Putting all our CDs onto IPod or something similar

[MaggieW]

I'm a complete novice in this department but want to find out is it possible to get an ipod or something similar and load all our cds onto it?

If so, what sort of ipod should I get (have about 60 cds) and how do I put them on there? I have a cupboard full of CDs and I desperately want to use the space for something else so thought this might be a solution.

I already have a Denon 3 CD player (sounds so old-fashioned) but can I hook the ipod up to that or do I need a ipod docking station thingy and finally, can that be hooked up to our existing speakers? TIA.

We transferred all our CD's onto our computer a couple of years ago - it took a couple of weeks, but then we had lots of CD's. We all have i-pods and use i-tunes to manage our music, so you download i-tunes (free) and the upload your cd's onto your computer. It's very easy to do and 60 cd's won't take too long (we had hundreds). It's worthwhile backing up your computer onto an external hard drive, so if anything happens to your computer you don't lose the lot.

We can either listen to the music via the computer (we have great speakers) or your i-pod. There are a variety of speakers and docking stations you can get for the i-pod depending on quality of sound. We have a Bose docking station that was about £100 and the sound is great. We also have a lead that goes from your i-pod into the car stereo so we're not dependant on finding a radio station we like on journeys.

Can you tell we're into our music here?

60 cds isn't that many so you'll easily fit them onto an iPod. The smallest "proper" iPod the Nano has 8GB of memory and that can hold around about 2000 songs. So guessing at maybe 10 tracks an album that's 200 CDs.

However......

The "standard" way of copying a CD onto an iPod makes a copy that isn't as good as what's on the CD. It's close and through a normal pair of headphones you probably won't be able to tell.

However if you plug the iPod into a decent docking station or stereo then you'll probably be able to hear that it doesn't sound as good as it does when a CD is played.

So you have to turn up the "quality" of the copy, which takes up more space, so you probably wouldn't manage the full 2000 songs on an 8GB nano.

As a rough guide I do copy my music at a pretty high quality and my iPod's got nearly 7000 songs on it and is using about 55GB of space.

So I've got about 3.5 times as much music but it takes up nearly 7 times as much space. So each track takes up about twice as much space, so at a decent quality an 8GB nano might only hold 1000 songs.

A real audiophile would probably still turn their nose up at the quality I record at and would fit even less tracks on their iPod.

However to me, through a decent sound dock, it sounds great.

So basically do give some thought as to what size of iPod you get and a rough guide might be to halve the number of tracks that a shop tells you will fit on it.

Aside from a Dock if your stereo has the right inputs (ideally two "aux" jacks in the back) you can get a cable and plug your iPod right in to it. An example is this:
www.amazon.co.uk/Xxion-Value-Stereo-Cable-Connect/dp/B001QOX1SM

Any other advice?

Well the normal way for an iPod to work is to copy everything in your iTunes library from your computer.

So if you add something it's automatically copied to the iPod and if you delete something it's automatically deleted from it.

With lots of music that means that you have to keep all of your CDs on your computer which can take up a lot of space.

It's better to put bigger iPods into a "manual" mode which means you have to copy the music to your iPod, which is just like dragging a file around, but also means than when done you can delete it from your computer and get your space back.

So just keep that in the back of your mind and ask again later if you need any help on that.

a few points to consider. I am a confirmed iPod nut but consider to which format you convert you CDs to. there are various formats (AAC, WMV, MP3 to name the most popular) but not all are compatible with all portable players. MP3 is the most compatible (normally usable with all machines but not always as space efficent - i.e. to sound as good the file has to be bigger, therefore less per device), AAc normally only usable on Apple iPods/iPhone... WMV is a windows format that is supported by some players but mot iPods.
For iTunes you need to go to preferences and change the default format to save to MP3.

To convert them to a portable player, you use your computer CD drive as the source (not the CD Player), the CDs are then converted and stored on the local machine (or as someone said on an external drive - note in iTunes, this requires you to change the default location in preferences!). the files are then copied from the computer to the player normally via a usb cable. One thing to bear in mind is that you will then store each track twice (once on the computer and once on the player) - you will need enough space on the computer to store all the tracks.

I would estimate for 60 CDs (based on my collection) 3 - 4 Gb of space would be required - you can use that as a basis for you purchasing decision.

"AAc normally only usable on Apple iPods/iPhone"

MP3 is certainly the most portable format of music but AAC is not Apple specific and many devices do play music in that format. Sony, Nokia, the Wii and even Microsoft's Zune support AAC.

"For iTunes you need to go to preferences and change the default format to save to MP3."

I believe that the default iTunes on a PC is to make MP3 files, on a Mac I believe that it's to make AAC files.

AAC is better than MP3, in terms of sound and storage space, though to be honest I can't really hear it. However I do use AAC to make the most of my disk space.

