Anybody fancy helping a thicky?
Discussion
Afternoon. Forgive the complete incompetance, and the length of this but I could do with some help (and will keep it as brief as possible).
I'd like, a laptop. A laptop that I can load all my cd's into (say 300?), that I can then make up playlists (I quite like Media Player so that's a start) and play through some nice speakers in my room. I'd like it to have some form of cutting cd's so I can play them in the car or maybe even cut an MP3 disk so I can store more should I update the current hi-fi in the car. Perhaps even an sd card reader and cutter type thing?
Budget? Well I reckon on something like £5-600 on the laptop, and then some on top of that for the speakers?
I'm not technical and all the laptop is going to be used for is music, no internet connection, no Microsoft Office, just pure music. Oh, I don't get on at all well with itunes so that can't be part of it.
Can anyone help me in the form of saying 'buy this laptop, buy this speaker set up, just plug it all in and you'll be fine'?
Thanks, Simon.
I'd like, a laptop. A laptop that I can load all my cd's into (say 300?), that I can then make up playlists (I quite like Media Player so that's a start) and play through some nice speakers in my room. I'd like it to have some form of cutting cd's so I can play them in the car or maybe even cut an MP3 disk so I can store more should I update the current hi-fi in the car. Perhaps even an sd card reader and cutter type thing?
Budget? Well I reckon on something like £5-600 on the laptop, and then some on top of that for the speakers?
I'm not technical and all the laptop is going to be used for is music, no internet connection, no Microsoft Office, just pure music. Oh, I don't get on at all well with itunes so that can't be part of it.
Can anyone help me in the form of saying 'buy this laptop, buy this speaker set up, just plug it all in and you'll be fine'?
Thanks, Simon.
Without the internet, then you will need to name every CD and track you put in the laptop, as it won't know what it is.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss iTunes.
iTunes will take your CD, give it a name and all the tracks (with broadband), including genre, year, album art etc. etc. and put it all in a nice searchable list for you, to create playlists you just highlight songs or albums, and click and drag them into playlists on the left hand side.
I don't know what you mean about cutting, if you mean taking individual tracks from albums to make a new album, then making a playlist like the above method will be easy, you just burn the playlist to disc.
Any laptop with a CD drive could do this, but for music encoding you want the best spec possible for your price range as you want to be able to rip your CD's to MP3 as quick as possible, you wouldn't go wrong just heading to the dell website and picking one.
Dual core with about 2-4GB of RAM should see you fine, and also you'll need a large hard drive to store all that music, about 250GB should be fine.
I would also invest in an external hard drive to backup all your hard work incase your laptop throws a wobbly.
As for speakers, someone will be along shortly who knows more about that kind of thing.
ETA: something like this. http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/650055/samsung-r519...
Seems like a good price, 3 year warranty too.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss iTunes.
iTunes will take your CD, give it a name and all the tracks (with broadband), including genre, year, album art etc. etc. and put it all in a nice searchable list for you, to create playlists you just highlight songs or albums, and click and drag them into playlists on the left hand side.
I don't know what you mean about cutting, if you mean taking individual tracks from albums to make a new album, then making a playlist like the above method will be easy, you just burn the playlist to disc.
Any laptop with a CD drive could do this, but for music encoding you want the best spec possible for your price range as you want to be able to rip your CD's to MP3 as quick as possible, you wouldn't go wrong just heading to the dell website and picking one.
Dual core with about 2-4GB of RAM should see you fine, and also you'll need a large hard drive to store all that music, about 250GB should be fine.
I would also invest in an external hard drive to backup all your hard work incase your laptop throws a wobbly.
As for speakers, someone will be along shortly who knows more about that kind of thing.
ETA: something like this. http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/650055/samsung-r519...
Seems like a good price, 3 year warranty too.
Edited by Silverbullet767 on Tuesday 18th May 14:54
Silverbullet767 said:
Without the internet, then you will need to name every CD and track you put in the laptop, as it won't know what it is.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss iTunes.
iTunes will take your CD, give it a name and all the tracks (with broadband), including genre, year, album art etc. etc. and put it all in a nice searchable list for you, to create playlists you just highlight songs or albums, and click and drag them into playlists on the left hand side.
