My cd player w/ large capacity carousel is kaput and
choices for a replacement appear to limited to several
-year-old Sony and Pioneer models. I suppose the species
is obsolete and the mfrs have moved on.

What is the best/least painful method to transfer hundreds
of CDs to digital format, assuming I make the move to the
MP3 world.

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I use a Zune media player. The best bet is to do the recording to disc as loss-less. This will capture all music, but you will need a ton of disc to do this.

A Buffalo LiveStation or TerraStation would do the trick - 500 gb for the LiveStation, upto 4 tb on the TerraStation!

The LiveStation is what we have and it's 500gb, for $200 or so. A great value and it's attached via NAS.

There is no "fast" way, that I am aware of. It just takes time... upto about 5 minutes per CD. A SATA CD reader may help...

As for a player... that's a trick. There are a ton of MP3 players, and they all sound pretty good. My Zune has, I think, some of the best codecs out there. The SQ is stellar. The thing is, the 80 gig Zune will hold a lot of music, even loss-less... from there, you can add and subtract music from the player as needed.

Now, if you plan on using the computer.... that means a media center concept. The best bet is an HDMI output to a compatible stereo set.

My advice would be a big disc, a big player and save the computer from wear and tear... and space at the entertainment center.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into the devices
mentioned.

I've stayed away from digital because of the perception
that it consumes more time & resources while offering
less convenience and durability - compared to disks.

A fresh high capacity player would serve my needs until
such time as music is no longer available on disk - I
suppose that would just increase the number of disks that
would need to be converted.

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iPod and iTunes.

Both work with Mac and PC.

I have several iPods, and love them all. It has changed the way I listen to music.

Geeze, and I was just thinking about transfering a baotload of vinyl stuff to CD's.

Bill, you'd be be better off paying for one of those russian itunes sites and just downloading them. Much faster and more convenient if they have em.

I was using one that cost about 20 cents per song, but they always have trouble getting around the fact that credit card companies won't approve most overseas purchases, so they're always looking for a middle man.

It is supposedly legal though, due to the loose laws in Russia. Of course who cares if you already own the album on vinyl.

I was using a site that now is called mp3sparks.com without a hitch for about a year, but now you have to use some wierd payment service to open the account.

Quote:
I cherry-picked my vinyl and gave what I didn't want
away. In addition to what I'd purchased on my own,
I inherited two generations worth from relatives which
I continue to hold. I have three turntables that are
ready for action when I am in the mood.

Just this past Saturday, I was listening to a new CD when
it slowly dawned on me that the engineer had added LP-like
snap, crackle, pop 'noise' between tracks. I bet there are
many who won't even get the joke if they notice.

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I'm in the market for vinyls, bought a few on ebay. You guys have any good classic rock for sale? In fact I'll probably start a new thread.

You 30, 40, 50 somethings probably have some good stuff in the attic.

Sorry, but the Village People and Bony M collections are
spoken for.

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