[LAU] A while back someone was looking for an audio player that works fine with Linux?

[david]

bernie arai wrote:

> On 4/30/07, *david* <gnome at hawaii.rr.com <mailto:gnome at hawaii.rr.com>> 
> wrote:
> 
>     Awhile back, someone on the list was asking about an MP3 player type of
>     thing that could also be used as a portable music recording device.
> 
>     An audiophile friend of mine has an iAudio LX5 or XL5 (something like
>     that, I forget the last part of the model). It has a very very clean
>     stereo line-in connection, and can record audio as FLAC or WAV. He's
>     been using it to digitize his collection of vinyl albums. Tonight we
>     listened to the digitized version of a performance of Handel's concerti
>     grossi (the vinyl is over 40 years old). The digitized sound quality was
>     marvelous.
> 
>     It works beautifully with Linux - just plug in the USB cable and his
>     Linux systems see the 30GB hard drive with no problems. 
> 
> i have the x5 (less battery, 30gb) and recommend it highly as well.  how 
> does your friend get FLAC or WAV recording from the line in?  i can only 
> record to mp3.  maybe i need a firmware update?

Sorry, I checked with my friend, and it only records MP3 from line in. 
Here's what my friend said to me:

"That's true. The default for line in recording is a fixed, 128K stream. 
You can bump that in increments to 320K. What you heard was a 320k 
recording, edited in Audacity to remove some clicks, normalize the 
volume, and then exported to WAV. I then used Lame with its "--preset 
standard" to convert back to MP3. Typically, the conversion averages 
around 200k. LPs use a higher bit rate than CDs (typically 20-30k), not 
because they have more music information on them, but because Lame tries 
to render the distortions of an LP accurately."

> my only gripes about the x5 are the limited way of browsing the 
> collection (only a basic file browser) and the fact that you need to use 
> an adapter/dongle for a line-in jack (and usb and power and line out).

My friend does all his browsing using Konqueror on his computer. I saw 
the dongle, seemed like it was worth it to me for the quality. I think 
without the dongle, you're limited to recording using the built-in mic?

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community