I don't know what you mean about cutting, if you mean taking individual tracks from albums to make a new album, then making a playlist like the above method will be easy, you just burn the playlist to disc.
Any laptop with a CD drive could do this, but for music encoding you want the best spec possible for your price range as you want to be able to rip your CD's to MP3 as quick as possible, you wouldn't go wrong just heading to the dell website and picking one.
Dual core with about 2-4GB of RAM should see you fine, and also you'll need a large hard drive to store all that music, about 250GB should be fine.
I would also invest in an external hard drive to backup all your hard work incase your laptop throws a wobbly.
As for speakers, someone will be along shortly who knows more about that kind of thing.
ETA: something like this. http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/650055/samsung-r519...
Seems like a good price, 3 year warranty too.
So, a pre-recorded cd, that you've bought from a shop, doesn't have the track title or any track details embedded in it? I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss iTunes.
iTunes will take your CD, give it a name and all the tracks (with broadband), including genre, year, album art etc. etc. and put it all in a nice searchable list for you, to create playlists you just highlight songs or albums, and click and drag them into playlists on the left hand side.
I don't know what you mean about cutting, if you mean taking individual tracks from albums to make a new album, then making a playlist like the above method will be easy, you just burn the playlist to disc.
Any laptop with a CD drive could do this, but for music encoding you want the best spec possible for your price range as you want to be able to rip your CD's to MP3 as quick as possible, you wouldn't go wrong just heading to the dell website and picking one.
Dual core with about 2-4GB of RAM should see you fine, and also you'll need a large hard drive to store all that music, about 250GB should be fine.
I would also invest in an external hard drive to backup all your hard work incase your laptop throws a wobbly.
As for speakers, someone will be along shortly who knows more about that kind of thing.
ETA: something like this. http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/650055/samsung-r519...
Seems like a good price, 3 year warranty too.
Edited by Silverbullet767 on Tuesday 18th May 14:54
Simon Bags said:
Silverbullet767 said:
Without the internet, then you will need to name every CD and track you put in the laptop, as it won't know what it is.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss iTunes.
iTunes will take your CD, give it a name and all the tracks (with broadband), including genre, year, album art etc. etc. and put it all in a nice searchable list for you, to create playlists you just highlight songs or albums, and click and drag them into playlists on the left hand side.
I don't know what you mean about cutting, if you mean taking individual tracks from albums to make a new album, then making a playlist like the above method will be easy, you just burn the playlist to disc.
Any laptop with a CD drive could do this, but for music encoding you want the best spec possible for your price range as you want to be able to rip your CD's to MP3 as quick as possible, you wouldn't go wrong just heading to the dell website and picking one.
Dual core with about 2-4GB of RAM should see you fine, and also you'll need a large hard drive to store all that music, about 250GB should be fine.
I would also invest in an external hard drive to backup all your hard work incase your laptop throws a wobbly.
As for speakers, someone will be along shortly who knows more about that kind of thing.
ETA: something like this. http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/650055/samsung-r519...
Seems like a good price, 3 year warranty too.
So, a pre-recorded cd, that you've bought from a shop, doesn't have the track title or any track details embedded in it? I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss iTunes.
iTunes will take your CD, give it a name and all the tracks (with broadband), including genre, year, album art etc. etc. and put it all in a nice searchable list for you, to create playlists you just highlight songs or albums, and click and drag them into playlists on the left hand side.
I don't know what you mean about cutting, if you mean taking individual tracks from albums to make a new album, then making a playlist like the above method will be easy, you just burn the playlist to disc.
Any laptop with a CD drive could do this, but for music encoding you want the best spec possible for your price range as you want to be able to rip your CD's to MP3 as quick as possible, you wouldn't go wrong just heading to the dell website and picking one.
Dual core with about 2-4GB of RAM should see you fine, and also you'll need a large hard drive to store all that music, about 250GB should be fine.
I would also invest in an external hard drive to backup all your hard work incase your laptop throws a wobbly.
