 Want to dump my iPod / iTunes |
thechronic 
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I want to get rid of my ipod, I have no problems with the player itself but I'm getting more and more pissed off at iTunes, and since iTunes is the only practical way to put music on it the ipod will have to go too.
Anyone got a mp3 player they can recommend? I'm looking for good sound quality, and I mean that in an audio engineering way. Very low noise floor, low distortion headphone amp, very flat frequency response, accurate mp3 decoder, preferably with support for 16-bit WAV / AIFF / FLAC files.
I'm not interested in 'deep bass and crystal clear highs', just no bloody noise and a flat response. I've tested a couple and they are either noisy or use some stupid bass enhancement crap that fucks up the audio. I need it for setting up sound systems 
Anyone got one they are fond of?
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21-07-2008 03:24 |
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technetiumzk
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I also want to make the switch mate, ipod sucks hairy ass X]
IO suggest the Creative Zen, great, has fm radio, recording support, and video, as well as being much cheaper. I had one before i switched to ipod to look cool, but now i realize it was a bad idea. The one problem i have with making the switch is that i have all my bought tunes in M4pm which means its an Mp4 file protected by password. There are many mp4>mp3 convertors outt there, but none that support M4p>Mp3. I have protected music convertor but it doesnt work o my comp. if anyone can help than i would appreciate it.
cheers m8
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LOL 
im 14, deal with it.
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21-07-2008 07:49 |
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D2o
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21-07-2008 09:06 |
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djfreemc
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As for the creative mp3 players, I only have experience with my gf's Zen Stone, and the battery runs out about every day or so. The sound quality is OK but imo not extraordinary. I must say that if creative's driver/firmware support for they're mp3 players is as shitty as for the soundcards, I would advise not to buy them.
Personally I still stick with my early generation medion HD player (also known as the A-pod). It can be updated with the firmware of the latest versions, and uses the same decoding/audio chip as the early generations of Ipod's(PP5020D-TF Portal Player chip). So I would supose audio quality will be similar to those. I believe you can also replace the harddisk with a bigger one if you would want to do so.
more info here: http://www.razyboard.com/system/user_aldipod.html (mostly german)
I have heard many good things about the I-river players, but I have no experience with them.
Another possibility might be to try the alternative Rockbox firmware first, as it may relief some of your stress points, but you can keep the hardware quality of your I-pod.
About the copying of the protected tracks: If I'm not mistaken, you can burn them as audio cd without any problem, from there, you can re-encode them to any format you want. You can use a cd-rw for this so you don't have to waste a whole stack of empty cd's. It's a lot of work, but an effective workaround.
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The mysteries of the distorted snare...
Can't win if u don't play
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by djfreemc: 27-07-2008 21:22.
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27-07-2008 21:10 |
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Muad'Dib
Andrejnalin
Registration Date: 02-12-2003
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| quote: |
Originally posted by thechronic
I want to get rid of my ipod, I have no problems with the player itself but I'm getting more and more pissed off at iTunes, and since iTunes is the only practical way to put music on it the ipod will have to go too.
Anyone got a mp3 player they can recommend? I'm looking for good sound quality, and I mean that in an audio engineering way. Very low noise floor, low distortion headphone amp, very flat frequency response, accurate mp3 decoder, preferably with support for 16-bit WAV / AIFF / FLAC files.
I'm not interested in 'deep bass and crystal clear highs', just no bloody noise and a flat response. I've tested a couple and they are either noisy or use some stupid bass enhancement crap that fucks up the audio. I need it for setting up sound systems
Anyone got one they are fond of? |
You plan on selling that thing?
I might be interested in bying it...
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27-07-2008 21:33 |
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Muad'Dib
Andrejnalin
Registration Date: 02-12-2003
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| quote: |
Originally posted by djfreemc
About the copying of the protected tracks: If I'm not mistaken, you can burn them as audio cd without any problem, from there, you can re-encode them to any format you want. You can use a cd-rw for this so you don't have to waste a whole stack of empty cd's. It's a lot of work, but an effective workaround. |
You are dumping audio quality that way. There was a workaround for DRM protected tracks, that allows you to take the encrypted file beside the protection, but I cannot mention any links or whatever here (it is warez).
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Thinking about becoming an Image-Line/FL Studio customer? Want a 10% reduction in price? Use this affiliate link:
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-Bene Gesserit
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27-07-2008 21:38 |
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thechronic
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thanks all for the replies. I have no DRM trouble, still prefer to buy stuff on CD and then rip it myself using Exact Audio Copy and LAME with VBR so I can tweak the quality myself 
That Rockbox looks really interesting, I'm going to try to install it, it looks like it will solve my iTunes problem
I've come across a forum for mp3 player and headphone nutjobs called head-fi, and they test lots of players (complete with frequency response graphs etc
) and they seem to be fond of a player called Cowon D2. I've looked it up and it seems like a great little thing. But that Rockbox might solve my problem for free!
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28-07-2008 01:24 |
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Friscko
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28-07-2008 01:32 |
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GeeZZ
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oh my dayz!!!! i HATE itunes when you have loads of tunes itunes is impossible, do i understand that rockbox is compatable with the ipod i spose there must be alternative software that you can use instead of itunes i never really thought about that,
what software is most compatable with IPOD .
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28-07-2008 14:58 |
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GeeZZ
Cool Producer
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oh yer, n what if any combine podcasts
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28-07-2008 15:03 |
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djfreemc
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Muad'Dib
You are dumping audio quality that way. There was a workaround for DRM protected tracks, that allows you to take the encrypted file beside the protection, but I cannot mention any links or whatever here (it is warez).
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There are also some freeware programs (not warez) that say they can do this, I haven't tested them because I don't have any protected Itunes tracks.
QTFairUse
Hymn
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The mysteries of the distorted snare...
Can't win if u don't play
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28-07-2008 21:28 |
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technetiumzk
Super-Duper Rad Funky
Registration Date: 21-04-2008
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| quote: |
Originally posted by djfreemc
There are also some freeware programs (not warez) that say they can do this, I haven't tested them because I don't have any protected Itunes tracks.
QTFairUse
Hymn |
TY TY TY TTTTYYYY
i need this man, thanks a bunch!
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LOL
im 14, deal with it.
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28-07-2008 22:49 |
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thechronic
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I've installed RockBox on my iPod. I thought a firmware update would be risky and difficult, but it's very easy and fully automatic. At first sight I am VERY impressed with it, it got tons of applications with it (even a version of the classic Doom game 
) and it works beautifully as a music player, it even supports FLAC files!
I've changed iTunes for Foobar2000 which is more my kind of program, very fast and lightweight and with advanced features (eg automatically fill the mp3 tags from the filenames etc). And no background services and sneaky software installs like iTunes has.
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If you find spam on the site, please hit the button and select my name. I'll personally kick it to the murky depths of hell where it belongs!
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02-08-2008 01:12 |
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djfreemc
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So after about a month of playing around with rockbox, what do you think about it?
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The mysteries of the distorted snare...
Can't win if u don't play
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30-08-2008 12:40 |
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thechronic
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It's great, works a treat. It has crashed on some rare occasion though, but this can easily be fixed by holding the menu+select buttons for 5 seconds.
It seems like the batteries last a bit longer too, and the little niceties like the short fade-out when you stop the music makes it great. The games etc I haven't used after the first day, it's a music player after all
I'm also very pleased with Foobar2000, use it all the time now.
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If you find spam on the site, please hit the button and select my name. I'll personally kick it to the murky depths of hell where it belongs!
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31-08-2008 13:09 |
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