 1 hour.
\_ A friend of mine has an mptrip, and likes it pretty well.
\_ A friend of mine has an mptrip, and it works well for him.
\_ That's the exact same thing as the kiwi. They suck.
I could appreciate it while it was the only thing available,
but there are probably better alternatives now. I saw a
Panasonic at Target.
\_ for a home stereo system, car stereo, or something portable?
\_ asking for a portable MP3 player. I want to get a CD->cassette
adapter. 600 meg = 20 CDs which is a lot more economical than
getting a CD changer.
\_ I got the Creative Nomad Jukebox as a xmas present, it
holds 6 GB... I really love having it. It's not a perfect
product (the interface could use improvement) but it works
for me, it holds most of my favorite music, I take it
everywhere and I think it's the best thing out there now. It
doesn't play CD's, if that's what you're looking for. cost
is about ~350-400 bucks.
\_ Can anyone recommend any mp3 players under $150? |
| 2001/1/20-22 [Consumer/Audio] UID:20385 Activity:low |
1/19 for people interested in high-end home theater: bay area audio is
having a sale on jan 26/27/28. phone# = 408.255.0735. --psb
\_ I bought my Marantz SR-96 receiver from them several years ago.
Very knowledgable, patient, and courteous people.
\_ I have a thx certified home theater already but thanks for letting
us know.
\- thanks for letting us know you have a "thx certified" home
theater. --psb
\_ You have a problem with that?
\_ Why would you anonymously brag about your home
theatre on the MOTD for no reason? -tom
\_ Why would someone sign their name to uppity
postings about "high-end home theatre" for
no reason?
\_ I hate those uppity darkies, too.
\_ $4.99 stereo radio from kmart. Works great! |
| 2000/12/20 [Consumer/Audio] UID:20136 Activity:nil |
m12/19 Quick question: What software converts WMA files to mp3 and vice-versa?
MS converts mp3 to WMA, but what does it the other direction?
\_ Go to http://tucows.com and type in "WMA". |
| 2000/12/19-20 [Consumer/Audio, Consumer/TV] UID:20129 Activity:insanely high |
12/19 I'm considering buying a home theatre system next year. Is it better
to buy everything from one company (like all-sony) or should I go
for best of breed? I'm looking to spend ~$5K only, nothing fancy.
Suggestions? Thanks.
\_ For $5k, I'd definitely go best of breed. Especially when it
comes to selecting speakers. One recommendation: go with Velodyne
subwoofers.
\_ My $5k budget has to include everything including a new TV
stand all the little things. Would you still recommend
best of breed? Is there a web site that compares these things?
I used to go to http://productopia.com, but they went out of business.
\_ http://epinions.com seems to have won the battle
http://deja.com quit reviews and went back to news
\_ Does that also include a TV? Figure to spend $800-1000
for a receiver, $2000 for a TV, and the rest on speakers.
\_ What kind of TV costs $2000?!? HDTV?
My 36" WEGA was $1200 and its top of
\- i think you have to make a decision early what is
of the line.
\_ The WEGA XBR is more than $1200 and
it's not even widescreen.
that one already.
\_ Okay, with tax and instant
exchange it about $1500.
\_ WEGA is Sony's low-end non-digital
line of 30-36" TV's. Digital-capable
TV's (DVD, not HDTV) are more expensive.
\_ uh, my WEGA has component video,
s-video, coax, old style video
(single yellow connector) and
digital inputs.
If WEGA is low end to you, what's
midrange?
Don't even consider buying speakers from a company that
Tony. Feel free to email me for more info on BAA.--psb
does not specialize in speakers. If you don't need a TV,
then you can have a killer system for $5000. If you do,
then you still want to get the best your budget allows.
