MP3, How important is it to have on a CD player? (1 Viewer)

[Mike H Wizard]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for a new CD Player and I have no idea what to get or if MP3 playing capabilities is important to have...

I need help deciding what to get, my budget for a CD Player is under $150.00 (the lower price, the better) does anyone have any recommendations?

The main things I know I want is: CDR playing abilities, a 5 disc carousel and some sort of digital coax or optical out of the CD Player...

Has anyone ever tried the RCA CD Players?

I also need to know how important is it to have MP3 playing capabilities on a CD player?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated...

Thank you in advance,

Mike

 

[Colin-H]

The obvious answer to that question is that mp3 playing capability is only important if you want to play burned CDs full of mp3 files. If you just want to use burned/copied audio CDs, the CDR capability alone is fine. If you want to play burned CD-ROMs with mp3 files on them, you need the mp3 capabilities.

 

[John Garcia]

Might want to ask in the Audio/Video sources forum.
IMO, it isn't important at all if you don't have a burner in your computer and routinely burn MP3s to CD.
I was very happy with my ~10yr old Sony, so today's version is probably a good bet, and it is only $99 at Crutchfield

 

[Jed M]

Mike, MP3 is a way of having over a hundred songs on each cd. It is not essential but it is a nice perk if you are into MP3's at all. I may be off on this one, but since you have a computer (obviously) and it sounds like you don't really use MP3 then I don't think it is that important for you. On the other hand, if you do have a lot of songs downloaded on MP3 it may come in handy. For instance, my dvd player has that capability and every once in a while when my friends and I are watching sports or playing xbox its nice just to throw in an MP3 disc and hit shuffle. Its kind of like having a jukebox on one cd.

Is it important? Only for the reasons mentioned above. Will it improve the quality of the CD player? No, not that I know of.

 

[Bill Bradstreet]

Obviously it depends on your playing preference. I chose to connect my computer to my system to have access to what is approaching 4,000, 160kbps-encoded songs. I think I'm up to 35meg at this point. I spent more money that $150, but still felt it was something to mention. While it would be nice to throw in an MP3 disk in my CD player, it would mean I'd have to plug my CD player in again. ;-) Seriously, my CD player, since I got the Audiotron has been idle. We leave it off, but I think it is plugged in.

Using the MP3 function in a CD player is a great way to have an instant jukebox though.

 

[Mike Veroukis]

I wouldn't pay extra money for the mp3 decoder in a CD player as that may require a seperate chip and thus raise the price. DVD players however already have high-end chips built in and can more easily and cost effectivly perform the mp3 decoding. So basically if you're interested in playing mp3's and wish to save cash I'd get a regular CD player and buy DVD player that has mp3 capability. To save more cash, buy a DVD carousel with mp3 capability and you'll have an all in one solution. This might not be the best for quality but will save you cash and some space in hte long run.

- Mike

 

[Heath_R]

Some DVD players work as great CD transports, the sound is not affected till you hit the DAC's in the processor.

 

[Mike H Wizard]

As I mentioned previously the main things that I want in a CD Player are: CDR playing abilities, a 5 disc carousel and some sort of digital coax or optical out of the CD Player...

What else do you look for in CD Player, what should I look for?

What other brands do you recommend, what brands do you use?

I appreciate all of your continued help...

Mike

 

[KeithH]

MP3 playback isn't important to me because I don't appeciate the compromised sound. I can burn MP3s on my computer, but I don't bother. Just my $0.02.

 

[matthew_rm]

My Sony NS300S DVD player does not sound to good in my system for CD's. Is that the DAC's? (I use 2ch output,analog) So the DAC's make the CD's sound bad? For the next couple days, I use a Sony Minisystem reciever. Do all recievers have DAC's? How do you know if it will sound good?

Will an OLD reviever have good DAC's?

 

[John Garcia]

I'm in the same boat as KeithH with respect to MP3, however, MP4 is supposed to get closer to CD "quality". I can tell when I am listening to MP3 90% of the time, and that is not good. High bitrate MP3 is not bad though.

 

[KeithH]

John,

Any idea when MP4 will hit the market?


Matthew,

As a budget DVD player, I wouldn't expect the 'NS300 to be a good CD player using the analog outputs. It could be relatively poor DACs, but also in a cheap player, I expect the implementation of any DAC to be poor. I'm sure the 'NS300 uses a cheap power supply, cheap capacitors, and other cheap parts. The transport probably isn't too great either. Finally, the jitter spec. may be poor as well. Overall, the build quality and parts selection in a budget DVD player will not compare to the build quality in a $500 CD player. More expensive CD players will be better yet.

Have you tried the 'NS300 via a digital output?

Some "old" receivers have good DACs. How old is old? DAC technology has changed quite a bit in recent years, so newer models will likely have better DACs. However, just like with DVD and CD players, implementation of the DACs is very important. A cheaper receiver could have state-of-the-art 24/192 DACs, but could also have a lackluster power supply, amps, etc.

 

[Jeff Engel]

MP4 is already out, but it's known as DIVX, it's not an audio compression format, it's a new video compression format.

 

[John Garcia]

MPEG encoding/decoding is for EITHER audio or video, regardless of version, AFAIK. I never liked DIVX. DIVX is one of those terms like "BOSE" and "Pan & Scan"..."Them's fightin' words..."
Keith, not sure exactly when it will replace MP3. A friend of mine is beta testing software for it right now. I don't know much more than the fact that he says it is an improvement over MP3.

 

[KeithH]

John, thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

 

[Jeff Engel]

John, are you sure you have the right DivX? Circuit City had DIVX that pretty much sucked, which I think you are referring to. The one I'm talking about is MP4 encoding and decoding, also known as DivX. If you are not sure, take a look at www.405themovie.com . This is a high quality movie shot on over the counter cameras and processed with OTC computers and software. The real genius is that it showcases the MP4 compression codec. You have a high quality video(4-5 minutes) compressed to take only ~8mb with almost no loss.
You're right mpeg encoding/decoding is for either, but MP3 has been "designated" for audio while MP4 has been "designated" for video. Again, I'm not sure what your friend has been telling you but MP4 is already out, there is no beta software for it. It's just a video format, it's a way of compressing video to make it small enough to pass over the internet in easily digesitable chunks. Check out Link Removed and see all the videos you can look at. MP4 only requires a small plug in into your media player.
I'm not an expert on MP4 so anyone correct me if I'm way off base here.