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iPod Free High Quality Sound Files!?

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divinemercy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 12, 2008
147
2
Hello.

I just got a pair of AudioTech quiet point headphones. My very first 'higher end' headphones. Very happy with the so far, but i have a problem.

I think my sound files are crap ^^. I noticed a few buzz/low volume screeches in the backgrounds of a song from limewire, and thought it was the headphones. oh no! But i thought for poo and giggles i'd download the pay-version from iTunes, perfect quality. So obviously it was the crappy limewire sound file...

SO...

Leaves me with an issue. How do i get decent quality sound files for low prices? Im a poor college kid lol....

Any suggestions?
 
"Steal" is a heavy word lol... but let's not get into that. A discussion on the ethical aspect can be held in another thread. For now, does anyone have any real suggestions for a free/low cost alternative to crappy limewire files?

thanks

Ryan
 
huh....

are iTunes and Amazonmp3 comprable in quality? Like, most songs are itunes plus now right, and amazon is at the same bit rate i think?

Otherwise, what paying sites do you guys prefer in regaurds to quality?
And is there any site that gives explaniation/examples of different sound qualities in songs so i can see if i think its really worth it?

thanks so much,

ryan
 
iTunes plus is ripped in 256 kbps I think, which is good quality. I think amazon is the same bit rate. Those are fine. Regular iTunes is 128, which if you compare 128 to some higher bit rates, such as V0 rips (generally 240 kbps I think) you will be able to tell the difference.
 
Lol.... The fact that i bought these headphones doesn't mean i have money to throw around, it means i am now consequently broke ^^

Besides, buying cd's is just dumb i think. You end up with at least 6 songs that you never listen to, if not more. AND even if you get the whole album online, unwanted songs and all, its still cheeper than a CD usually.

Not to mention you dont waste the plastic, paper, etc that CD's represent. If i bought a cd, i would only use it to rip the music on to my comp anyways, so it would just be a waste...

lol, im not cheap, im broke :)
 
Buy all your cd's used off of Amazon and never buy them new...good way to build up a CD collection fast and not spend $10+ for a cd...and spend $3-5 instead.

But as someone was previously mentioning...Amazon mp3 and iTunes plus are both 256kbps.

Amazon.com is 256kbps mp3 and iTunes plus is 256kbps aac.

Important point is that both of them are DRM free.
 
divinemercy said:
"Steal" is a heavy word lol... but let's not get into that. A discussion on the ethical aspect can be held in another thread. For now, does anyone have any real suggestions for a free/low cost alternative to crappy limewire files?

thanks

Ryan
Click to expand...

Nevertheless that's what you're effectively doing. You're downloading copyrighted material without paying for it. Just because it's digital doesn't mean you're freeloading off a service or product that should be being paid for. It could be argued on all sorts of levels - that music should be a promotional aspect of other income of the artists, etc - but the fact remains that at the moment it is "Steal", no matter how heavy that sounds.

(on a related tangent, as I look in the side cabinet groaning with software licenses, I sometimes wonder if I'm the only idiot who buys software anymore)

There are a lot of places that you can get free music from including MP3.com. But I'm presuming - like everyone else does - free 'known' music.

The thing is, if you budget a little you could acquire a nice library of quality tunes without breaking the bank, and certainly nowhere near as iTunes prices (which I almost never buy from). No budget left for music? Is it important to you as a pasttime? If it is, it's worth budgeting for IMHO.

eMusic is another place. It's a different pricing scheme to iTunes or Amazon which involves an upfront payment, but give them a try - there's a free trial.

I'm a heavy user so I have a combination of Napster and Amazon - I keep a floating pool of 'stuff to try out' in Napster, and I buy CD's from Amazon if I like the album to rip in Lossless. I very rarely buy used CD's mainly because I want an archival-grade FLAC rip. Neither Napster - nor any other subscription service - works with iPods or Macs for that matter, but they are a very good way of having a huge amount of music at your disposal if you simply move on from one thing to another. You can just buy what you absolutely want to keep and the rest are effectively on loan, but you can download anything in their library.
 
You shouldn't pirate music. As easy as it is, it ain't right.

Need good cheap music? theslip.nin.com

If you don't think CDs are worth the money, buy CDs worth listening to.
(Here's a hint: David Bowie good, Nickelback and Soulja Boy bad)

Welcome to the world of higher-quality music. It's nice. And I'm a huge fan of iTunes and Amazonmp3. The music ain't cheap, but the artists deserve something, and giving them nothing to punish the RIAA is still wrong.
 
parafish13 said:
You shouldn't pirate music. As easy as it is, it ain't right.

Need good cheap music? theslip.nin.com

If you don't think CDs are worth the money, buy CDs worth listening to.
(Here's a hint: David Bowie good, Nickelback and Soulja Boy bad)

Welcome to the world of higher-quality music. It's nice. And I'm a huge fan of iTunes and Amazonmp3. The music ain't cheap, but the artists deserve something, and giving them nothing to punish the RIAA is still wrong.
Click to expand...

Do you know how much the artist even get from cd sales? Not a lot. The best way to actually support a band is going to their shows and buying shirts,hoodies,etc.
 
Sesshi said:
(on a related tangent, as I look in the side cabinet groaning with software licenses, I sometimes wonder if I'm the only idiot who buys software anymore)
Click to expand...

I buy software too!

opivy1218 said:
Do you know how much the artist even get from cd sales? Not a lot. The best way to actually support a band is going to their shows and buying shirts,hoodies,etc.
Click to expand...

I'm suggesting CDs for higher quality putting the legalities and royalty issues aside.
 
Hmm....

I would like to point out that I included "low-cost" in my question. I know im not going to get the quality i want for completely free. But maybe buying cd's from amazon was a good idea, thanks! I mean, that would cost about the same as iTunes would those 3-4 songs on each disc i want, PLUS you get the extras for "free" in a sense...

You said you don't buy used CD's because you want "archival quality"... does this mean that amazon's used cd's aren't that great or what?

thanks,

ryan

P.S. That converter above is hillarious, thanks for posting. I have to be dubious about the quality of the music once its converted since the cost is only like 100 bucks, but still nice novelty.
 
divinemercy said:
You said you don't buy used CD's because you want "archival quality"... does this mean that amazon's used cd's aren't that great or what?
Click to expand...

There can be scratches, etc. Many players can focus through them, but still, read errors are very possible. Even new CD's can be very occasionally defective, but I prefer not to have any hiccups in my ripping process - so I prefer to buy new.
 
Download music in flac and ogg formats. itunes, ipod(not with out rockbox at least) won't recognize the files but software like vlc will and they are losses. Then there is monkey audio, aac lossless, and wav. Only downside on all these formats its the space they can take up.
 
bittorrent would suit you unless you don't feel like 'steeling'

you can often download albums/songs in 320kbs (top quality)

:rolleyes:
 
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