[geeks] home mp3 system suggestions

[s at avoidant.org]

Bill Bradford wrote:

> I'm more concerned with quality than saving a few bucks here and there.
> I don't want to overkill, but I do want to spend an extra $50 if it gives
> me noticeable more quality on the audio.


> So, thoughts?  I think there's only one way to do this "right".  This guy's
> a Windows person with very limited Mac experience, but if I set this up right,
> it could be as "hands off" as possible.


Thoughts:

I need a beer.

Um, I've noticed lately that there's a *noticeable* difference in
quality between wavs and mp3s. I just ripped a bunch of cds to wavs the
other night, and while it takes up a LOT more space, the quality is well
worth it. Also, if he plans to convert back to wav and burn to cd, the
loss will be especially noticeable on the burned cds.

It'll be more than $50, but I'd suggest a massive IDE raid for the
backend. I understand that the stuff he grabs off napster et al will be
mp3s, but if he's ripping his own (and others, I assume)  it rocks to
store them uncompressed, it just costs space. But IDE disks are cheap
now. You could do a terabyte for under a grand. Of course that'll only
hold an average of 1500 uncompressed albums, but by the time he fills
it, the next terabyte will cost half that.

I'm serious. I've been wondering what I can do to get that kind of
storage after experiencing the joy that is uncompressed audio on demand
the past few days.


---sambo