AAC is really what might have been named MP4, it is kind of the "successor" to MP3.

"WMV is a windows format that is supported by some players but mot iPods."

WMV for video and WMA for audio are very much Microsoft formats and I wouldn't ever touch them with a bargepole, they are not very well supported.

"One thing to bear in mind is that you will then store each track twice (once on the computer and once on the player) - you will need enough space on the computer to store all the tracks."

No you don't, as said above put the iPod into manual mode and you don't need to worry about disk space on your computer.

For example my routine is....

1. Copy my CD into iTunes and make sure it's got the album artwork.
2. Connect my iPod and drag the album from my iTunes libary onto the iPod in iTunes.
3. Disconnect the iPod
4. Delete the album from iTunes.

The first time you connect a new iPod to iTunes it asks you if you want to automatically manage your music. You can also change that option later.

We have a Sonos system. You can listen to music all over the house with this, or different music in different rooms if you like. It works well for us because dp and I have lots of music but no iPods as we don't really listen to music 'on the move'.

www.sonos.com/

and you can use your existing speakers/amps with this too.

ONly 1 thing to add. Last year I gave dh a Sony MP4 player for Christmas and he spent ages copying all his CDs onto the PC so he could transfer them to teh player. However, he never really liked the Sony so this year I bought him an Ipod Touch. Went to transfer the music and because he had used (I think) windows media player to copy teh CDs originally, he could not transfer the music to teh Ipod. He had to re-copy all the CDS (and he has laods!) to the PC using ITunes and then transfer them that way!
Also - there does seem to be a little bug with teh Touch where occasionally for no erason it will remove all your music from teh player so you have to re-sync it. Luckily he still had all his music in Itunes when this happened..

"Went to transfer the music and because he had used (I think) windows media player to copy teh CDs originally, he could not transfer the music to teh Ipod. He had to re-copy all the CDS (and he has laods!) to the PC using ITunes and then transfer them that way!"

Depending on what music format was used to originally copy the CDs then it could have been possible to copy the music into iTunes and from there copy it onto the iPod.

However if Windows Media Player was used then WMA might well have been the format of the music, and as said above WMA really isn't very portable and you can't load it into iTunes and so can't get it onto an iPod.

I've never lost the music on my Touch, though that said I always manually manage my music rather than use the auto-sync so perhaps I've just avoided the problem...

Thanks for all so far - where do I find Itunes on my laptop, and how do I "manage" the quality, BadgerPaws, when I transfer as would like to achieve best quality possible.

I presume that you have a Windows based PC?

You really only need iTunes if you are going to get an iPod or if you particularly want to buy tunes from the iTunes store.

You can download it from here:
www.apple.com/itunes/download/

iTunes can actually copy CDs perfectly. However to be honest you'll probably not notice the difference and they take up more space that way.

If you do download iTunes then come back with any more questions about exactly what settings you can tweak.

While I'm not an iPod user (and have no wish to use iTunes), for greatest flexibility I'd suggest making MP3 copies of CDs (this is aimed at anyone reading, not just the OP). Many CD players these days will also play "PC CDs" (ie ones where you have saved MP3s or music in other formats).

The sound quality issue is a big one for audio buffs, and "lossless" (flac, or AAC) might be best if you do notice a difference (and for MummyPig that probably would be an issue - I've played with Sonos at a friend's hi-fi shop here in N Wales and loved the facilities, just don't have a spare grand or two for the whole house to be kitted out right now!)

There have been a couple of devices aimed at people wanting to copy from CD to hard-drive and someone mentioned the Brennan but holding hundreds of CDs this is overkill for the OP. Another firm (Ripstation) has brought out the "Music m8" (yuk name!) but you can download their Ripstation Micro(home user) software for free.

Ripstation Micro will "rip" a CD or series of CDs, finding the artwork online, and making one or two copies of the audio (as both lossless and some other format, as decided by the user). I ripped a 70 minute CD in under 30 minutes, creating MP3 @ 320 kbps {ie high quality) copies of the tracks along with lossless copies.

This is ideal for someone with a Sonos system, as the lossless can stay on a PC drive (1 or 2 TB disk, for example) and the MP3s can be copied to pretty much any portable player, into iTunes or other proprietary systems.

I would recommend (for larger CD collections) keeping an external drive to hold copies of the MP3s (when copied onto the drive as a backup, put it away on a shelf until you've added some more CDs, so any problems which might affect the PC won't touch the backup copy!).

Have just checked the options and Ripstation Micro offers MP3s sampled at the following bitrates: 64k, 128k, 192k, 224k,256k, 320k, or VBR (variable, though some players get confused about the playing time of the music if you use VBR). WAV, WMA and OGG formats are also available, though I tend to use FLAC or MP3.