Ditching My CDs, Getting New Audio Equipment

[Bass Aficionado]

I am about to begin the process of ditching about 1000 CDs and will be replacing my audio equipment for the first time in about ten or twelve years. Clearly a lot has changed in that time.

I have some apprehension and a real knowledge deficit. A few random thoughts, as I toss this topic off for advice.

- Most of my listening is while I am playing along with the "stereo" or when entertaining. This means loud and filling the room.

- I've formed an opinion that mp3 files, even those acquired legally sound like crap, especially with the volume up. Do they really degrade the sound that bad? Do they introduce shrill noise for the hell of it? Or can you just not crank it?

- Since it looks like we still have a standards issue being fought over proprietary versus open file types, who would you align with? I've used Napster and iTunes and have preferred Napster, as it appears I can listen to a lot for the monthly fee without having to buy the tracks.

- Where would you start with hardware? I am especially interested in what equipment I ought to start with in my main practice / entertaining room.

- What portions of it can be done wireless? I hate wires. You might even call it a phobia.

I'm gonna be honest, I probably don't want to develop any real expertise in this. I'm just no that guy. But I would like some guidance from people who have scaled this cliff.

[BetterBottomEnd]

MP3's ripped at a high bit rate don't sound like crap. Sadly I've had to convert my collection down to 128Kbs to fit it all on my iPod but at 256Kbs theres not much difference from CD quality. If you're going to have a dedicated media computer and you're not going to be putting any of it onto and MP3 player maybe even consider FLAC or .wav format. As far as music stores if you want to buy music I like iTunes purely for how big their selection is but if you like to stream stuff and are always playing it off your computer I would suggest something like Rhapsody or Napster.

As for actual gear if you go the iTunes way Apple's new iTV is a really cool wireless way to get all your music and even movies and pictures to you TV and stereo wirelessly thats relatively inexpensive compared to other similar products on the market.

[lemur821]

I wouldn't ditch the CDs if I were you. Pack them into boxes and put them in storage if you want. You could even take the CDs and paper bits out of the jewel cases and throw out the cases to save space, but I wouldn't want to be sitting around ten or fifteen years later wishing I had something that I had thrown out. My parents did that with their record collection and my mind is still boggling over it.

Mp3s are fine, although I usually rip my music to Ogg Vorbis. Mostly they act like a highpass filter, although there's presumably some extra distortion or something added too. If you rip at 192kbps or higher they will sound pretty much like the original. If I'm ripping something that I borrowed I use FLAC, just so I've got a perfect copy that I can encode to whatever I need. I can always re-rip CDs I own.

I would stay far away from iTMS. Besides getting shafted by DRM, their downloads are only 128kbps: i.e. not worth a tenth of their price. Apparently EMI stuff is on there at a higher rate. I don't know what other services offer.

[velvetkevorkian]

+1 to not throwing the CDs away. Hard drives have a finite lifespan, if yours dies your entire music collection is pretty well useless.

[James Hart]

I've got nearly 1200 CDs that I started ripping to 320bit MAX Variable Bit Rate MP3s back in 1999/2000. Today: I listen to all my music with my sound card (m-audio delta 44) plugged into a 70WPC mid 70s Sony receiver... plugged into a M&K sub and some bookself speakers. Cranked or Quiet, the system sounds killer.

All my CDs are in big rubbermaid bins in a spare closet