As for speakers, someone will be along shortly who knows more about that kind of thing.
ETA: something like this. http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/650055/samsung-r519...
Seems like a good price, 3 year warranty too.
Edited by Silverbullet767 on Tuesday 18th May 14:54
Simon Bags said:
So, a pre-recorded cd, that you've bought from a shop, doesn't have the track title or any track details embedded in it?
Wasn't that called CDTEXT? I have a few CDs that show track titles on my home player but I'm not sure it ever really took off.ETA: Oh yes, I forgot... a Macbook / Pro with iTunes and an Airport Express plugged into your Amp will allow you to rip, organise, burn and play to your "nice" speakers all in one nice package.
Edited by Strangely Brown on Tuesday 18th May 15:21
Pothole said:
Simon Bags said:
Silverbullet767 said:
Without the internet, then you will need to name every CD and track you put in the laptop, as it won't know what it is.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss iTunes.
iTunes will take your CD, give it a name and all the tracks (with broadband), including genre, year, album art etc. etc. and put it all in a nice searchable list for you, to create playlists you just highlight songs or albums, and click and drag them into playlists on the left hand side.
I don't know what you mean about cutting, if you mean taking individual tracks from albums to make a new album, then making a playlist like the above method will be easy, you just burn the playlist to disc.
Any laptop with a CD drive could do this, but for music encoding you want the best spec possible for your price range as you want to be able to rip your CD's to MP3 as quick as possible, you wouldn't go wrong just heading to the dell website and picking one.
Dual core with about 2-4GB of RAM should see you fine, and also you'll need a large hard drive to store all that music, about 250GB should be fine.
I would also invest in an external hard drive to backup all your hard work incase your laptop throws a wobbly.
As for speakers, someone will be along shortly who knows more about that kind of thing.
ETA: something like this. http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/650055/samsung-r519...
Seems like a good price, 3 year warranty too.
So, a pre-recorded cd, that you've bought from a shop, doesn't have the track title or any track details embedded in it? I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss iTunes.
iTunes will take your CD, give it a name and all the tracks (with broadband), including genre, year, album art etc. etc. and put it all in a nice searchable list for you, to create playlists you just highlight songs or albums, and click and drag them into playlists on the left hand side.
I don't know what you mean about cutting, if you mean taking individual tracks from albums to make a new album, then making a playlist like the above method will be easy, you just burn the playlist to disc.
Any laptop with a CD drive could do this, but for music encoding you want the best spec possible for your price range as you want to be able to rip your CD's to MP3 as quick as possible, you wouldn't go wrong just heading to the dell website and picking one.
Dual core with about 2-4GB of RAM should see you fine, and also you'll need a large hard drive to store all that music, about 250GB should be fine.
I would also invest in an external hard drive to backup all your hard work incase your laptop throws a wobbly.
As for speakers, someone will be along shortly who knows more about that kind of thing.
ETA: something like this. http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/650055/samsung-r519...
Seems like a good price, 3 year warranty too.
Edited by Silverbullet767 on Tuesday 18th May 14:54
Well that's a bit of a bummer then.
Firstly you will need the internet for 300 CDs. Software like EAC will rip all your CD's to FLAC (lossless compression) which means your CD's will sound just as good (if not better) than if they were played from the disc. EAC will then also download each CD's information and TAG the FLAC files so you can sort by title, artist etc. even from compalation albums.
Foobar2000 will play and organise and if you desire apply 'replay gain' to all your files.
You could use Windows Media Player and save your files as 'WMA lossless' for similar results but again you'd need an internet connection to identify and tag your files.
For the above you don't need a particularly beefy notebook, infact a netbook (£250 ish) would be fine, providing you had a large enough hard disk. You would get about 400-500 CD's on a 250GB hard disk and easliy leave space for your operating system, with either FLAC or WMA lossless files. Pretty much all notebooks/ netbooks these days have DVD writers, which can also cut CD's. Any currently available laptop will be fine for what you require, although a dual core Core2 or even better Core i3/5/7 would speed up the encoding. But as I said a netbook with 1GB RAM would be fine for playing CD's back through WMP or FooBar2K.
