CD or MP3 - Vinyl record Transfer

[WendyS]

We're about to start the mamouth task of transferring our large classical record collection to CD and are debating which way to go - CD or MP3. Does a CD player exist which will take both systems (rather like the current VHS & DVD player). If anybody has already undertaken this exercise, which way did you go - why? Many thanks.

[Hammer]

Loads of CD players these days will play mp3s. I would definately go with this option - you can always burn the mp3s to CD very easily if you want, but they'll take up less room to store them as mp3.

[romko]

it would be simpler (and possibly cheaper) to buy the albums on cd (or download them!). I've often seen classical cds going for less than 3 pounds...maybe look on ebay and second hand record shops.

the alternative is to hook up your turntable, via your stereo's line out, to the pc soundcard and record them track by track as wav files and/or convert them to mp3s. Bear in mind most pc soundcards have the audio fidelity of a ten pound walkman!

[vehelpfulguy]

Remember that MP3 format is a compressed format where some of the sound quality is lost.

The sound quality is sacrificed to reduce the file size.

Even if you convert the mp3 files in CD format afterwards you will never get the original sound back.

There is a little bit on these web sites about compressions and sound quality (discussed on other sites as well).

http://www.thetravelinsider.info/2002/0503.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4052123.stm

[Hammer]

Vehelpfulguy is spot on with regard to compression, but it depends how fussy you are really. Mp3s are compressed so there will be some loss of quality, but unless you�ve got a top spec hifi and are a real audiophile, you probably won�t notice the difference. It�s a bit like the difference between vinyl and cassettes � there is a difference, but not enough to bother the majority of people.

The mere fact that you�re transferring from vinyl to digital means you will lose some quality anyway, but I�ve transferred from tape to mp3 & CD and it�s more than good enough for me.

[wideboy]

I've done both but for classical music (especially through a good hifi) I would stick to CD for the quality. Get your LPs onto CD (and make nice CD labels from the LP covers if you can). Later, it is quite easy to convert the CDs to mp3 if you feel like it. You can then compare the quality of both. Have a good time doing it!

[stevie21]

mp3's are very commonly found at a bitrate (effectively a measure of the sound quality) of 128kbps - most people if they listened closely enough would probably detect a difference between this and the original (although I, personally, wouldn't care about the difference enough to worry). mp3's as well as being compressed ALSO discard some quality - it's not just compression that makes them smaller.

You could either use a higher bitrate or convert to a different digital format which doesn't lose any quality, e.g. flac, ape, shn.
These are lossless AND compressed whereas mp3 is lossy and compressed. mp3 would be about 4 to 6 times smaller (file size) than any lossless format, depending on the mp3 quality.

Unless you're listening through incredibly high quality gear (I mean the hifi equipment, not *that* type of "gear" - it's classical rather than Pink Floyd, right?), I'd just use mp3 at a high bitrate, say 320kbps.

These days you can get hifis and CD players which will play both standard audio CDs and also CDs which have hundreds of mp3 files saved on them. DVD players do this too. If space is at a premium (you want to fits lots of albums onto one CD) then do the latter, if not you could just have one audio CD for each LP (in which case convert onto your PC as wav and then create audio CDs from the wav files).

Finally, romko is spot on with the "audio fidelity" comment.