CD Players for Audio-Strobe and MP3's?

Can anyone recommend a portable CD player that works with the audio-strobe cds and also plays mp3s (and shows you what the track name is of the mp3, not just the track number)?
Also, is it possble to make mp3's from the audio-strobe discs?

I think most of them will show the name of the track. I bought a little Sony one a few years back which worked fine.

If you use a higher bit-rate, like 192k or higher, people have said that the Audio-Strobe function will still work when converting from CD to MP3.

-Andy

Maybe I need to expand this question. What are the requirements for a CD player to play the audio-strobe CD's? I've tried them in several and get the music but they won't do anything with the lights on my Proteus. I've tried them with my portable Panasononic SL-SX430 (which will play mp3s okay, but only shows the track number), and I've tried them with two different cd players in computers, and also a dvd player in a computer.
All will play the music, but don't change the lights when connected to the Proteus. My big Sony home-theater type dvd and cd player does work with the Proteus, but that's sort of inconvenient.
So, what is it about these players that make them not usable with audio-strobe? And it's not just audio-strobe, I've got some other meditation cds that don't fully function in the computer cd players, and also I've tried ripping those to mp3 and some tracks rip okay and some go on for hours and hours and never finish. Those are the ones that have "holographic sound" supposedly.
My son thinks the problem is that some cd players don't have a wide enough frequency range. With my panasonic, it has the anti-skip that you can't disable, which I've read here is a problem, but I doubt the computer ones have anti-skip.

I'm sorry, but I don't really know.
The CD player has to be able to reproduce 19khz, but I would think that the player would have to be an extremely cheap one to not be able to do that. So I don't know why some work and some don't. MP doesn't make the AS discs and did not invent the format. I believe they were invented in Germany. (http://www.audiostrobe.de/englishX/frameset.php) Although I'm sure they don't recommend converting the CDs to MP3s.

The Sony I have is not made anymore, so you couldn't buy it if you wanted to. If you're in the USA, why not buy one from a place like Best Buy where you can try it out for a few days and return it if it doesn't work for you? You can find out at the store which ones show track names (although I would imagine that they all do).

Maybe if someone else has purchased a CD player recently they'll chime in with a model suggestion...

Sorry I couldn't be more help!

-Andy.

Interesting topic. I did some searching for specs on the Panasonic portable CD player and it appears to have a significant rolloff (-7dB) at the top end. This would surely be enough to affect the AudioStrobe encoding at 19.2kHz.

Found a forum discussion on it that suggests a manual typo, but one post claims to have found same degree of rolloff in several models that year (2004). Here is the discussion thread.

And here is the Panasonic PDF manual with its +0.5 to -7dB range stated.

That should explain problem I imagine.

Richard
I've played my audistrobe CD"s on a few different cheap CD players and not have any major problem. I think some AS CD's are better encoded than others though, with a signal that is more forgiving for different players. What I do have a problem with is that the brightness of the AS light response can be effected by the level of the signal, and my Procyon does not have an independent volume control. On my bedside CD/Clock Radio, if I turned up the volume adequately, the lights just stay on constantly , and when I turn down the volume so the AS show is behaving correctly the volume is a little dim. I think many CD players have idoisynchrosies ( sp) . AS doesn't work in Anti Skip mode because that uses audio heavily compressed to a small amount of memory. If one doesn't work just try another one.

I ditched CD players and use my Audiostrobe CD's on a small Mp3 player velcroed to my Proteus. I have 7 AS CD's and about 20 ambient albums MP3'd at 320kbps variable bit rate, which takes about 120mb per album. The AS works perfectly and I also like to listen to ambient albums and run a program or control the lights myself . When running your own show to ambient music you can switch off the binaural beats with deft control of the binaural beat pitch ! You can pick up 4gb Mp3 players now on Ebay for $40.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my $60 Creative Bluetooth cordless headphones. The sender unit is quite compact : should be able to velcro it to the main body of the Proteus/Procyon. I hate wires and reducing cords to just the glasses will take things to a new level for me.

Hope this helps.

These are the steps for converting AS cd to mp3. I recently purchased a very inexpensive mp3 player, m200 by Bay Consumer $20.00, and have had excellent results using the converted file. I used a freeware mp3 conversion utility.

- Jim

Converting Sound Files

There are a variety of digital sound file formats that can be used to transfer your AVS session to an audio player or CD. Here are the most common formats and their relation to AVS:

Converting wav to MP3 files
You may also quickly and easily convert your encoded .wav files to MP3. Set parameters as follows:

1. Start your third-party converter program

2. Set bit rate slider to highest quality 320kb

3. Click advanced options. Set Encoding to Variable bitrate / high

4. Set Preset Quality to Very High

5. Click OK and then begin conversion of your .wav file

WAV Files ? WAV files are usually what is exported from AVS software. This format is as high quality as it gets, and is standard enough that it will be compatible with every media player or CD burning software on the market. Unfortunately, WAV files also take up a lot of space: an hour long AVS session in WAV form can easily fill up your audio player. With audio CDs, however, this is not an issue, since it is the length of the song, not the format of the sound file that consumes space on an audio CD.

WMA and OGG Files ? WMA and OGG files are basically the same as MP3s with one exception: they tend to work better with AudioStrobe. If you are in the market for a portable audio player like an iPod, choose one that supports WMA or OGG files if you can.

Actually I meant to say in my last post *not* Variable Bit Rate. VBR gives better compression but uses an algorythm that varies the bit rate depending on the density of data, but tries to keep the average high. I've always switched it off to maintain a constant high bit rate. That being said I have found AS files still work at 192 kbps so I may be being overly pedantic.

I bought a Goodmans 4GB MP3 player before I discovered this forum. It appears to have very low output and the glasses do not work at all. The same Mp3s work ok from my PC so I'm assuming the bitrate is right(set at 320 without the variable setting). Shame to have to go back to the shop and buy another - there's no chance of trying before buying here.

Anyone found anything not too expensive that's a certainty?


Thanks
LarryT

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LarryT

I bought a Goodmans 4GB MP3 player before I discovered this forum. It appears to have very low output and the glasses do not work at all.

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Hi Larry;

Are you using the Proteus or Procyon? If you're using the Procyon you could try increasing the AS gain from within the Editor.

-Andy.

I'm using the Proteus.
I've tried all sorts of tweaks and prodding but I think the output is just too low. The volume at full is not very clear. It didn't occur to me that it might not work - just blithely wandered into a blind purchase.

That's too bad, Larry!

I assume that you checked to see if your MP3 player had a volume limiter that could maybe be defeated? Many new players limit the volume for saftey reasons but often that limiter can be disabled.

-Andy.

It was a very unsophisticated model with very few features beyond selecttion and volume control. I say was because it stopped working looking like the circuits had been fried. I had the store give me a refund which went towards a Wharfedale 8GB and more modern model. This one works fine.
Thanks for your time, I can now hallucinate anywhere :)

I just tested the Procyon with my mp3 phone: w810i

At first it wouldn't work, but after checking out this tread i managed to get it working using the following:

AIMP2 (like winamp & has built in converter software)

Encoding settings:
MP3 output @ 256kbs (192kbs didn't work for me)
CBR encoding (not AVR or VBR)
Dual Chanel (not stereo or joint stereo encoding)


Works great, thanks :)

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BTW:
I have to push the volume of my mp3 phone to 90-95% to make it work.