Dangerscouse

[Holly62]

Not quite a rowing question, well not directly anyway, I have about 300 plus cds, and I'd like to get them all on one device, ideally losslessly, is that a real word, with a decent set of headphones, because I'm driving my family mad playing the same fourty odd cds through my phones inadequate speaker, whilst I'm rowing.
It occurred to me that you may well have some invaluable information on the subject bearing in mind your massive collection, ohhh errr.

I have a lap top for the initial ripping, to what programme I don't know.
My dad is a musician by trade and I once bought him an apple I pod which he threw in the bin because he said it destroyed music so no apple stuff makes it past the door after that.
Not keen on media player either for similar reasons.

Budget wise I have about £150 quid, to cover the device micro sd card and headphones, a tall order I know, and my music collection is still expanding....

I'd be grateful for any of your hard won knowledge thanks in advance.
What do you think of the surfans f20? Hot or not....
I could go as high as £200.00 if you think its worth it...
Is tidal any good, I don't mind paying a modest subscription, but I'm only a poor part time nurse, so not more than a fiver a month.

Thats about it, I think.. Mission impossible or easy peasy...

[Dangerscouse]

I'd be grateful for any of your hard won knowledge thanks in advance.
What do you think of the surfans f20? Hot or not....
I could go as high as £200.00 if you think its worth it...
Is tidal any good, I don't mind paying a modest subscription, but I'm only a poor part time nurse, so not more than a fiver a month.

Thats about it, I think.. Mission impossible or easy peasy...

Haha, Surfans is a good brand, and the usual problem you've got is the interface that they use, rather than the product. It might be a bit clunky in your opinion, but it will play very well, and it's got an SD card slot that is essential.

I use the Sony NW-A105, but it's £200 on Amazon (albeit it's on sale and should be £320. Very user friendly and I'd definitely buy it again.

Headphones, if you're alright with earbuds, I can highly recommend a pair that look like they're cheap rubbish, and at (currently) £16.99 on Amazon you can't go wrong with them. Search for 'Haniz Bluetooth earphones', and they're the third ones down, and are an 'Amazon's choice' too.

I've got six pairs stacked up, just in case they break, so my wife and I have back ups. They're virtually indestructible, excellent sound quality and are ridiculously cheap. As you charge the box, rather than the earbuds battery lasts for circa 15 hours too. I've tried many big name brands over many years, and these are the best I've ever had.

I use Spotify, and that's good, as it helps to know what music is worth buying. I don't do this, but you could just set up a playlist on Spotify, or another, and stream it through that rather than a separate mp3 / WAV / Ogg Vorbis player? The quality will probably only be very high quality if you pay a premium for the monthly cost though.

If you want lossless format, you'll have to make sure that you're ripping the CDs at the correct bit rate. Personally, I'm happy with only going up to 320kbps for rowing, as it's virtually impossible to hear it too much better over the fan wheel, and the vast majority of people can't hear the difference: I'm one of them. DJs use 320kbps format for playing in big clubs, so it's definitely good enough, and I find 256kbps is equally as good.

[gvcormac]

You can copy the images raw to an external hard drive. They are about 700MB each, so 300 will be about 210 GB. Multi-TB drives are not too expensive, and will give you a pristine copy.

I haven't done this for a decade so my information on how to copy and play the images would be obsolete. You may need to use the Linux operating system (which you can boot from the USB drive) for a free solution.

[Holly62]

Thank you so much, I'm going to seem really dull now but does the Walkman come with its own software for my laptop so that when I rip my cds all I have to do is plug the Walkman in and it transfers the pre ripped cds directly in.
And... Will it give me a choice regarding the quality of the rip, 320 or less...

Love the ear buds idea I can't remember the ear plug headphones I used when I rode motorcycles but I remember getting through two pairs a year and they were noise cancellers because music was and still is very important to me.
I'd like to get back to that level of enjoyment, exchanging motorcycle for concept 2

[Dangerscouse]

Thank you so much, I'm going to seem really dull now but does the Walkman come with its own software for my laptop so that when I rip my cds all I have to do is plug the Walkman in and it transfers the pre ripped cds directly in.
And... Will it give me a choice regarding the quality of the rip, 320 or less...

Love the ear buds idea I can't remember the ear plug headphones I used when I rode motorcycles but I remember getting through two pairs a year and they were noise cancellers because music was and still is very important to me.
I'd like to get back to that level of enjoyment, exchanging motorcycle for concept 2

The Walkman is as simple as plugging it in and opening it up in your 'Documents' page on your laptop, assuming it's Windows software. Then you just drag and drop whatever you want into it, or you choose the SD Card folder. It's really easy to use, and very user friendly.

Regarding the option to rip CDs, I always use Windows Media Player, as that gives you the option for 320kbps, or less if you want it. Going forward if you buy downloads from Amazon, I think they are about 320kbps, or maybe 256kbps. They're a good file size, and are comparable to ones that I know are 320kbps.

I think you can set up a playlist on the mp3 player, but I never do that as I almost always listen to house music mixes, so it's just one single track.

I love those earbuds, and no matter how much I sweat they just keep going. I always expected to replace any headphones every 4-6 months, but these have probably lasted 18 months, and buckets of sweat.

[Holly62]

Brilliant thank you, superscouse, because of your recommendation I've ordered the Walkman, the very fact that you said that you'd buy it again got my attention.
My erg comes with an additional equipment slot under the PM5, which I have planned as my music home.

