- Μηνύματα
- 25.111
- Reaction score
- 20.605
Up and running
Now, let’s get this lovely machine back into one piece, and make some normal use tasks. First of all, MS250 can be used as a plain CD player, but its CD-RW makes lots of mechanical noise, as it happens with most computer based CD drives. Moreover, it is “unfair” to play your CD’s that way, as you’ll never take advantage of your MS250’s full potential. Preferably, before you play a CD, you can rip it to the hard drive and then play it from there. Of course, before you start ripping, it is strongly recommended to name the tracks, (from the Internet or by yourself), or you will find yourself puzzled, browsing lots of tracks named like “Track 01”, “Track 2”, etc.
Every time you rip a CD, you can select which tracks to rip, and in what format. Being able to rip uncompressed where it generates .wav files though, MS250 can rip compressed in MP3 format at 320, 256, 192, 160 or 128Kbps.
As for its playing capabilities, it can play any MP3 file, at a compression rate from 8 up to 320Kbps, including VBR MP3 files. Also, MS250 is able to play MP3Pro files, but recognizes the normal stream only, thus resulting to a clearly poor sound quality due to lack of the frequencies from the high stream. Don’t use MP3Pro files, unless it is absolutely necessary in some special occasions. Concerning WMA files, MS250 is able to play all files of this kind, including those compressed in VBR and WMA Pro as well. According to the sound quality and the recording techniques used, lots of CD’s of contemporary repertoire should be ripped in MP3 format at 256 or 320Kbps (perhaps at a lower bit rate instead, to taste), with sound quality loss of no significance, while other productions are worth ripped uncompressed. When it comes to listening to Internet radio, you can browse the preset Internet stations either by country, genre or their explicit names, (see the following pictures).
Except of ripping music to its hard drive, MS250 is able to make either music or data CD’s, depending what you select from its settings. The machine worked fine with any CD-R or CD-RW I attempted to use, with no problem.
One major complaint I should report is that the machine was transferring files slowly. For example, I attempted to make a backup to my Lexar JD Lightning II USB flash memory module, and that task took about 8 ½ minutes to complete, were the same task from computer to the same flash memory took 55 seconds only. MS250 showed a faster performance with an external USB hard drive; yet again it was by far inferior compared to the PC.
Also, another practical problem is that the machine does not “remember” CD’s ripped in it, a feature quite common in every media playing computer application of today. For examble, if you place a CD in the tray and MS250 will find available an Internet connection, the CD will be identified normally, if of course the appropriate information is available on line. After this, if you turn MS250 off, move it to a different place, where there is no Internet connection available, and turn it back on, the CD will be again unknown, even if it is already ripped to the MS250’s hard drive.
Now, let’s get this lovely machine back into one piece, and make some normal use tasks. First of all, MS250 can be used as a plain CD player, but its CD-RW makes lots of mechanical noise, as it happens with most computer based CD drives. Moreover, it is “unfair” to play your CD’s that way, as you’ll never take advantage of your MS250’s full potential. Preferably, before you play a CD, you can rip it to the hard drive and then play it from there. Of course, before you start ripping, it is strongly recommended to name the tracks, (from the Internet or by yourself), or you will find yourself puzzled, browsing lots of tracks named like “Track 01”, “Track 2”, etc.
Every time you rip a CD, you can select which tracks to rip, and in what format. Being able to rip uncompressed where it generates .wav files though, MS250 can rip compressed in MP3 format at 320, 256, 192, 160 or 128Kbps.
As for its playing capabilities, it can play any MP3 file, at a compression rate from 8 up to 320Kbps, including VBR MP3 files. Also, MS250 is able to play MP3Pro files, but recognizes the normal stream only, thus resulting to a clearly poor sound quality due to lack of the frequencies from the high stream. Don’t use MP3Pro files, unless it is absolutely necessary in some special occasions. Concerning WMA files, MS250 is able to play all files of this kind, including those compressed in VBR and WMA Pro as well. According to the sound quality and the recording techniques used, lots of CD’s of contemporary repertoire should be ripped in MP3 format at 256 or 320Kbps (perhaps at a lower bit rate instead, to taste), with sound quality loss of no significance, while other productions are worth ripped uncompressed. When it comes to listening to Internet radio, you can browse the preset Internet stations either by country, genre or their explicit names, (see the following pictures).
Except of ripping music to its hard drive, MS250 is able to make either music or data CD’s, depending what you select from its settings. The machine worked fine with any CD-R or CD-RW I attempted to use, with no problem.
One major complaint I should report is that the machine was transferring files slowly. For example, I attempted to make a backup to my Lexar JD Lightning II USB flash memory module, and that task took about 8 ½ minutes to complete, were the same task from computer to the same flash memory took 55 seconds only. MS250 showed a faster performance with an external USB hard drive; yet again it was by far inferior compared to the PC.
Also, another practical problem is that the machine does not “remember” CD’s ripped in it, a feature quite common in every media playing computer application of today. For examble, if you place a CD in the tray and MS250 will find available an Internet connection, the CD will be identified normally, if of course the appropriate information is available on line. After this, if you turn MS250 off, move it to a different place, where there is no Internet connection available, and turn it back on, the CD will be again unknown, even if it is already ripped to the MS250’s hard drive.