Still doing some research on MP3 portables, and looking again at the latest gen iPod's. Is there any GOOD alternative to using MusicMatch to transfer music to an iPod? What about XPlay, is it any good? Other alternatives?
I'm also somewhat concerned if I would have to actually use MusicMatch to encode my MP3's, or is it only used for transferring already-encoded files? Of course I will (or will want to...) be encoding in Lame APS using 3.90.3 binaries.
And that brings me to another question I've been wondering about. I haven't done any listening tests, but I've been wondering what kind of quality I will get by transcoding MPC files (1.14 encoder) at quality 7 to MP3 in APS using Lame 3.90.3. Is this good enough for portable use? Or is there enough of a quality loss that I would be better off to re-encode from CD? I have decent quality Sennheiser MX-300 earbuds (and a set of Sony MDR-Q55SL's) which I will use with whatever portable I buy. And, that is the reason I haven't performed any listening tests... haven't got a portable to test with... B)