A Q for the audiophiles

Originally Posted by dzaborn

Has anyone ripped CD's directly to the HD using the CD drive? Do we have any idea what format the output file is, what encoder is used, and at what bitrate is used? Are the rip/encode settings available to chose via iDrive? I don't think I've heard of anyone that has used/tried this but am interested in the ease and quailty.

I also have a question about mp3's playing via the car. Many albums now have songs that run together (as one song), with no silence in between. One recent album example is Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto. I wanted to know how the car handles this when playing an mp3 album? Do you hear a tiny gap from one song to the next with mp3 playback as opposed to the seamless transition you get when playing the CD? Is that unavoidable? I also am curious how playback is in this instance if you rip the CD to the HD using the CD drive.

Anyone? TIA.

Originally Posted by dzaborn

Has anyone ripped CD's directly to the HD using the CD drive? Do we have any idea what format the output file is, what encoder is used, and at what bitrate is used? Are the rip/encode settings available to chose via iDrive? I don't think I've heard of anyone that has used/tried this but am interested in the ease and quailty.

I also have a question about mp3's playing via the car. Many albums now have songs that run together (as one song), with no silence in between. One recent album example is Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto. I wanted to know how the car handles this when playing an mp3 album? Do you hear a tiny gap from one song to the next with mp3 playback as opposed to the seamless transition you get when playing the CD? Is that unavoidable? I also am curious how playback is in this instance if you rip the CD to the HD using the CD drive.

There are no settings for ripping CDs and the bitrate/format is not described anywhere. It could not be any easier of a process.

I can only speak for playing songs from the hard drive because I have an iPod for my mp3s--it is not seamless in between tracks even if it was on the CD.

Originally Posted by shabadoo25

There are no settings for ripping CDs and the bitrate/format is not described anywhere. It could not be any easier of a process.

I can only speak for playing songs from the hard drive because I have an iPod for my mp3s--it is not seamless in between tracks even if it was on the CD.

thanks for the info shabadoo25.

Originally Posted by dzaborn

Has anyone ripped CD's directly to the HD using the CD drive? Do we have any idea what format the output file is, what encoder is used, and at what bitrate is used? Are the rip/encode settings available to chose via iDrive? I don't think I've heard of anyone that has used/tried this but am interested in the ease and quailty.

I also have a question about mp3's playing via the car. Many albums now have songs that run together (as one song), with no silence in between. One recent album example is Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto. I wanted to know how the car handles this when playing an mp3 album? Do you hear a tiny gap from one song to the next with mp3 playback as opposed to the seamless transition you get when playing the CD? Is that unavoidable? I also am curious how playback is in this instance if you rip the CD to the HD using the CD drive.

Rip by CD into the HDD is WMA at 128kbps by default.

The car rips to WMA, a lossy compressed format.

Originally Posted by Elk

The car rips to WMA, a lossy compressed format.

Working all day with wav files I just stick that sucker name in my response when I meant WMA.

Rip Function

This function rips commercially available audio CDs (marked with the Compact Disk Digital Audio logo) and converts them to compressed music files.

This function can be performed when the vehicle is stationary or while driving.

The music on the CD can also be played back during the conversion and storage process of the rip function.

The music data is converted at a speed between 3 and 12 times the playback speed. Following the conversion the music data is stored on the hard disk in WMA file format.

The data is then displayed in the form of file folders in the music collection menu. These folders are identified with the corresponding title and with a round CD icon.

After the conversion process the files will be displayed and can now be selected individually by using the music search function.

Originally Posted by Technic

Working all day with wav files I just stick that sucker name in my response when I meant WMA.

Very understandable.

I use BWF so it would be unlikely for me to make the same typo.

So seemless playback of two songs that via CD seem like one song, is really unachievable regardless of ripper/encoder or format? I'm not an iPhone/iPod guy... but when you rip via iTunes two songs that have seemless playback on the CD, during digital playback is there always a tiny gap?

Originally Posted by dzaborn

So seemless playback of two songs that via CD seem like one song, is really unachievable regardless of ripper/encoder or format? I'm not an iPhone/iPod guy... but when you rip via iTunes two songs that have seemless playback on the CD, during digital playback is there always a tiny gap?

The HDD cannot do gapless...

Originally Posted by Technic

The HDD cannot do gapless...

The Holy Grail for many network based playback systems.