itouch vs Classic iPod for new car

[TitaniumTroy]

In Sept. or Oct. I should be purchasing a new Civic EX-L model. This comes with a premium sound system that I would like to hook up to either a dedicated Classic iPod or iPod Touch, my concern is having enough memory. As I would like to use Apple lossless for storing my music, I have around 200 or more CD's that I would like to rip to the cloud and then download to use in my car.

A lot of my music is album soundtracks like Lord of the Rings, Batman Begins, Gladiator, Tron Legacy, Terminator 2, etc. Next would be a mix of 70's, 80's, 90's,/rock an pop, alternative, with a smaller subset of jazz, country and classical. I mention this as I know song length will effect the how much storage I will be using up. I would also probably end up editing/deleting some of the songs on these albums, so that might help somewhat.

The iPod touch has a max memory of 64GB, while the Classic iPod has 160GB and can hold up to 40,000 songs, but obviously not using Apple Lossless. However the iPod Touch has a much more up to date software interface and iTunes Radio, while the Classic is rather antiquated in software and features.

I am also looking at upgrading the stock speakers to Focal, but keeping the factory 360 watt peak, head unit.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.
Troy

 

[Botch]

Are you ripping your CDs to the Cloud just for your auto use, or for home use too? If its just for auto, I wouldn't worry about Apple Lossless, the extra fidelity would probably be lost in a car environment. Congrats on the new Ride!! bscene-drinkingcheers:

 

[Zing]

I say rip 'em all at 320kbs. It'll be next to impossible to discern them from lossless and their file sizes will be 10MB or less (as opposed to 40-50MB).

 

[Towen7]

Get the iPod touch. Other than storage capacity there is no comparison. I'm with Botch. It seems like waaaaay overkill to limit yourself to lossless audio in a car. No matter how "premium" the stock sound system is your still in a car; not centered, surrounded by glass, in a moving machine...

You can use iTunes Match to get 256K versions of anything in your library on the cloud and on your device.

 

[TitaniumTroy]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I should have done more homework on this. I did not realize how much file size Apple lossless actually sucked up.

What are the differences in filesize?

A 3 minute song at 128kbps will use approx 3MB. (poor quality)

A 3 minute song at 320 kbps will use approx 7MB. (excellent quality)

A 3 minute song at Apple Lossless will use approx 15MB. (perfect quality)

 

[Deleted member 133]

I rip everything to 192kps MP3 and have no issues with sound quality - although I know that statistically 320kps guarantees no perceived difference between the rip and original source. But I'm blessed with non-Golden ears!

In-car this is way more that good enough - in every vehicle I've owned.

On an iPod Touch it's great - even through headphones. Even my 8Gb unit has more than enough space to store way more music than I could possibly listen to on even the longest multi-week road trip. And it's pretty easy to swap playlists whenever you want.

Of course my newest vehicle (like all others) has a USB input (and presumably so does a new Civic) so why not just dump your tunes onto a 128Gb stick ($50-60 on sale) and never worry about it again? Skip the whole iPod Touch middleman thing altogether and just play direct from stick to vehicle. Presumably the Civic has some sort of console display that let's you see track lists / info etc. Even the cheapest of Kias that I used to shuttle around last year had that in every model.

Jeff

 

[TitaniumTroy]

Thanks Jeff, I will look into that.

 

[Flint]

I hate to say it, but I've noticed lately that I can clearly hear the difference between a 192kbps MP3 audio file compared to a raw WAV file, or CD - even with the average system in my car. I have to regularly remind myself that what I am hearing is not a flawed car audio system but a poor source material.

As such, I am actively looking for an effective means to get to RAW or higher quality lossless audio for my portable audio. So far I haven't seen much. Fiios has some interesting products. I am not a fan of the HiFiMan products. The Ponos is interesting. Or, I could just put 128MB worth of flash in my Samsung S5 and live with the limited number of albums it will hold in Lossless audio. But even lossless makes me nervous.

 

[PaulyT]

Flint, I mentioned it in another thread, but check out iBasso's DX50 or DX90.

 

[CMonster]

I rip to iTunes in Apple Lossless but when songs are synced to my devices I have it set to down-convert them to 320kbps. That way I always start with lossless and it's easy to change to a different quality as I see fit.

 

[Flint]

Flint, I mentioned it in another thread, but check out iBasso's DX50 or DX90.

Thanks!

I've been looking at those. I like the DX50, especially since it uses the Samsung S3 battery, but it only has one microSD slot and the largest card today is 128GB and it is pretty expensive per GB (nearly twice the price per GB than the 64GB version). I want at least 256GB of storage in my media player and I don't want to spend $600 to get it.

I will wait. I can use my phone with a 64GB card for now and adjust my music files to be at least 256kbps MP3. That will get me by until someone offers what I need.

If someone would offer an affordable and reliable microSD card with 256GB of capacity, the iBasso DX50 looks great.

I like the looks of the Fiios X5 which has two microSD slots. I could get 256GB today if I wanted to spring for the memory cards.

 

[Flint]

I rip to iTunes in Apple Lossless but when songs are synced to my devices I have it set to down-convert them to 320kbps. That way I always start with lossless and it's easy to change to a different quality as I see fit.

Similarly, I rip to lossless WMA or full resolution WAV (depending on the content: classical, acoustic jazz, and other ultra-high-fidelity albums are WAV). I then convert to whatever the device I am carrying can play and try to get to the capacity needs I want.

I really want to put about 75% of my music collection (approximately 1,500 of my 2,000+ albums) on the device I regularly carry, but I cannot do that today in a decent format (except on my ancient and huge Zune). I like to put the player on "random" and I get to listen to my own radio station play all my favorite music with no duds. I love that way of listening.

 

[lulimet]

Can the S5 read a 256GB card? I know my S4 can only read cards up to 64GB.

Troy, a 50 minute album ripped in ALAC format is roughly 300 MB in size. So 200CDs will be roughly 60GBs. A 64 GB iPod touch will probably have about 55GB free space because the rest will be taken by the iOS and some apps you may want to have on it. You won't have enough space for all your music if you rip in ALAC. I say ALAC in the car is overkill, so I suggest 320kbps MP3.

Another thing you can do which can be a lot cheaper solution than buying a $300 iPod is if the Civic stereo has a USB input, you can get a 120GB USB thumb drive for around $50. You can rip your CDs to WAV (I doubt the stock stereo supports ALAC) if you want to stick to lossless audio.
I have all my 900 CDs ripped to 320kbps MP3 in a 128GB USB thumb drive in my car and I love it.

 

[Flint]

my understanding is the Galaxy S5 can recognize microSDXC, which can support up to 2TB of capacity.

 

[Deleted member 133]

Another thing you can do which can be a lot cheaper solution than buying a $300 iPod is if the Civic stereo has a USB input, you can get a 120GB USB thumb drive for around $50.

THAT is an incredibly cogent suggestion that only the most profoundly intelligent of human beings would ever suggest.

Jeff

ps. See my post above

 

[lulimet]

LOL! You are right Jeff, I totally missed the second half of your post recommending a USB thumb stick. My apologies.

 

[Towen7]

You know ... a USB thumbdrive would be a much less expensive option.

 

[MatthewB]

I use my 8GB iPod in my jeep all songs ripped at 320kbps. I can store about 450 songs and still have about 2GB left over. Granted a Jeep isn't the most sound proof vehicle around but it makes me feel better knowing I have my songs at the highest resolution. Now make sure your deck can handle Apple lossless or FLAC as my aftermarket deck can only handle MP3.

 

[Randy]

I recently posted a similar thread about the new jams I put in my boat. I am currently using a 64 GB Flash Drive and still considering the Ipod.

I like what Jeff and the others said re: said flash drive, but I find it really clunky to navigate and I am not at all happy with that aspect. Therefore I am still considering the Ipod for bring able to navigate the approximately 60GB of music that I have on there.

One other thing I just found. I went out boating the other day, fired up the tunes and hit shuffle. My plan was to shuffle the entire catalog and if a song came on that I didn't want to hear I would skip it. My head unit won't let me shuffle the entire catalog, it will only let me shuffle within a folder and the remote at the helm of my boat wont let me skip to the next folder. That is what I have found so far.

Enough of my problems back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[MatthewB]

Randy you have to make sure that every song in your entire collection is in mo3 format for a head unit to play. Any other format gives head units problems. If your entire collection is mp3 then you can push random play. If your head unit has Bluetooth technology this may work.