Head ache over 'audiophile' quality

[Servetus]

Man. So, I do a lot of window shopping, Sennheiser headphones, Headroom amps, PCI soundcards- it all leads me to reading a lot about sound itself, and well, I like sound, so it's endlessly entertaining. However, in looking through these products I've come across a lot of questions that remained unanswered (in a way that I understand). I'm wanting to switch to a Cowon 'mp3' player so that I can migrate to lossless media in general, as it is I have a zune- it's nice, but I'm wanting to get more critical of my media's quality- the zune simply doesn't support that.

So, I guess the quest for 'Audiophile' quality sound is basically to replay sounds exactly as they were recorded. I'm too tired to keep searching, if some of you would share a bit of knowledge I'd be much obliged.

1) How do non re-sampling sound cards stack up against 'regular' re-sampling sound cards?
1a) If re-sampling is deemed inferior, what are a few decent non re-sampling sound cards?
1b) If re-sampling is deemed superior, what are a few decent re-sampling sound cards?

2) What method of CD ripping reduces outside 'noise' to a minimum?

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering currently, if you are bored and feel like sharing some audio wisdom, feel free.

 

-Servetus

[rharv]

Personally I think you are getting into realms more theoretical than actual.
 If you are going to the mp3 format you are going to a 'lossy' format so exact bit copies become irrelevant.  You do more damage going to that format than any convertor (resmapled or not) will do. I'm not knocking mp3, just putting it in perspective. (mp3 format has no specs for handling audio above 16kHz so normally it's neglected, for one example)
 Also- any ripping program is digital, and digital conversions are the most noisefree when compared to 'recording' or other methods of converting a CD to an audio file you can work with.  If you are looking for a brand (or codec) that does the ripping with the least amount of loss or distortion, I don't know which one it will be, but again I believe that going to mp3 format will cause more loss than the actual conversion as long as it is kept digital.
 I like importing the .cda tracks into my DAW software via 'file-import' (keeps it raw audio format), but many like using Nero or Roxio or such to rip the music into a wav file.  I would think the most 'damaging' method would be to rip directly to mp3, but I suppose with a really good codec that may not be true..

I've been looking at the Zune- how do you like yours?  Is it reliable, comparable to ipod in quality?  How long have you had it?  Which one?

[Servetus]

Yeah, I don't personally believe the differences that will be made by these things will be astronomical, really, I think the only way you'd notice is if you listened to a 128 kbs MP3 versus a Wav Pack/Ape/FLAC file side by side with reasonably nice listening equipment.

I'm not going to MP3, noooo, I'm going away from, I want to use a program like Media Monkey to rip straight to one of the aforementioned 'lossless' formats, and that is why I want a Cowon 'media player' (it's funny, I'm getting away from MP3's, but everyone calls portable media players MP3 players), Cowon is the only brand I've ran across that supports those formats.

Concerning the Zune? I got the first gen brown one for $90 off of 'buy.com' and love it. It's been wonderful. I'm rather rough on, well, everything I own, the Zune has held up through heavy rain, winter's cold, skateboarding, and traveling in general, yeah. The Zune software is very simple, I use windows media player to apply ID3 tags and keep all of my files well organized, so with it all already organized it is a pretty intuitive seamless process.

The only drawbacks are that I thought it was broken at first, heh, I guess it's a bit picky about having quality USB ports so I run it though a Belkin hub, and it had to charge about half an hour out of the box. It's features match all the classic iPods, of course it isn't an iPod Touch, if you have the money, I think that (or rather the Cowon touch) are the most insane media players available right now.

-Servetus

p.s. The only thing it 'has' on iPods is that it has a built in FM radio, it works fine, but I don't listen to the radio.

[rharv]

They have a much bigger screen now too. That's a key point for some.

[Servetus]

Yeah, I would have liked to have gotten the 2nd gen, they look pretty nice- my friend has one, but I haven't seen it yet. Apparently he's a Zune fanatic now, says the 'flick' pad they have is pretty neat- a lot of people really wanted a scroll wheel, so they had to come up with a replacement, I guess.

-Servetus

[rharv]

Last thing I want is the control surface of the iPod.  It's the most unintuitive interface I'xe seen.  I know a lot of people have adapted to it, but it's just not normal feeling to me.

[Servetus]

Hah, then Zune or Cowon are my top suggestions- I guess that iRiver is supposed to be decent, but yeah. I should probably delete this thread. 

-Servetus