crazyman50000 Posted April 29, 2007 Report Share Posted April 29, 2007 Ive been a happy user of Minidisc for around 2 years now.Started on a Hi-MD minidisc recorder (MZNH-600D) and then switched to an NW-HD3 as it was end of line at the time so very cheap.At the time, it was good. 48kbps REALLY surprised me at though sounding slightly low quality, was amazing for such low bit rate. Fast forward 2 years and the SS library grew to 2,400 tracks or so.But then, I grew up, got a car (now a Polo 1.0l R-reg) and so I want something a bit more from my audio.So I bought a £350 ICE system, plugged the HD-3 into it and well...no amount of faffing can save me.I get a lot of distortion even at low volume - and it's not the setup. I can play a CD fine with no distortion, mess with the settings for how I want. Switch to the HD-3 and as I said, distortion.My next thought would usually be "auxillary input is crap" but Ive had this in a Renault 5 and it sounded ok.Which leads me to think the Polos' speakers are more sensitive (have a wider frequency response) than the Renaults.So I think, right... Back to the drawing board. Rip some tracks at 64kbps and distortion has gone.So now the dilemma : put up with the distortion or sit and reconvert from CD 2,400 tracks (a sodding DAUNTING task)But now the wheels have clicked 1 reel further : MP3 or OMA. Afterall, if Im reconverting, I only really want to do it ONCE.Should I flog the player, and simply get a 40GB MP3 player dirt cheap (Creative Zens are £130) or maybe even something else?After all, Ill be using ATRAC3+ 132kbps and for that's worth, I could drop Sony, finally be able to use audioscrobbler, not be DRM'd to hell and in the event of a HDD failure at least attempt to recover (yeah SS has a back up tool, but Id rather just click and drag than have to start from scratch every time)Yes, I know Atrac is a better codec, but if I have the space on the drive. I also know Atrac supports gapless audio.Don't get me wrong, SonicStage isn't bad software. It's just that a choice between SS and drag and drop would be nice. To simplyfy :MP3 :+ Non DRM+ Drag and drop+ No more SS+ Easily upgradeable and shareable over other devices+ Playlists without duplicating tracks+ Pick a music manager that suits YOU- Higher bitrate needed for similar quality to OMAOMA :+ Gapless+ Lower bitrate = similar higher quality- DRM- SonicstageSounds very like Ive made my mind up, but Im looking to be persuaded back to Atrac. If I could use OMA as easily as you can MP3 (in swapping, support by hardware) there'd be no contest... Id be using OMA 132. But because OMA just doesnt feel that versatile...Im inclined to sway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted April 29, 2007 Report Share Posted April 29, 2007 * Moved to appropriate sub-section Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyman50000 Posted May 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2007 (edited) Ice (in car entertainment) system :Toxic TX600N 600W AmpSony XSL121P5S 1200W PMPO SUB Clarion DXZ758RMC Head unitFront speakers are stocks but pretty good ones... Edited May 1, 2007 by crazyman50000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pata2001 Posted May 1, 2007 Report Share Posted May 1, 2007 (edited) MP3 :+ Non DRM+ Drag and drop+ No more SS+ Easily upgradeable and shareable over other devices+ Playlists without duplicating tracks+ Pick a music manager that suits YOU- Higher bitrate needed for similar quality to OMAOMA :+ Gapless+ Lower bitrate = similar higher quality- DRM- SonicstageLame MP3 is gapless. Foobar, rockbox, newer iPods all support gapless MP3. Atrac's advantage of "lower bitrate = similar/higher quality" is only true for really low bitrates, like 64kbps. Anything above 128kbps is fair game, and MP3's universal compatibility wins. Atrac on current Sonicstage (started 4.x I think) gives you an option to disable the DRM. But you're still locked in Sony hardware since nobody else is supporting Atrac. Edited May 1, 2007 by pata2001 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky191 Posted May 2, 2007 Report Share Posted May 2, 2007 Generally with better equipment your more likely to be unsatisfied with low bitrate lossy files. Personally I don't see the point of using ATRAC anymore. I use higher bitrate Lame MP3's. Sound good enough and work with everything. If I had the space I'd also keep my music in FLAC. For the time being my CD's are my lossless Archive. I only use ATRAC for recording and then convert them to WAV then MP3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmachine Posted May 2, 2007 Report Share Posted May 2, 2007 One of the beauties of mp3 and many other modern codecs is the ability to use a variable bitrate: You choose the quality and the encoder will automatically choose the minimum necessary bitrate to achieve it. Makes the compression most efficient, very little disk space is wasted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky191 Posted May 2, 2007 Report Share Posted May 2, 2007 While variable bitrate VBR is great (better SQ for the same or less disk space) I had problems with it on some equipment. My iPod Shuffle (1st Gen) and the Pioneer MP3/CD players we have in the cars didn't like VBR, so I've gone back to CBR for the time being. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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