\- here is my decision advice: first decide what is
most important: 1. picture 2. sound [techically you have
to decide whether stereo 2 channel or home theater sound
is more important, but it sounds like you have decided
that one already. if picture, pick out TV and then
speaker set up [RL+Rear, RL+Center+Rear, RL+Center+Rear+
Sub?], then pick a pre-amp/amp set up with enough power
to drive that system. if sound, then start with pre-amp,
amp, pick appropriate speakers [note you pick the power
systems first, but spend more money on the speakers],
then remaining $ on tv. you can always get a sub later.
i strongly recommend affilating yourself with a good
audio store. a high end place will let you borrow stuff
to see howit sounds with your system and inyour house.
strong recommendation for Bay Area Audio. Guy named
Tony. Feel free to email me for more info on BAA.
http://www.goodsound.com used to give good advice. have not
visted them lately. obviously video is not their
emphasis. --psb
\_ Also decide whether this system is for movies or
music. For movies only, the audio system doesn't have
to be super high end.
\- that is why i said "stereo" or "home theater"
given that he explictly says to integrate with a
tv/home theater, i think he's answered that Q.--psb |
| 2000/12/17-18 [Consumer/Audio] UID:20106 Activity:high |
12/15 Pros and Cons of both MP3 vs. *.wma format.
\_ yes: please explain the pros and cons of the MP3 and WMA formats
\_ Ok. Mp3 is kewl. WMA is unknown to the public.
\_ as far as I know (which isn't much) :
mp3: pro: ubiquitous, a de-facto standard
con: closed, patented
wma: pro: better compression than mp3, more support from
recording industry
con: Microsoft format, closed(?), annoying copy
protection stuff, less widely used
If you're going to stray away from mp3, you probably might as
well go with Ogg Vorbis or something. <shrug>
\- is anyone familiar with PAC [perceuptual audio
coding] from bell labs? does anything use it?
ok tnx. --psb
\_ Yes, there are pros and cons to each. I'm sorry, are you asking
a question?
\_ fuck off moron
\_ is it that difficult for Berkeley students to learn how to ask
a fucking question properly? jesus, I would think that they
at least could use complete sentences.
\_ yes: please explain the pros and cons of the MP3 and WMA formats
\_ Ok. Mp3 is kewl. WMA is unknown to the public.
\_ as far as I know (which isn't much) :
mp3: pro: ubiquitous, a de-facto standard
con: closed
con: closed, patented
wma: pro: better compression than mp3, more support from
recording industry
con: Microsoft format, closed(?), annoying copy
protection stuff, less widely used
If you're going to stray away from mp3, you probably might as
well go with Ogg Vorbis or something. <shrug>
\- is anyone familiar with PAC [perceuptual audio
coding] from bell labs? does anything use it?
ok tnx. --psb |
| 2000/12/13-14 [Consumer/Audio] UID:20090 Activity:kinda low |
12/12 Any good MP3 mixers? (ways to make dance mixes, for example)
\_ At least you didn't say "How to MP3 mixers?"
\_ Get a turntable. Or use audiomulch. Stop rehashing rotten
Teenage Dance Mix USA MP3s.
\_ Yes. Several. |
| 2000/8/26-28 [Consumer/Audio] UID:19101 Activity:nil |
8/26 How do I listen to FM radio carried by cable? How do connect Music
Choice to my receiver/tuner? |
| 2000/8/24-26 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Consumer/Audio] UID:19086 Activity:high |
8/24 When will digital radio take hold in U.S., become popular,
and then replace analog radio broadcast?
\_ What's wrong with FM radio?
\_ You need a tuner card/usb antenna to listen to it.
Streaming media is much easier to use.
\_ It's easier to receive streaming media than FM in a car?
\_ I think it's slightly cheaper to receive FM through my
walkman. I just can't see myself paying a monthly
wireless internet fee just to listem to streaming media
while I go running.
\_ The kind of people who go running cannot possibly
imaging why digital radio is better than analog.
\_ Say what? What does running have to do with being
an audiophile? You're weird.
\_ I ask this because I wonder whether it would be worthwhile
to invest in a regular FM tuner if it would be useless or if
high quality music will be broadcast digitally soon.
