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Sunday, September 26, 2004

I haven't had a chance to update the blog recently--I've been too busy with my latest diversion: ripping my CD collection. I'm trying to get it copied to my newly-purchased iRiver H140. I'd been putting off getting an MP3 player for a long time. (I actually bought an Iomega HipZip a few years ago but I took it back because it lacked the capacity I needed). But, when my colleage showed up with a Gateway MP3 jukebox, it really got my gears turning. So, I did some research. I originally thought I'd get an iPod but after looking around, the iRiver seemed like a better deal. Upgradeable firmware, replaceable battery, an FM tuner, and better sound quality were all reasons I chose to go with the iRiver. One of the reasons I'd been putting off the purchase was that nothing had the capacity to hold my entire collection. I figured, if I had to do a bunch of swapping due to limited space, there wasn't much point--I already do that with CDs. At 40GB that won't be a problem (at least for a while). I'm nearly done copying more than 400 albums to the device and it is not quite at 50%. This weekend I added an audio input to my car. I wanted decent quality--no FM broadcaster or cassette interface for me. So I went for an interface from Blitzsafe which I purchased from Autotoys.com. I had Ultimate Electronics do the installation. Now, I can take my entire collection on the road. The Blitzsafe interface plugs in to my CD changer input. I can hit the CD button once for my MP3 player and again for my in-dash CD player. It works great. No more agonizing over the 10 or 20 CDs to take on the next road trip. For the home system I'm set up as well. The iRiver has an optical out on it. I'm out of optical inputs on my receiver so I had to buy an optical-to-digital-coax converter. Other than that, no problem. So, my 300 CD changer has become obsolete and I couldn't be happier. I've only had one minor problem with the iRiver which is that when I play it on my home system it periodically cuts out. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the file--I can back up and play the same spot without problems. Maybe it is a problem with the optical out or my converter. I'll have to do some research. Other than that, I highly recommend it. 11:08:54 PM

© Copyright 2005 Jeff Potts. Last update: 10/13/2005; 5:07:30 PM.