iPod and Home Stereo

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by mark

Know a few people who detest iTunes and use Media Monkey for everything.
.

Thanks for the tip on Media Monkey. I will give that a test drive.

Obvious next question: Which iPod/mp3 players are people using?

[Pescador]

There are now mp3 files encoded for 5.1.
From Wired http://www.wired.com/entertainment/m.../2006/02/70230
If you have the storage room you can use one of the lossless codecs like mp4 SLS or FLAC for an identical copy of the original audio after decompression.
The newer receivers support lossless formats for audio.

[mike31154]

Cool, not too long and mp3 files will be obsolete as well.....

[macky]

As far as mp3 players go... I own 2 ipods, a Dell mp3 player and an Archos mp3 player. I personally hate itunes (required to put music on an ipod) and love the fact that with the 2 players I can just drag and drop file onto it. But, despite that con (itunes) the ipods sound way better that the other 2 players, even with the same exact files. I would recommend the ipod.

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by macky

As far as mp3 players go... I own 2 ipods, a Dell mp3 player and an Archos mp3 player. I personally hate itunes (required to put music on an ipod) and love the fact that with the 2 players I can just drag and drop file onto it. But, despite that con (itunes) the ipods sound way better that the other 2 players, even with the same exact files. I would recommend the ipod.

What do think is the reason for different sound quality?

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by macky

I personally hate itunes (required to put music on an ipod) and love the fact that with the 2 players I can just drag and drop file onto it.

So an iPod will not let me rip from a current store bought CD and drop the file into the iPod? Only music bought from iTunes will play on an iPod???

[banditpowdercoat]

Originally Posted by Oscar

So an iPod will not let me rip from a current store bought CD and drop the file into the iPod? Only music bought from iTunes will play on an iPod???

No, you can rip a store bought cd. I have never downloaded a song from Itunes. Just rip through Media player, then install song on Itunes.

One feature I like of Itunes is the Genius feature. Once you regester online(Takes a CC, Which I hate) But then pick any song in your library, click genius and it makes a playlist up to 100 songs with music similar to the one you selected. Great fro making playlists.

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by macky

As far as mp3 players go... I own 2 ipods, a Dell mp3 player and an Archos mp3 player. I personally hate itunes (required to put music on an ipod) and love the fact that with the 2 players I can just drag and drop file onto it. But, despite that con (itunes) the ipods sound way better that the other 2 players, even with the same exact files. I would recommend the ipod.

Itunes is not a requirement unless you want to be able to update your ipod's firmware.....There are a number of 3rd party apps that will interface the ipod without any problems. One was mentioned earlier in the thread....