\_ There is far too high an install base of FM receivers to
worry about them being useless soon. Look at how many
years it's taken TV to convert to digital/HD (FCC has been
pushing for almost a decade) and how little progress has
been made so far. |
| 2000/7/31 [Consumer/Audio] UID:18828 Activity:nil |
7/29 What do people recommend for transfering audio cassette tapes
to CD's using my CD burner? Is it as simple as making
my Windoze machine recognize a cassette player as a new drive
or do I need something special? I'm trying to make my
recorded interviews into CD's. Tapes are a bitch to transcribe. -f
\_ You can't mount a casette tape. You'll have to hook up
the audio out from your stereo to the audio in of your computer,
and do an audio recording to WAV (or whatever). -tom
\_ On a somewhat related note: Does anyone know of the best way
to convert RealAudio to a storable format like WAV's or MP3's?
\_ Doesn't Real Jukebox output to MP3 format? Or are you
talking about recording streaming audio? Try Total Recorder.
\_ RealAudio's big selling point to all the music distrubition
sites was the alleged impossibility of the end-user saving
(and replaying, oh horrors!) the content. They were, of course
too stupid to realize that anything they let us play, we can
store and record. Like with 'audiojacker', "total recorder",
or the fake NT audio device driver mentioned in:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Program/3555
-ERic |
| 2000/7/31-8/1 [Consumer/Audio] UID:18820 Activity:nil |
7/31 Any recommendation on portable mp3 player in terms of memory,
I/O interface, battery and compactness?
\_ mptrip / kiwi plays mp3 CDs. Quality is very low though.
http://www.easybuy2000.com
\_ kind of looking at the sony one for sale on good guys now.
but prefer rechargeable battery and cheaper... |
| 2000/6/24-25 [Consumer/Audio] UID:18545 Activity:kinda low |
6/24 Can anyone recommend a good set of headphones for listening
to music/playing games/etc.
\_ I really like my Sennheiser HD535 headphones. Very good
dynamic range. Only annoyance is sound escapes, so other
people nearby can actually hear the music from the headphones.
\_ listening to music and playing games have different requirements.
akg for sound quality.
\_ Go to a place that sells electronics, find one of those nice big
headphones from a brand you trust. Don't sweat the details.
\_ Sony MDR-7506 or Grado SR-60 for around $100 would be your best bet |
| 2000/6/13-14 [Consumer/Audio] UID:18464 Activity:kinda low |
6/14 I have a bunch of voice recordings (for foreign language
listening practice), currently in .wav format, recorded in mono
at 22Khz. I want to convert them to mp3, and am trying to
figure out what would be the right bitrate/quality to minimize
the filesizes with reasonable sound. How does one determine this?
\_ 32 kbps, 22khz, mono. go lower if you'd like. |
| 2000/5/22-24 [Consumer/Audio, Computer/HW/Drives, Consumer/TV] UID:18313 Activity:nil |
5/22 What is a decent and good deal DVD player to buy?
\_ my toshiba sd3109 isn't bad and at a good price ($250). probably
better UI with a sony, but this one works well and has all the
necessary features/hookups. -- joeking
\_ I heard this one can play HDCD, too. |
| 2000/5/16-17 [Consumer/Audio] UID:18277 Activity:nil |
5/15 for your amusement, this is a mp3 from my old band:
/csua/tmp/TheEyesores_WithOrWithoutYou.mp3
it's amusing to some, and will be gone in a couple of days (from tmp)
- read permissions fixed.
\_ who the fuck are you? -!you |
| 2000/5/5-6 [Consumer/Audio, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:18178 Activity:low |
4/34 Anyone have a recommendation for a program to extract audio from
a music cd to wav files?
\_ cdparanoia
\_ QuickTime Player |
| 2000/4/9 [Consumer/Audio] UID:17961 Activity:very high |
4/8 Damn it. Found a Sun external SCSI CD-ROM drive and hooked it
up to Ultra-1 desktop, but how do I get music to come out of
the internal speaker? Using Workman, but can only get music by
connecting headphones/external-speakers to the drive's output-jack.
Checked speaker working.
\_ you can't.
\_ You can rip the cd & play from the HD. cdparanoia is a
great ripper.
\_ you plug headphones or a speaker into the jack on the front of
the cdrom drive |
| 2000/3/8 [Consumer/Audio] UID:17714 Activity:nil |
3/7 What are good price comparison engines for, say, shopping a real doll?
\_ Did you try the CNET's http://www.shopping.com site?
\_ http://pricescan.com, http://pricewatch.com, http://shopping.com, http://askjeeves.com,
<DEAD>shop.go.com<DEAD> (in order of preference) |
| 2000/2/28-3/1 [Consumer/Audio] UID:17644 Activity:nil |
2/27 Does anyone have any experience/feedback on and mp3 players that
have the voice recording feature (built-in mike - i.e. Samsung
Yepp, Audiovox, I-Jam). I'm interested in using one for
language listening practice. Mainly seen reviews on the Rio,
which doesn't have record, was wondering how these compare...
\_ buy an md. get the aiwa am-f70. get if from http://netmarket.com
for cheap ($220). apparently, this is an excellent device
for recording lectures, and you can record the analog
signal of the mp3's onto it too, with superior results.
\_ I 2nd that. I have a F70 and a Nomad. Blank MDs are
cheap. 32MB of smart media is not. Drawback with recording
mp3 to MD is it's done at 1X. Wait for the Nomad 2 which
can d/l mp3 over USB. Another drawback with F70 is it's
not entirely skip-free. Also F80 is out now - it's even smaller
\_ Yes. |
| 2000/1/18-19 [Consumer/Audio] UID:17266 Activity:insanely high |
1/18 I'm sure this has been done before, but will someone please post a
a URL for a sight that has Avg. Salary type data for IT jobs in
the East Bay.
\_ Hmm, when you find this site, make sure they have categories for
non-native English speakers.
\_ Why? which part of the above did you NOT understand?
\_ "sight" vs. "site" -- get a clue
\_ Non-native English speakers tend to spell better
than native English speakers. I think it's because
they learn to read and write before they learn to
speak.
\_ This only applies to stupid native speakers.
\_ you know what they say about people who have a little
bit of a problem speaking English -- they know at least
one more language than you do
\_ I'd rather my employees speak/read/write correct
English than speak a few bits of many worthless
languages. And they may say that but it isn't true.
Most people are just illiterate.
\_ Except for us native-English-speakers who are bilingual.
\_ Maybe they are illiterate in several languages. --dim
\_ <DEAD>pencom.com<DEAD> has one, sorta reliable, interesting nonetheless. there
are lotsa sites, but hard to find one w/ focus on East Bay --samli |
| 2000/1/10-11 [Consumer/Audio] UID:17201 Activity:high |
1/9 I have a few mp3s that have advertising attached to the end
(or to the beginning). Is there anything that can snip off parts of
an mp3, don't need anything too complicated, just the front or end.
\_ a registered copy of the QuickTime player allows
cut 'n paste editing of any media type supported
by QuickTime (.mp3 is supported with 4.0). -jwang
\_ mp3 to wav. Wav to mp3.
\_ Definately the easiest way to go if you have wav software that
came with your sound card.
\_ I have a friend who's managed to do it with mpg123 and dd, but
it's a bit complicated.
\_ REALLY crude, but has worked for me:
1) Chop off first 1K or so of the file (presumably at least
enough to get all header info) into a separate file
2) Figure out the K/sec [should be visible from your player], and
just manually chop off respective chunks of the file from top
and bottom.
3) Reattach header.
Strangely [?] enough, this seems to work without visible side
effects.
\_ Buy the music you cheapskate.
\_ Your assumption is that this is non-free music. If it has
advertising, my assumption is it is free.
\_ If there's advertising and you chop it off, it's likely a
violation of the free agreement.
\_ True enough.
\_ So buy the music you cheapskate! This person is no
better than a software pirate doing "wAReZ!!11".
\_ There are music you can't buy in stores cuz
they were never manufactured onto CD/LP/tape.
