rudyy

It's just too bright for my old eyes, but i visit several times a day.

It would be nice if the iPad could do everything Songbird can do, but successfully. By that I mean equalize the volume across all music files, properly identify files in a standard format, and not fail to see hundreds of perfectly good audio files.

add me to the list. i visit ca every day; frequently more than once. thanks chris

Very nice, Chris.<br /> My first post on this forum was to seek information on custom-built computers. regardless of operating systems.<br /> I really wanted to buy one with Linux.<br /> I did what I could (for someone who knew little about the numerous so-called Linux distributions), but ultimately could not find a Linux distribution I could work with. <br /> My notes tell me I tried Ubuntu 9.04 and several others, including at least one that was specific to media applications. (Ubuntu had been recommended to me at some online web site.)<br /> For a music player I tried acidrip, sound juicer, amarock2, audacity, rythmbox and potamus; none of them did everything I needed.<br /> I finally gave up on Linux, just as I had done about 7 years ago when I bought a Red Hat version on floppy disk; I couldn't get it to fully load.<br /> For at least one reason (related to golf) I have to keep a Windows OS computer, so I keep a Vista laptop, but I'd sure like to rid myself of it and just rely on my iMac for everything, despite iTunes' inability to keep my music library organized.

Barry, I've had this happen to me also, and my external hard drive holding all of my AIFF files has never be unmounted from my iMac. As long as I let iTunes play in shuffle mode, it never hesitates, but once in awhile if I choose a song, it sometimes can't find it. Not only that, but when I run across a song that was ripped from a poorly needle dropped effort, I will delete all of the files from that CD on the EHDD, yet iTunes doesn't know they've been deleted from the EHDD and continues to list them in the iTunes library, no matter if I've selected iTunes to keep the library organized or not. (I'm running the latest iTunes version on a late 2009 Intel iMac, with a Seagate Free Agent Go 500 gig USB.)

Something else to consider is that high definition television is dramatically cheaper today than it was even only a year ago. I can buy an HDTV with a small screen and built in DVD player for less than $200. If I do, it would only be for the smaller foot print versus what my CRT has now. As far as television, it is, IMHO, not worth watching. There are few high end audio components for sale at that price point, and certainly none that will do all what some of us in the masses would like them to do; (although there is that Furutech GT40 with 24/96 ADC/DAC and phono input for $450 I've heard about, but I haven't been able to track down more info; even an e-mail to the company was not answered). For some of us, trying to piecemeal the components to do all of what I'd like them to do would take far too much money and too much time; for what? To listen to Earth Crisis, Violent Work of Art, and (hed) PE?

Being one of the *masses* as referred to above, I can tell you that it seems unlikely people who like 128Kbps MP3s are going to go for anything more sophisticated than the so-called Redbook recordings. Personally, I remember hanging around Stereo Showcase in Vallejo, California, back in the 1970s when someone was putting on a seminar (?) on why flat speakers were better than anything else. His reasoning was that flat speakers would deliver their sound from all drivers at the same time to your ears. He had pretty graphs to prove it. I can't help but wonder what that guy or his speaker company would think about some of the fantastic designs in speaker cabinets today. Then, as now, I can see no reason to upgrade what is questionably better equipment (as discussed here and on other audiophile websites), or pay more for media discs (that already cost $15-$20) when the equipment to reproduce that sound in a noticeably better manner to my ears, is equally expensive. Of course, if I weren't mildly interested in improving some of my sound equipment, I wouldn't be perusing these websites.

Count me in as having trouble with Play. It started up ok, but didn't pull in all of the track info. Out of 4500+ music files (mostly AIFF, with a couple hundred MP3s) it came up with file info for 16 MP3s. I could not find the help I needed at its website, either. Running Snow Leopard on a late 2009 Intel iMac. Songbird is really nice if I can just figure out how to level the volume across songs. Any ideas?

Copy editor at a small newspaper in the southeastern desert of California.

Eloise, again thanks. I downloaded songbird today; after just a couple hours of shuffle play, it seems to be doing a good job. It pulls in the album art, band history and song lyrics (when possible). Seems fairly easy to use so far. Is it as good sonically as itunes? My system wouldn't know. Again, thanks, ry Edit: After another day of using Songbird, i've noticed it has doesn't keep the output volume consistent. It makes it a little awkward to control the volume, especially for an apartment dweller. I have to pay closer attention. Of course, iTunes had a similar problem, just not as bad.

Nice comments Scot. Thanks for that list. It gives me hope for my fledgling systems.

Bob, you are exactly right. When I first started using iTunes -- only two months ago -- it was supposed to rip my cds using artist, name of album, track number, song title; and it did so for several cds. Now that the computer is ensconced in my home, it does what it wants, and laughs in my face while telling me the vista laptop is just 10 feet away, and i can use that if I'm unhappy. In reality, I visit CA to research some of the hardware I'm hoping to buy for my computer audio setup and my home stereo set up (both quite modest compared to what I've seen around here).

Eloise, thanks for your interest. iTunes puts tracks it's unsure of into folders by artists' names, and then inside of another folder it calls "unknown album," i think it is. When I ripped my cd collection I thought that was odd, and I did have my preferences selected to allow iTunes to keep my media folder organized. I'm just not sure anymore if iTunes and I have the same definition of organized. When I put a number of MP3s (I've been replacing those with AIFFs as I go along) on the external hard drive, I put them all into an folder called MP3s, but iTunes, when it plays any of the MP3s, moves them into a different folder it creates with the artist's name and into an "unknown album" folder. There are many folders with only one file in them; it seems a waste. The other annoying thing it does is, it all-too-often it puts music files in a "best of" album folder if it doesn't recognize a cd, especially an older one. Also, just tonight, as I was listening to a variety of music, I found that iTunes only ripped have the files on Budgie's best of cd. I hope the Budgie cd is the only one it didn't fully rip because I just finished ripping all of my cds and didn't really check to see if all the songs were ripped. As far as Songbird, I have not checked it out, though I do recall seeing it was recommended, and I did check it out briefly, but I don't remember why I did not download it. I'll look into it further. Had not heard of Play; will check it out. Thanks for the tip on setting up an iTunes account. I will definitely look into that. I don't buy music files online. I prefer to buy the cd and rip it, so I cannot see giving a credit card number to iTunes (not that I have a problem buying things online, mind you).

In an ideal world for me, Winamp would be available for use on my late 2009 Intel iMac. As with the golf gods, it doesn't look good for me. I have come to the conclusion that iTunes is not the best it can be, and I'm wondering if anybody can suggest a good alternative. Why? Because despite my (best?) efforts, iTunes will not adjust the volume for all of my AIFF files (Betty Blowtorch and The Briggs are always significantly louder), it has no clue how to properly keep a media folder organized, demands a credit card number to create an iTunes account (something i only want so i can download album images), and refuses to allow me to drag and drop files from my external hard drive onto an unnamed playlist while also not allowing me to right-click and enqueue the song onto my playlist. Yes, Winamp spoiled me. I don't create playlists, per se, because if not listening to music at random (shuffle), I like to add songs based on what i want to hear at the moment. So, I guess I don't like iTunes. Any suggestions for other software, or tips on how I can force iTunes to do what I want, and not what Steve Jobs thinks I want?

Being the kind who prefers holding the media in my hand, so i can listen or manipulate, i noticed there were some albums, like the doors' strange days for sale at 9.99 on one page, but 24.99 on a second page. i sent them an email; don't expect to hear back.