MP3 players

MP3 sucks, period. A tuner would be much, much better. Have you ever heard MP3s over a decent audio system, even a good car stereo? They're only bareable as background music, if you don't pay any attention to it. However, I have not seen anything but the cheapie little portables so far. Just as well; it's not music anyways, just a resemblance. The lack of response to this question may indicate that I'm not alone with my prejudices. Go for a decent tuner!

no the original mp3's suck but napster runs on a better code and I can download songs with a bitrate of 200k. And they sound really good so far on just my pc (as good as CD's). I've decided to get a digital output card and just run a digital wire to my D to A (I think that should work). Then I'll find out if the sound quality suffices on a good system (thiel, classe, MIT). And by the way SHAYNER I think the reason there are no other comments on this chat is probably because there are to many old geesers here that have never tried napster or even know what it is. Anyways I'll post my results for all to see whatever I decide on doing and whenever I get around to it (for good or bad).

Well, you may be right, but they sounded like crap from my friends computer into my system(JmLabs, Aragon, MIT, Classe). Let me know what you think... And don't be too hard on the old folks. Many of them probably know more than we do. Won't your card have to output the digital signal at the same rate as CD? I've only used the analog outs on the computer. I don't think a direct connection will work. Let me know what you get going. Maybe I'll play around some more...

Yeah I actually look up to allot of the old guys wisdom but I think they are reluctent to explore this area so we might be a little wiser here. Hmmm. I can understand how it could sound bad on a full blown stereo system using the analog outs. I would imagine that it would be hard for a little sound card to push a big system and it probably has to little power to have any dynamics. Also think of how weak of a front end a sound card really is. Now if I can get my dac to decode the signal then we may have something. Well my cambridge soundworks speakers came with a digital input and also a digital output piece that fits in a slot in the back of my pc. The problem is I can't plug it into the soundcard I have now so I have to go buy a new one. Thats a good point. I'll have to ask around and see if it is in fact the same type of digital signal that could be decoded by any standard dac. I would imagine that they didn't change anything since allot of what would run through the digital out would come through the cd rom drive be it cd or cd rom. I believe mp3's and computers are moving fast so even if it doesn't cut it now I think It won't be long untill we have a very good contender against at least our tuners. I know all the magazines trash MP3 but they need to keep testing all the new formats that come out and do fair tests like compare a $100 sound card to a $100 tuner or cd player. It's just like our main systems, we only get out of it what we put in so why should it be any different with MP3's? When they get true quality gear out then we'll really be able to test the format. I'll check in to all this before next weekend and put a post on my results by sunday if a digital output sound card will work. Untill then bye.