This particular one may or may not be one of
these. Have you ever thought that the artist
earns money through the advertisements?
\_ And by removing the ads you're nothing but a
gn00 waREz!!1 ]<1d.
\_ #1 defender of capitalism in amerika, because I love raping the 3rd
world, oh look at me I'm such the capitalist, exploitation? Mercantilism? No
it's just progress.
\_ Huh? What does you stealing music have to do with the 3rd
world? Does your theft improve conditions in other
nations? --still trying to figure this one out |
| 1999/10/9-13 [Consumer/Audio] UID:16679 Activity:low |
10/8 drool, what i've always wanted in my car: http://www.empeg.com \_ get a lifE \_ Did you grow a dick by writing that? \_ What is it with your obsession with dicks? Do you feel your manhood being challenged by MOTD replies? \_ You want an mp3 geek player in your car? Oh whoa! The gurlz will surely be all over you after they see that! Oh dude! UR S0 K00l! \_ Did your dick grow a whole millimeter by writing that? I never said anything about getting gurlz from an mp3 player moron. \_ D00de oh dr00l U R s0 RAD!!! gurlZZZ11 he sed dick!! arf! arf!! U R sutch a hiteknologee stuuuuuuuud!!!! gurlz!! dick! |
| 1999/5/19-20 [Consumer/Audio, Industry/Startup] UID:15843 Activity:very high |
5/19 Does anyone else also get charged $4 by some company called
USBI for 800 service on their phone bill? WTF is up with that?
How about the $6 FCC charge for interstate calling?
\_ how about getting billed $7 for that, even when you don't
make interstate calls, and have no longdistance carrier.
\_ No, but I got charged $19.95 by a company called Entertainment
Unlimited. Maybe it was something like that.
\_ You damn sheep. Call up the phone company and complain about it!
They have a procedure to report, and challenge fraudulent
charges like this, but you have to follow them. Its you sheep
that don't do so that allow those companies to get away with it.
\_ Will you get punitive damage?
\_ Sprint slammed me and was ordered by FCC to reimburse
me $200 by FCC although the actual damange was close
to $400! Now they refuse to honor it, what can
I do? Can I sue for punitive damage since it has
cause A LOT of stress on me?
\_ Sprint is allowed to ignore the FCC so you're screwed.
No, dumbshit, keep complaining to the FCC, duh.
\_ FCC takes months to reply, might as well get a lawyer
\_ For $200? So it takes months, so what?
\_ you should see Payback.
\_ so you have -$2000 after legal fees
\_ Try your state's PUC. |
| 1999/2/12-14 [Consumer/Audio] UID:15407 Activity:nil |
2/12 Is there some kind of WindowMaker dockable MP3 player (one of those
56x56 resolution programs that looks like wmcdplay? thx. |
| 1999/2/5-6 [Consumer/Audio] UID:15365 Activity:high |
2/5 Hi, I'm looking for a decent mp3 search engine or site that does not
suck. http://mp3.lycos.com is a joke. Almost all the links are broken.
\_ Try <DEAD>scour.net<DEAD>, though it might just be as bad.
\_ I've always been partial to http://www.palavista.com
\_ You can also look at http://2look4.com
\_ I just tried all of them. They all suck. I'm very disappointed
at all this. I thought, hey, I'll download some music and play
it on my PC. But no, I can't get anything because all the sites
are all down or busy. Shit, even warez is not this hard to
get!
\_ Hey tom, aren't you going to lecture us about Fair Use?
\_ stealing music is just as reprehensible as stealing software. -tom
\_ also reprehensible is the idea that only pirated music is
available in mp3 format. there are plenty of artists out there
releasing quality, freely distributable mp3 tracks.
\_ Those are not the ones which the bozo above is having
difficulty finding. -tom
\_ Taking from the poor, giving to the rich is not. Making
huge profit through laws that protect the vested and entrenched
interest of the legit racketeers is not. Well, guess I am
talking to the wrong crowd.
\_ spoken like an SOB without a creative spark in him whose
only recourse is to steal from those who try to
provide enjoyment to others and make a living at
the same time.