Thank you your time today, you can't beat other people's recommendations, particularly enthusiasts like your good self

Talking of house music, I have several Danny ramping cds I'm looking forward to revisiting.

[Dangerscouse]

Brilliant thank you, superscouse, because of your recommendation I've ordered the Walkman, the very fact that you said that you'd buy it again got my attention.
My erg comes with an additional equipment slot under the PM5, which I have planned as my music home.

Thank you your time today, you can't beat other people's recommendations, particularly enthusiasts like your good self

Talking of house music, I have several Danny ramping cds I'm looking forward to revisiting.

You're welcome. Sony have always made quality products and with the SD card slot, you can use massive music files too.

I think I've had mine for about four years now, and it's still going strong. I'd recommend setting the charging to 90% to prolong the life of the battery: it's an option on there somewhere.

Runny Dumpling!! I haven't heard him for years!!

[matthew92]

Walkman, good suggestion! I've been wanting to get one for my mother lately, but for non-erg-related purposes. It isn't often that I run into someone purchasing one now. I'd love to know how it goes!

[Holly62]

I've searched the loft can't find any of my banny trampling stuff, I must have had it sometime in the last decade because it's all on my phone .
Anyway came across all my prodigy albums phew, including the singles love the voodoo people single cd has some lovely mixes. Some joy division, genesis, ramones, everything underworld ever did, lost a fair bit too, as you can tell I'm having a mass rerip of everything, loads of club mixes from the 80's and 90's, three carrier bags full of stuff...
All while I wait for my new walkman, I bought a 512 gig micro to go with that and some Sony headphones, which should hang neatly on the concept 2.
All this to improve my enjoyment, thanks again

[Tsnor]

You seem all set. Some fine tuning.

Bluetooth can't carry full CD fidelity music, not enough bandwidth. To get the best results from your walkman or phone use it with good plug-in headphones. But you can't use plug in headphones rowing.

Rowing you'll use bluetooth, so you can't get CD quality. But you can get close. Manufacturers have discovered ways to encode music over bluetooth that preserve more of the music. Qualcomm® aptX™ HD is one of the best, so is Sony LDAC. Your walkman supports both. The music is only encoded this way while it is on the bluetooth connection. Both headset and player need to support the protocol you are using, aptX is easy to find (LDAC may be better). You can get waterproof sport aptX HD compliant bluetooth earbuds for $20-35 US, and they will be better than $15-50 earbuds that don't support aptX HD. Hopefully your new sony headphones will support aptX HD or LDAC.

Try the paid version of Spotify before you do all the work of ripping your CDs. It'll run on the walkman. I have tons of CDs, all perfectly ripped sitting on a plex media server, and I don't use them at all. Spotify is better. That said...

Windows media player is all the software you need to rip your CD. Launch it, OPTIONS, click RIP MUSIC tab, pick one of the lossless formats supported by your walkman. Don't rip music to anything but lossless, size is no longer an issue given SD card capacity. Think your walkman will support FLAC (lossless), WMA (lossless), but verify by ripping one CD, copying to SD card, moving to your walkman and playing before you rip too many. Clicking the "auto rip" and "auto eject" buttons mean you just put a CD in your windows PC, then windows media player will copy it and eject when done. BACKUP your music once you are done ripping it. Make a few copies. Keep your CDs.

[Holly62]

I went for the Mdr 7506 sony headphones, which has enough cable to wear and row, because as you do rightly say I can't get full quality with Bluetooth.
I have gone for lossless ripping, and I'm keeping tabs on how much space I'm using. If it gets tight I'll buy another 512 gig card, I'm no where near at the moment.
Most of my cds haven't been touched in a decade I take good care of them, but we did move about seven years ago. My biggest loss is my ministry of sound, millennium edition, which I think is in the garage, I hope, it would be a sad loss.

[Dangerscouse]

Walkman, good suggestion! I've been wanting to get one for my mother lately, but for non-erg-related purposes. It isn't often that I run into someone purchasing one now. I'd love to know how it goes!

It's obviously an mp3 player, but I love it. Easy to use, and I've always loved Sony products. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

[Dangerscouse]

I've searched the loft can't find any of my banny trampling stuff, I must have had it sometime in the last decade because it's all on my phone .
Anyway came across all my prodigy albums phew, including the singles love the voodoo people single cd has some lovely mixes. Some joy division, genesis, ramones, everything underworld ever did, lost a fair bit too, as you can tell I'm having a mass rerip of everything, loads of club mixes from the 80's and 90's, three carrier bags full of stuff...
All while I wait for my new walkman, I bought a 512 gig micro to go with that and some Sony headphones, which should hang neatly on the concept 2.
All this to improve my enjoyment, thanks again

I bet those mixes from the 80s and 90s are going to give you Proustian rushes!!

Have a listen to Chase & Status's new album, "What Came Before". It sort of reminds me of Prodigy tunes minus Keith (RIP)

[Holly62]

Everything else you mentioned, I am following to the letter, I can't wait to get it up and running.
I will go for a paid service too, havent decided which one yet though, there are draw backs to both the major players.
I am leaning towards tidal, because of the sound quality.

[Dangerscouse]

Everything else you mentioned, I am following to the letter, I can't wait to get it up and running.
I will go for a paid service too, havent decided which one yet though, there are draw backs to both the major players.
I am leaning towards tidal, because of the sound quality.

Given that sound quality is so important, go with Tidal. Their USP is their bit rate quality.