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I Hate to Admit It

If I live to be 100, I expect to still be cleaning vinyl records in 2064. Or perhaps tinkering with my turn of the century Sony SCD-1 and the quaint discs that were sold with it.

But it seems that computer based audio would be useful for archiving things and enable me to throw away hundreds of CDs that I rarely, if ever, want to listen to and basically just clutter up my cabinets.

I am sure there are some threads on this subject, but I don't even know where to search:

My only experience is using a Rio MP3 player and the supplied software. The MP3 sound is pretty bad and recordings often skip.

Could someone therefore explain the quickest, easiest way to get good sounding (uncompressed?) music on a hard drive? I can buy a new computer if necessary.

Is there a consensus in the audiophile community on software/hardware to use or not to use? Is there a program with an amazing interface for a computer based jukebox?

Also, for burning CDs, is it true that high fidelity compilations can be easily made? Again, do I need any special hardware or software?

(At the moment, I have a Sony VAIO laptop about 2 years old and a CD burner that I purchased at about the same time.)

Thank you.
cwlondon

Showing 2 responses by cwlondon

cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
Thank you everyone.

I would love to hear more about the SOTA in hard drive based formats. Why is vinyl to digital so tedious? And what about the pro recording devices for home use?

Also, it seems that the SB Extigy requires and AC adapter. Are there any mobile solutions to this?

It would be great to use my Grado external headphone amplifier (40 hours from 2 9V batteries?) with an ibook, or my Sony notebook on airplanes. But I want to bypass the cheesey internal DAC and amp. Any solutions for this?

Thanks.
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
Thank you everyone, I have found this thread very useful and expect to convert for jukebox and background applications.

Further to Ipods, I have two questions:

1) Can I buy an ipod for windows software and later convert to the Apple interface if I decide to buy a Mac? (I would rather not spend the money on a Mac, but everyone says it works much better.)

2) Am I being too anally retentive audiophilish in my desire to bypass the internal amplifier and volume controls in computer and Ipod applications?

It seems that my external Grado headphone amp should sound much better, but it has been a pain to find line level outputs on mobile devices.

The computer salesmen look at me like I have 5 heads every time I ask for a line level output or for a battery powered, high quality external DAC. Maybe the internal electronics on the Ipod arent so bad?

Any other advice on audiophile quality, mobile audio, that can run on batteries for long flights would be greatly appreciated.
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