\_As I wrote, I was talking to the wrong crowd.
\_ I believe you wanted a bunch of selfish,
black-wearing goths who have no respect
for anyone but themselves.
\_ MUSIC WANTS TO BE FREE.
\_ Question of legality. Lets say you bought a CD and then either a
lost it or the darn thing was stolen. Is it still okay to download
mp3 of the tracks from that cd or is this illegal? From what I can
deduce I think it is alright, but perhaps I am wrong. Just
wondering --marc
\_ Probably fair use. No case law yet, of course. -tom
\_ That is illegal. Tom is incorrect.
\_ Mp3s are used extensively by people to 'preview' music. As such,
they're very useful, particularly if what you're looking for is
only available on expensive import. If this something is also rare
and out of print, Mp3s are VERY useful. As for ripping artists off,
know your math: the publisher stands to lose the most in the music
food chain, the artist the least.
\-how many apples does it take to make apple pie is not a
math question. --psb
\_ yeah I hear Madonna lives in a 2-room shack in East
Oakland because she's so poor.
\_ she doesn't, and that's why Mp3s won't hurt her
\_ psb troll removed. |
| 1999/1/30-2/1 [Consumer/Audio] UID:15328 Activity:kinda low |
1/30 does anyone know how to tape record mp3s? I can't figure out
what to use as a connector between the headphones output on my laptop
(which has my mp3s) to the microphone input on a boombox.
HELP!!!
\_ Record it to a WAV file first. Then use MP3 encoder to convert
WAV to MP3. That's one way. - nd
WAV to MP3. That's one way. - ndi
\_ I don't think he was talking about recording from a tape to
generate an MP3. I think he was talking about recording
anything from his computer onto his boombox taperecorder in
cable.
which case all you do is use a mini audio cable to Y RCA
cable (unless the boombox also has a mini audio port. In that
case just get a mini-mini audio cable).
\_ Or mini-RCA |
| 1998/11/23-25 [Consumer/Audio, Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:15004 Activity:high |
11/23 I missed the end of the mp3 discussion and now I'm in need. Could
someone send me pointers to a reasonable mp3 player and "get music
off the cd and onto disc" program for FreeBSD. For the record, this
is for a laptop w/o cd so I can listen to cd I already have.
- seidl
\_ how the hell did you install FreeBSD on a computer without
CDROM?
\_ He has clue. Soda was installed without a CDROM. It
still does not have one.
\_ I think I've done at least a half dozen FreeBSD installs,
none of them with cdrom. The nastiest was one where I didn't
have net or floppy either ... -ERic
\_ oh yeah, well on time I installed FreeBSD on a toaster,
and it wasn't eaven plugged in!
\_ Depends... was it a one slice or two slice toaster?
\_ you can check out the motd RCS. For rippers and encoders try
http://www.mit.edu/afs/sipb/user/xiphmont/cdparanoia/index.html
http://home8.swipnet.se/~w-82625
for a mp3 player there's x11amp which looks a lot like winamp.
\_ O.k., I've got players and encoders now. But rippers
elude me. I think I've gotten at least 2 which fail
to compile.
it used to be only for linux but now available of freebsd
http://www.x11amp.bz.nu/index2.html
-jeff
\_ the question is which will work/compile under FreeBSD?
\_ I know for sure that x11amp binaries for FreeBSD are
available. I use linux myself so I wouldn't know about
the ripper and encoder. My guess would be ripper=no,
\_ I missed yermom when she was in town and now I am in need. Could
someone send me pointers to yer sister's house?
\_ http://blowme.com
encoder=yes.
\_ I use a version of cdd modified to work with ATAPI CD-ROM drives
under FreeBSD-CURRENT (should work on -STABLE now too). It
might be in the ports collection now, but if it isn't let me
know and I'll email it to you. You'll also need sox to convert
it to wav format and 8hz-mp3 to encode from wav to mp3. mpg123
is the best console-mode MP3 player. There are numerous ones for
X11, too, but I haven't found a good one yet. -brian |
| 1998/10/7-8 [Consumer/Audio] UID:14746 Activity:insanely high |
10/07 Any comments on speakers, like Yamaha, Bose, Polk, Mission and
other brands, for music ranging from classical to rock/pop?
