Advice for a n00b (me)

[NoMo]

I just want to run my situation by y'all:

Current Situation
=============
1. 500+ CD collection
2. No portable mp3 player and am ignorant about it
3. No car stereo that supports MP3 inherently
4. No home stereo that supports MP3 inherently
5. I own a Macbook(audio production) AND a pc(gaming)

Preferences
=========
1. Can't stand the idea of "loss" for data compression - I believe I can hear the difference
2. Primarily listen to music in my vehicle but want to be able to listen at home or on computer
3. Want to be able to have my whole collection on one device
4. Only want to rip CD's once regardless what format/tech comes down the pipe

My plan for a solution
================
1. RIP cd's to .wav lossless format (I have already done this but you can tell me if that was a bad idea)
2. Store these on an external hard drive
3. Use iTunes to create a copy of my collection that will be converted to mp3?
4. Buy an ipod large enough to hold my entire library (mp3 format i guess - however i would prefer lossless)
5. Buy a new car stereo that supports ipod direct

Yes I am a dork. Any suggestions/comments/criticizims would be appreciated. I just want to get this right so I can enjoy my collection to the max.

Thank you!

NoMo

[LtData]

Re: Advice for a n00b (me)

1. If your going to go with an iPod as mention in #4, don't go with WAV but go with ALAC or Apple Lossless. Same quality but less space used.
2. They have a 160GB iPod Classic, so hopefully that wll be big enough for ALAC, if not do 320kbps m4a, which is higher quality than mp3.

[jfkaess]

Re: Advice for a n00b (me)

I just finished ripping all of my 500+ Cd's and 200+ vinyl albums. I ripped them to apple lossless for archival purposes and saved them all burned onto DVD's.

I then converted everything to mp3's using Lame on "extreme" setting and put them all into my itunes library for my 60 gig iPod. I have about 1 gig left on my iPod. If I had a bigger iPod or if I was going to eclusively use the computer and stereo for playback i would leave them all in Apple Lossless and load them into itunes as that file format.

[myrkat]

Re: Advice for a n00b (me)

I would caution against putting everything on one player - it usually isn't as convenient to navigate around like a big library on a computer would be.

Your mileage may vary.

I would also suggest that you get another Hard Drive for the PC (or if there's already room there or on the macbook) and keep a duplicate/backup of your library. That's a LOT of work invested to just have on 1 drive.

Also, burning to DVDs for archives as someone suggested isn't bad, either.

If you go down the duplicating/synching route with another HD, I'd recommend getting "Beyond Compare" (current version is 3.x) to quickly synch both libraries if/when you add or edit/convert.

-myrkat

[LtData]

Re: Advice for a n00b (me)

Or, to sync multiple copies of the same library, you can use the free Microsoft SyncToy, as I do.

[Porcus]

Re: Advice for a n00b (me)

1. RIP cd's to .wav lossless format (I have already done this but you can tell me if that was a bad idea)

The .wav format sucks at tags, and the tagging introduced by certain software is -- AFAIK -- non-compliant and may not work elsewhere.

I use FLAC. Lossless, open, good tagging capabilities, optimized for decoding speed, and saves me 1/3 of the HD space. And yes you can convert.