MP3

[tearinghair]

Just putting my head out of the Ark....I'm still listening to music on a CD player. I guess it would make sense to go to MP3, but could someone explain in simple terms how this works? I've looked at Wikipedia articles and similar, but they are too technical for me. It's mostly classical music (+ some 50s and 60s pop thrown in), so the quality would need to be good.

[snags]

Nothing wrong with CDs. Do you want to listen to music when out and about via an .mp3 player?

[deggers316]

mp3 is not suitable for classical !
for pop etc its ok, stick with your cds or better still for top class sound vinyl wins every time,
of course all this mentioned depends on the quality of your amp / speakers / headphones

[VHG]

In simple terms.

mp3 is a format for digital audio (music or speech etc) to allow them to be used on computers, mp3 players etc.

To make the files small enough to fit on a small mp3 player they are COMPRESSED. This compression, while making the files smaller, also reduces the sound quality (worse than an audio CD).

So as someone said, not the best for classical music.

However there are different quality levels of mp3, but the better the quality the larger the file.

To "make" an mp3 you can put an ordinairy audio CD in your computer then use a software program to "rip" the music off the CD and put it on your computer as mp3 files.

Windows Media Player (comes with Windows) can be used to "rip" music.

By having the audio CD AND the music in mp3 files you have the best of both worlds. You can listen to the audio CD on your normal hi-fi, or listen to the mp3 files on your computer or mp3 player.

[VHG]

One option that you may want to consider is to listen to Spotify while on your computer.

Spotify is an online music station that has over 7 million tracks (and growing). You can register and listen for free (with some adverts) or pay money and get no adverts.

They have a whole range of music from pop, rock, classical, jazz, C&W, opera, in fact anything you want.

They have a fully searchable database so you can search for an artist or album and listen to the music straight away.

I like 1960s music and found loads of obscure 1960s albums that I had not heard for decades.

More here:

http://www.spotify.com/uk/new-user/

[VHG]

Just notices Spotify now says it has 10 million tracks.

[tearinghair]

Thank you all very much for replies and explanations. I usually listen on my (fairly decent) equipment at home, but like to take some with me when I'm away; currently using a portable CD player with good headphones, but it's a bit bulky (and delicate)for a flight bag. But if an MP3 player reduces the quality, I'll stick with the CDs. Thanks again.

[tearinghair]

...and I think I'll try VHG's links for the retro pop! Are you a teacher, VHG? - a lovely clear explanation.

[hc4361]

Maybe this is a solution for you. The sound quality will naturally be enhanced if you use good headphones.
http://www.play.com/E...t:5749215|prd:5749215

[VHG]

>>>>Are you a teacher, VHG? - a lovely clear explanation.

I used to work in computers and did teach many technical classes, though teaching was not my full time job.

I also used to write a lot of technical documents to explain the software products I worked with.

[VHG]

Note you can also get digital files in FLAC format. This is NOT compressed and is top notch quality. The files are larger of course.

Note sure if mp3 players can play FLAC files or not.

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

btw I said mp3 files were compressed, but as I said mp3 files can also vary in quality so with a better quality mp3 file you may not notice much difference.

mp3 file quality is measured in kbps (kilobits per second) with music often being 128 kbps.

But you can get an mp3 that is 320 kbps so much better quality.

You could rip your own audo CDs as 320kbps to make mp3 files.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Audio_quality

[tearinghair]

thanks again. I'll try the links and see what works best for me.

[wesedward]

One other thing you can try, if you decide to go with that Spotify service and listen to mp3 streaming music from them is to save Spotify to mp3 tracks, if you wanna take that music with you on some portable devices.

There are some Spotify recorder programs for the job, I for one use an Audials piece of software that works pretty decent as a Spotify recorder:

http://audials.com/en...t_radios/spotify.html

You can use this Spotify recorder to capture, record and convert Spotify streaming music to mp3 tracks in good quality; then you can just transfer the Spotify mp3s to an mp3 player if you wanna buy one or write to cds and use them on the cd player you say you currently have.

Think it's a pretty good way to get some new music with the Spotify Recorder, just as recording radio to cassettes in the ole days as long as you remember keep the recorded mp3 music for your use only.

Hope I was also helpful.