iPod and Home Stereo

[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 mark

sort of relates so not really a highjack but what do people use for artwork?

Had been using tunesleeves (freeware) for years but recently reinstalled my OS and when I went to get tunesleeves again found now has limited downloads. Liked it as it worked with iTunes, searched then dropped in the artwork automatically.

Amazon.....or just right click in itunes and get album artwork....only works if the album/artist are correct

[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....

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by Oscar

We finally installed some speakers on the back deck. I have a rack of CDs but a CD player that only loads 5 CDs at a time.

I was thinking of finally biting the bullet and getting an iPod and plugging it into the home stereo system. Then loading the iPod with all of our current CDs plus new stuff. What really hapens here is that the 5 CDs never come out of the player unless we rent a movie.

What is the sound quality of playing mp3s through the main stereo sysem? Would I be severely disapointed? If this works at home I would look at changing my music system in my truck.

FWIW I use the iPod for everything. I have a Belkin dock that runs right to my receiver (and most receivers nowadays have interfaces that control the ipod) at home, and I use a Pioneer iPod interface with my Avic Navigation in my car. No reason to ever use CD's. And I don't use MP3's below 192kbps bitrate.

[mark]

Originally Posted by Aleks

Amazon.....or just right click in itunes and get album artwork....only works if the album/artist are correct

Not sure Amazon does a search through your whole library then automatically downloads the artwork and adds it to the tag like tunesleeves did.

As for iTunes itself, thought you need a iTunes account (by providing a credit card) then doesn't it only do artwork for MP3 purchased through the iStore (not one you've might of ripped or downloaded). Haven't tried it though as not big on passing around my credit card.

[Slick Fork]

I tunes finds art for everything, whether you bought it from apple or not.

[banditpowdercoat]

Not everything. AC/DC does not get reccognized by iTunes. makes me mad, because I have every AC/DC album ever made. I belive the count is up to 27 now?

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

Not everything. AC/DC does not get reccognized by iTunes. makes me mad, because I have every AC/DC album ever made. I belive the count is up to 27 now?

That is AC/DC's choice for refusing to deal with Apple....