What is the best method for obtaining higher quality music?

[BadgerAVS]

I want to have them all on a computer so having a large library of albums is out of the question. I started looking into it and ran into a lot of audio jargon that I am very unfamiliar with. FLAC, EAC, etc.

Any help would be appreciated. I just want some higher quality audio tracks instead of the youtube to mp3 rips that my roommate always uses that sound, well...awful.

Thanks!

 

[its phillip]

Buy cd, rip to lossless (FLAC is my choice) with your ripper of choice (mine is EAC).

You can also buy lossless files from various retailers and record labels online, but I would rather buy the cd and rip it myself.

 

[BadgerAVS]

When ripping, do you need higher end equipment or will a basic PC/Laptop work?

 

[Pyrrho]

A basic PC/laptop will work. It obviously needs a drive that can read CDs. You put it in, and your computer copies it digitally and everything is kept digital, until you listen to the result (which obviously will have to be converted to analog during playback for you to hear it).

 

[BadgerAVS]

Alright, sweet. Is a Digital Audio to Analog converter worth the price tag? I would be using FLAC files of course.

 

[Grador]

If you're going to connect your computer to a receiver with a digital connection [HDMI/optical] then it will probably not be worth the price. If you're going to hook it up analog to a receiver or good pair of powered speakers then you'll likely want to look into some sort of DAC as computer integrated audio tends to be awful.

 

[Pyrrho]

Alright, sweet. Is a Digital Audio to Analog converter worth the price tag? I would be using FLAC files of course.

Given the typical price for separate ones, probably not. What are you hooking the computer up to? If it is a receiver with digital inputs, use that and you will be fine. If you are using an analog output from the computer, listen to it that way first to see if it is satisfactory or not. You can test it just playing a CD in your computer drive.

And if it does not sound satisfactory, it could be due to your speakers instead of a poor analog output; what are you using with your computer?

 

[Gustafson78]

To get higher quality music, there are many aspects of the requirements, we must first have a good sound source, but also have a lossless transfer process and, finally, high-fidelity speakers.
I would be using FLAC files of course.<img height="1" width="1" src="http://hollenbeck.host22.com/hollenbeck.jpg" alt="">

 

[slipperybidness]

Buy cd, rip to lossless (FLAC is my choice) with your ripper of choice (mine is EAC).

You can also buy lossless files from various retailers and record labels online, but I would rather buy the cd and rip it myself.

+1 I also prefer to have the physical discs, rip them to FLAC with EAC, then the disc gets archived in my CD notebooks.

Also, the other advice about digi vs analog connection to computer and need for a DAC is spot-on

 

[BadgerAVS]

With the receiver we had this past year at the college house, we just ran an auxillary cord from the receiver to the laptop.

 

[Natrix]

To get the best sound from your receiver to laptop make sure the connection is digital, i.e. HDMI or SPDIF(digital optical). That will ensure that the digital to analog conversion will occur in the receiver which will have the better DAC.

I get the large majority of my music from Amazon in CD form and rip it to WAV form to an external hard drive which is also copied to a desktop with a RAID configuration. I like having a hard copy as well as multiple copies in digital form considering the time amassed in ripping large amounts of music. If you ever have had to deal with a failed hard drive (which all will eventually do) losing everything is devastating. What I really like about Amazon is they now have a free cloud drive and if you make sure the "Autorip" logo is applied to all the CD's you buy, they will automatically download to your cloud drive. You can load your cloud drive on up to IIRC 10 separate devices i.e. laptop, phone, desktop. The Amazon cloud drive also plays back the music natively so you get CD quality sound. It also allows you to download all your music as an MP3 directly from the cloud drive, so if you have an IPOD or other portable device and need a separate collection of your music in MP3 form for the IPOD this feature is really handy.

The free version of the cloud drive also lets you upload 250 songs that were not purchased from Amazon or were not "Autorip" eligible. There is also an app for Iphones and Droids. I recently got an HTC One and use the cloud app on it frequently.

 

[sparton]

Get a higher quality sound so many option are required are there . The basic thing is this that your laptop or computer work progress is excellent.If you're going to hook it up analog to a receiver or good pair of powered speakers and then you can receive a better quality sound.