Large storage device for playing MP3's for n00bs?

Moyglish

Hi all,

First of all, I'm not sure if I'm posting in the correct forum, so apologies if not, and feel free to move somewhere more appropriate mods.

As part of a gift for my parents this Christmas, I'm planning on ripping all of their beloved CD's and if I'm feeling adventurous enough, possibly their old cassette tapes also.

They have a bazillion CD's and tapes scattered all over the place and they're forever losing CD's, getting them scratched, CD's in the wrong cases etc.. so I think it's about time they switched over to digital music as to be honest, with their collection so disorganized, I'm sure that there's lots of bands and music that they don't get to listen too cause it's too much of a pain to hunt down the CD for it!

So, my question to all of you knowledgeable follk is..

Once I have all of their media digitized, what kind of device can I get that could store - say, 50GB, of music and has built in speakers to play it?

Something fairly easy to use too - d'mother can barely use a smartphone, so something easy to navigate and use is a must.

Or alternatively, if I put everything onto say a 500GB hard drive, is there any sort of audio device out there that they could simply plug the hard drive in to and play music through that?

I know you can play music files on TV's via USB and hard drive or with media players, but I want to get them something they'll be able to listen music through without the need for the TV to be on.

A mobile phone won't cut it as they have a lot of music, plus the speakers wouldn't be great. Not too sure if an iPod would be suitable either.. I'm thinking of storage and output capabilities.

Or even, is there any device that could be plugged into a CD player or similar so the music could be played through that?

I'm pretty new to all of this, as you can tell by my post - personally, I'm quite happy with my phone and laptop for my musical needs, but they're used to a radio/CD player type set up, so looking for something similar or along those lines if possible..

Any advice or suggestions at all would be great!

Thanks very much!

Custardpi

Have you considered something like an internet radio? I have the Roberts 83i myself & it's great for being able to access a wide variety of international stations, perfect if you like discovering new music. It also allows you to connect a usb drive or to pair with another device on your home network, so you can browse through & play music files stored on a PC etc. Provided folders on the usb drive/pc are set up reasonably logically it's pretty easy to navigate.

Moyglish

Hi there,

I actually hadn't, I've heard of them alright obviously, but can't say I know much about them.

Can you definitely plug in a large storage HD into them? If so, that would probably be ideal!

Thanks so much for replying, I'll definitely check them out now!

Custardpi

I'd assume a large storage HD could be connected yes, though there might be limits to it. I've used mine with a 16gb usb drive as well as connecting to my laptop over my home network, both of which worked fine. Best bet is maybe to have a look at one in a store with an idea of how you'd want to use it & get out of it & see if you think it would be suitable for your parents needs.

you can run a player through a hifi using the sound in through a cable from the earphone slot of the player to the in cd player or hifi unit.
one plug into the player going to 2 in the hifi usually.

bascially you need a player and storage

for a player I guess that you need something with a decent screen size and one that has good capacity.

this player will take 128gb memory cards. (enough for 700 albums at mp3 320 variable bit rate). it's only coming out next week.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-X1-Hi-Res-MP3-Player/dp/B00MWWE6WW/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411995821&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=fioo+x1

and here is a memory card
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-microSDXC-Adapter-Android-SDSDQUA-128G-U46A/dp/B00IIJ6W4S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411995773&sr=8-1&keywords=256gb+micro+sd

you can then rip the cd's onto the memory card (rip at 320k vbr mp3). use a ripper program that can recognise the cd so the song names are put into the mp3 filenames. put into player and play through existing speakers. using the player to select the music, using a cable like this to connect to hifi / cd player

http://www.amazon.co.uk/3-5mm-Phono-Stereo-Audio-Cable/dp/B000Q6LSVS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1411996331&sr=8-2&keywords=line+out+cable

another option is to get a smartphone with a micro sd slot that can take 64gb micro sd card (don't think will take 128gb) and get a decent bluetooth set like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Wireless-Bluetooth-Speakers-technology/dp/B00FGWYIJ6/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1411998186&sr=1-6&keywords=stereo+bluetooth+speakers+20w

64gb will hold 350 albums. plus, only the smartphone to learn, not another device.

Morf

128 gb mini sd cards are too expensive at the moment to be sensible.

64gb have taken a big drop in price though thankfully.

Wouldn't a Sansa player do with a male to male cable rather than a Fiio X1 when only 320kbps mp3s are being looked at?

Surely a Fiio or the like should be reserved for lossless files.

Morf

Morf wrote: »

128 gb mini sd cards are too expensive at the moment to be sensible.

64gb have taken a big drop in price though thankfully.

Wouldn't a Sansa player do with a male to male cable rather than a Fiio X1 when only 320kbps mp3s are being looked at?

Surely a Fiio or the like should be reserved for lossless files.

well I suggested the x1 as it takes 128gb cards as the op mentioned that they had a lot of music. but I think that the second solution is better - smartphone with 64gb card and decent wired bluetooth speakers. 64gb card could still do ~400 to 450 albums at 140mb an album(320 vbr is about 140mb or less for average album).wouldn't fancy ripping all those cd's though! sandisk players could be a bit small to view for oldies. maybe the fuze but not sure if that can take 64gb cards without rockboxing.

Morf

I doubt even 320 VBR would be necessary.

You're not going to get great quality rips from old cassettes. The vinyl mastering will be wasted and the parents in question don't come across as particularly audiophiles so 256kbps would probably do if space was an issue.

A half decent android smart phone with a 64gb micro SD card might be a good option with the possibility of getting a paid for music player app if the stock one is poor.

CD ripping is soul destroying. Especially since newer DVD drives seem to rip a lot slower than old CDR/CDRW drives did.

I thought the current crop of Sansa players all took 64gb cards without checking to be sure.

was thinking of the cd's there - forgot about the tapes!


fuze + 32 listed as max capacity on official site.
http://www.sandisk.com/products/music-video-players/fuze-plus/

anyways as I said I think that bluetooth speakers and smartphone is the way to go for the OP. these ones seem better than the other ones that I linked.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DUBIZ7G/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk