Posted by NRen2k5 on 04/28/07 16:00

jeff wrote:
> Thanks for the response. My minidisc player is MZ-N505 Type R and
> the bit rate for recording using Simple Burner is LP2, allowing me to
> copy about 3-4 CDs onto a minidisc. Sounds fine.
>
> I've not copied MP3 files onto minidisc, I'm just not interested,
> except possibly for rare archival type recordings, etc. I have a
> large CD collection and my interest is to simply purchase a portable
> audio system where I can copy about 100 CDs onto either a hard drive
> or flash drive recorder and get the best possible, least compressed
> sound.

Peculiar, because LP2 is actually fairly heavily compressed. About the
same as 128kbps MP3.

> Some friends of mine, and my daughter, have Ipods, and they're into
> the standard approach of downloading files and to me it just doesn't
> sound as good as straight CDs or CDs copied to minidisc.

I wonder where they've been downloading files from, because they
shouldn't really be any worse than your MiniDisc.

> It's acceptable but it's a far cry to what the actual recordings
> sound like. It's like comparing a boom box to a real audio system,
> good headphones or not.
>
> I'd love to buy an MP3 recorder type unit but I don't want to do it
> blindly and I'm interested in specific recommendations with sound
> quality as the ultimate criteria.

Well, I'd actually recommend getting an iPod. The current generation of
iPods sounds good. Just use a good set of headphones, or put cushions on
the earbuds that come with it.

You'll want to use the best possible method of copying your CDs to MP3s.
iTunes isn't so great in this regard. Instead I recommend Exact Audio
Copy, along with the AccurateRip and LAME plugins.

Sound quality being the ultimate criteria, the MP3 setting I'd recommend
is VBR around 192kbps (in LAME, this is the command -V2). To store 100
CDs at this quality, you'll need a 10GB MP3 player or larger.

Okay, so this all isn't so simple. But the results are worth the work.

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