\_ I must recommend the Polk floor-standing. You can probably get
the RT12s (2 6.5" drivers and 1" tweeter) for about $400/pr
even at the good(bad) guys.
They'll say that they're $800/pr, but it's on sale for 400
once every few weeks - and they're the best for the $$$.
\_ Which store has the lowest prices? I thought the good guys
match any price. (I am on the east coast, where there is no
"good guys.")
\_ i heard bose wave radios were pretty bad ass considering how
tiny they are. In terms of qualitly/price ratio I personally
like Aiwa speakers. They get pretty good bass and are usually
very clear.
\_ Bought B&W DM602's for $500 a couple years back. Love them.
Avoid Bose.
\- 1. for "sufficiently good speakers", they should be
good for many kinds of music, since they are not supposed
to color the music really ... for cheaper speakers, you
may want to spend you money reproducing explosion or female
volcals.
2. need to decide what kind of speakers [floor/bookshelf]
and budget before comparing speakers. The budget obviously
should be affected by the total stereo hardware budget.
3. some recommendations: a. visit http://www.goodsound.com b. get
robert harley's stereo guide book. [it is like $20 ... i dont
remember the exact title. am sure you can author search on
amazon]. c. PSB has good speakers from $200->$2000. --psb
\_ is psb the #1 PSB fan?
\_ Don't be daft. --psb #1 Fan
\_ Another "hifi" brand you should consider is NHT.
The SuperOnes have been highly recommended by goodsound,
and the SuperTwos have just come out.
\_ It's hard to recommend speakers until you tell us what your
price range is, and what size speakers you are interested in.
\_ Price range is like $400 and below, preferabbly lower.
Dunno about speaker size. BTW, what is digital dolby?
\_ I have an Aiwa ET700. It's 4 years old and it's really
small yet it still beats the crap out of newer
speakers that are three times its size. And it was much
less than $400.
\_ My entire system cost me $299 at costco.
It's a Panasonic and I've had it since 8th grade.
The sound quality is muffled and it doesn't get loud.
The windows rattle when I throw my speakers at them.
\_ Magnepan MMGs. $500. Probably the best speakers you can buy
at the price for classical music and jazz. Not recommended
for rock.
\_ I second that NHT recommendation. For considerably less
than $400, you can get the NHT Super-Zeros (should be $200-250).
They have no bass, but for frequencies above 85hz, they are
*extremely* clean and accurate. They are far superior to other
speakers in that range, like the PSB Alphas (though the alphas
have better bass). Take the $200 you save and put it in the bank
until you can add a few hundred to that. Then, with the money
you've got, go out and buy an NHT subwofer to have a first
rate sound system throughout the frequency spectrum.
\_ Which receiver/amplifier + CD player would do justice to
NHT? What did you use? What's the street price on a NHT sub
and a mail order company that carries it?
\_Klipsch makes some really nice stuff. They're not cheap though.
(I've got a pair of Klipsch Fortes that I really like.) The best
advice I can give would be to shop around--i.e. go to stores and
listen to the various speakers. What sounds good to one person
doesn't necessarily sound good to another. When you do go listening,
bring along CDs that you are familiar with--that way you're sure
that you're hearing the speakers and not the new music. -icrew
\_ I just wanted to say that I find icrew to be so hunky and
attractive (in a raw, animalistic, purely sexual kind of way)
that even if he recommended Kraco or Emerson speakers, I'd buy
_three_ pairs and use them _all the time_ in the hopes that
he'd notice and draw closer to me!!!!!! |
| 1994/4/11 [Consumer/Audio] UID:31554 Activity:nil |
4/11 I had a pair of brand new audio Speakers I wish to sell. Still
in the box. These are about 3 1/2 feet tall. mail me if interested
- jdy |
| 11/24 |