As for audio hardware, you'll need speakers, an amplifier and probably a DAC as loptop sound cards 'ain't all that'.
There are now great sounding DAC's which have USB connectors, which means you don't have to buy an expensive laptop with digital audio out. There is the Cambridge Audio DACMagic II and there are also a number of Beresford DACs which I believe also have USB input. There are also other entry level DACs which for which you'll have to source a notebook with a digital output.
Amps and speakers bargins can be had from eBay but if you want new then check out your local Richer Sounds or hifi dealers. With what you save on the all singing all dancing laptop you could end up with a very tasty setup. Speakers from Wharfdale and Mordant Short are some name to start you off, while amps from Cambridge Audio and Marantz are also good.
Another option you might like to consider is the Squeezebox touch (£250ish). It's a media player with a touch screen and can read a music library from a usb hard disk drive (less than £100). It's supposed to have very good sound and plugs straight into an amp (although it can be upgraded with an external DAC). So proving you have another PC you can use to rip your CD's to an external hard disk, this is a very neat solution.
Have a read of AVForums (http://www.avforums.com/forums/audio-electronics) as there are a few threads there asking for similar advice
Foobar2000 will play and organise and if you desire apply 'replay gain' to all your files.
You could use Windows Media Player and save your files as 'WMA lossless' for similar results but again you'd need an internet connection to identify and tag your files.
For the above you don't need a particularly beefy notebook, infact a netbook (£250 ish) would be fine, providing you had a large enough hard disk. You would get about 400-500 CD's on a 250GB hard disk and easliy leave space for your operating system, with either FLAC or WMA lossless files. Pretty much all notebooks/ netbooks these days have DVD writers, which can also cut CD's. Any currently available laptop will be fine for what you require, although a dual core Core2 or even better Core i3/5/7 would speed up the encoding. But as I said a netbook with 1GB RAM would be fine for playing CD's back through WMP or FooBar2K.
As for audio hardware, you'll need speakers, an amplifier and probably a DAC as loptop sound cards 'ain't all that'.
There are now great sounding DAC's which have USB connectors, which means you don't have to buy an expensive laptop with digital audio out. There is the Cambridge Audio DACMagic II and there are also a number of Beresford DACs which I believe also have USB input. There are also other entry level DACs which for which you'll have to source a notebook with a digital output.
Amps and speakers bargins can be had from eBay but if you want new then check out your local Richer Sounds or hifi dealers. With what you save on the all singing all dancing laptop you could end up with a very tasty setup. Speakers from Wharfdale and Mordant Short are some name to start you off, while amps from Cambridge Audio and Marantz are also good.
Another option you might like to consider is the Squeezebox touch (£250ish). It's a media player with a touch screen and can read a music library from a usb hard disk drive (less than £100). It's supposed to have very good sound and plugs straight into an amp (although it can be upgraded with an external DAC). So proving you have another PC you can use to rip your CD's to an external hard disk, this is a very neat solution.
Have a read of AVForums (http://www.avforums.com/forums/audio-electronics) as there are a few threads there asking for similar advice
Condi said:
Any particular reason you dont want it connected to the net? Be much much easier with a hour or 2 in a wi-fi hotspot. Itunes, Windows Media player or one of many other audio programs which will download all the information for you. Accurately and quickly.
Good question. I just don't really want all the hassle of being connected to the net, firewalls, updates, etc, just want a nice stand alone laptop that can take the place of the hi-fi and cd collection I have.Simon Bags said:
Condi said:
Any particular reason you dont want it connected to the net? Be much much easier with a hour or 2 in a wi-fi hotspot. Itunes, Windows Media player or one of many other audio programs which will download all the information for you. Accurately and quickly.
Good question. I just don't really want all the hassle of being connected to the net, firewalls, updates, etc, just want a nice stand alone laptop that can take the place of the hi-fi and cd collection I have.No antivirus to worry about, updates are larger and less often rather than windows small and several times a week updates.
Also wireless routers already have firewalls integrated anyway.
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