Well, kids... I "drank the Kool-Aid". I spent lots of money on the IVA-W205, and the Blackbird, and I even bought the iPos cable, with every intention of it only being there for passengers who might want to bring along their music... Ya know, common courtesy, as it were. Well, you all know that CompUSA is closing. All the stuff is DRASTICALLY reduced. I thought I'd take a bite of the "iPod Apple", as it were, so I started searching for what was in the store... Lo, and behold, they had both the 80G and the 160G online! Sweet! (Well, SORTA sweet...) Rode to the store, about 5 minutes away, by bike. Asked the girl behind the counter which "real" iPod they had, and she keeps grabbing the Touch... Geez, I have that much mp3 space on my CELLPHONE! "No," I said, "a REAL iPod." Oh, she said, and grabs an 80G Classic. Dammit. An open box, and a return - it said so right on the back. "WAIT!" she said, and grabs a 160G Classic! Only 40 dollars difference, and twice the space! "Sold!" I said. I hate "impulse buys", don't I, Bob?
I almost didn't buy it once I got to the register, as all sales are final right now... But I got it for 314.00 out the door. Not bad for a 400 dollar gadget, huh?
Now... I HATE iTunes. It is bloated, resource hogging, security compromising software; it doesn't work, and it's ugly, to boot! I just spent 300 bucks on a device I wasn't even sure I wanted, and I can't return it, so I guess I'd better make it work, right? I knew there were many alternatives to iTunes, and while I was plugging it in, John from Harman called me, and I asked him what he had seen or used in iTunes alternatives.
He had seen several, but Anapod was his favorite. I went to find it, and it's reasonably priced for the performance features I would want, so I downloaded it to try it out. It doesn't work with 6th Gen iPods. Crap, now where to?
Wikipedia has MANY answers! I love it. I donate to it, you should as well. (And the12volt.com) I found most all of my answers right here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_managers
I eventually found the page for MediaMonkey. They had a download, and it's free, so... It WORKS!!! It works really well, too... I can highly recommend this particular proggie, kids!
Now, for a lossless encoder, that will give me files that the iPos will understand...
I have used Easy CD-DA Extractor for as long as I can remember. I love it's interface, it is fast, it has always been stable, and the home page always said it would support Apple Lossless. Well, it turns out it doesn't support Apple Lossless. CD Quality m4a files, yes, but lossy versions, not the lossless.
Back to the internet. Eventually I find dbPoweramp Music Converter. There is a plug-in available for it, that DOES do Apple Lossless. Guess what? Those are both free, too! So now I have ripper, encoder, and manager all for my new, shiny, bargain-basement-priced, 160GB Silver Classic iPos. (More wonderful toys, stevdart!) I would be pretty happy with lossless, because I have a pretty decent pair of headphones, and I'd be OK with plugging into the aux on the D205, but I have the cable... Hmmm... Sa-Wheet! The full-speed connection to the back ALSO READS LOSSLESS!!! I am in HOG HEAVEN.
So there you have it kids... My entire system:
IVA-W205
Blackbird
Tsunami Elite Signal and Monster Speaker Cabling
Verizon Voyager Cellular Phone (yes, the iPhone killer)
iPod 160 Classic
Media Monkey iPod Management Software
dbPoweramp w/ Lossless Plug-in CD Ripping Software
(2) AltoMobile UCSPro
Alpine PDX 1.1000
(2) Alpine PDX 4.150
JLAudio VR series Silk Tweeters
Vifa custom 4 inch mids
Adire Audio 6.8 woofers
TCSounds TC1000 subs in iso-loaded TL
Gawd, can I call this thing DONE yet?
See you guys in Las Vegas!
It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."