Home Theater: MP3 Contest

In the August issue I initiated a “bold challenge” for you to prove to me that you had more music files than I did. Well I was quite impressed with the number of and the numbers in the responses. And I thought I liked music. Here’s the highlights, in ascending order.

Brodie Wolstenholme
Brodie has over 13,000 music files, with more than 6,000 of them losslessly compressed. Not bad, not bad at all.

Dave Cotell
Dave has 7737 files, but they take up 307 gigabytes. He didn’t specify which encoding he used, but it certainly wasn’t highly compressed with that ratio.

Edit: Dave let me know that it's actually 200 in AAC format and another 7700+ in lossless WAV.

Ryan Mielke
Ryan has “only” 8278 songs, but they’re all Apple Lossless. Nice work.

Frank Bertola
Frank claims he didn’t want to sacrifice any quality, so encoded his 500 CDs as .wav files. 8,207 and 404 GB later, and he claims he’s looking to get additional hard drive soon. I don’t doubt it.

Mark Decker
Mark has 19,814 AAC and MPEG files. HT Contributor and professional pianist John Higgins would approve of his playlist entitled “Rachmaninoff,” so extra points for that.

Ed Ting
In terms of numbers, Ed wins. He has 38,524 mp3s taking up 386 gigabytes. But as I said, those with lossless files get extra points.

Zbigniew Tyrlik
Zbig almost won this thing outright. He has a staggering 28,286 files, all lossless. That’s around 663 gigabytes.

Ben Bowen
But Ben takes the cake. He has, and he sent me screenshots to prove it, over 35 thousand songs. Wait, it gets crazier. Almost all are either lossless or completely uncompressed .wav files. That’s over 1.3 terebytes of data. Now that is dedication. Oddly, more than half are Led Zeppelin bootlegs. How’s that for a resource. Then there’s his backup hard drives…

So who won? I have about 15,000 songs, all encoded as MP3s (wait, don’t yell) almost all at very high bit rates. I still listen to CDs if I’m going to sit down and listen to music, so my files are just for my iPod. Excuses, excuses, I know. The collections of everyone above impressed me, so like I promised they’re all going to get a HD DVD or Blu-ray disc, though perhaps I should have offered to send a new hard drive or two.

One more thing. It took great restraint not to comment on some of the music selections I saw in the supplied screenshots. But I just knew that for every album in my own collection that is nicely esoteric or obscure (say, International Submarine Band) would reveal one that is decidedly not (go Hootie!). That said, I have just one question. What’s with all the ABBA?!? Just kidding. Thanks for all the responses.

< Previous Post | Blog Home | Next Post >

Reader Comments

Posted Tue Aug 7, 2007, 1:55 PM — By Bruce

Holy Crap! 1.3 Terabytes! When I first started reading this article I was like "man, I wish I had known about this, I could've competed" and then BAM! My 160gig hard drive is laughable in comparison. I wonder if I get extra points for having music that I have written and performed on my hard drive, in wav including completed versions and the individual tracks for each song. I still probably wouldn't have enough to get an honorable mention. I would love to go through those song lists though. I want to see what's there and do they have the "cherry cola" or "coca-cola" version of "Lola" and the like. Kudos to you with such grand music collections. I wonder how many of you have given up on radio as I have. Do you get frustrated at work when the satellite radio repeats the same song 2/3 times during your shift. Who pays for this crap? I wonder how well the crates and crates of old vinyls my dad's DJ collection had would compare? Not even close.

Posted Tue Aug 7, 2007, 11:37 PM — By Bruce

Wow, I am a dork amongst geeks. I just checked my collection that I thought was so big and I have just under 3000 songs taking up about 11.5 gigs. I guess its because I don't know who ABBA is. What all do you guys have?

Posted Wed Aug 8, 2007, 3:25 PM — By Bruce

Most of my CDs are gone. When I left for college my sister took my place. Five years later my movies, music and furniture are all trashed. Most of my movies were VHS so I'm not too torn up. I have been rebuilding my collection with help from all of mp3 dot com, sigh. So the sound quality of my music is lacking, but I have not had a good enough system for it to matter, yet. To my credit though, I have deleted mass amounts of my collection because I don't listen to them, like the whole Beatles Anthology. I would rather listen to the original complete versions. Plus, being a musician, I'm picky. I can't listen to talentless music. I'm not a fan of media discs either. I like the Kleidascope/Hanger18 idea. They're a start. I hope this doesn't get me flogged in public. Before you start with the abuse, I am moving, getting a better job and will start on having a HT worthy to watch/listen to high quality stuff. Then we can be friends again.

Posted Wed Aug 8, 2007, 3:51 PM — By Bruce

I also take a big hit from not having complete albums. For instance, I didn't need the whole collection of ELO just for the song "Don't bring me down" because it has my name in it. I'll make a deal with you though Geoffrey. I'll start buying DVD-A/SACDs when you trade those two four bangers for a V8. Hyundai is coming out with a 4.6L 300+hp Tiburon that might be right up your alley. Who am I kidding, once I get a good system in place I will be wanting to use it to its fullest so I will be buying the good stuff anyway.

Posted Thu Aug 9, 2007, 2:22 PM — By Geoffrey Morrison

And I bet it's a crappy iron-block truck engine just like the current V-6!

Posted Thu Aug 9, 2007, 5:44 PM — By Bruce

Hey, it's a Hyundai. What'dya expect? Actually, its supposed to be an all new motor. It sounds alot like my old Northstar V8. I think its funny though. You got GM coming out with the Volt and Hyundai coming out with V8 luxo cars. Was it ten years ago when GM was making gas hogs and Hyundai making disposable cars, or was it less? Anyway, I was at the Chevy dealer last night trading my beautiful Caddy for a Silverado. Long story. In the showroom was the beauty of beauties, the Vette. You know that thing gets 27 mpg. Is that sick or what? So lets get this straight. You could be at a stop light with a VW Rabbit beside your Corvette. You have three times the horsepower. You can run circles around him without even trying and he gets a couple more miles per gallon. That's ridiculous. It gets the same gas mileage with its 6.2L V8 as a 350Z and Maxima. That's engineering. So there you go, get rid of those dinky cars and get a Vette.

Posted Thu Aug 9, 2007, 6:45 PM — By Geoffrey Morrison

It's all in the gearing and lack of drag, but yes, that pushrod V8 is very impressive. Also, the city mileage is a bit misleading. I think it's called skip-shift, they force you to shift from 1st to 4th unless you're flooring it. Annoying, but not a bad idea.

Posted Fri Aug10, 2007, 10:48 AM — By Bruce

I knew a kid that had a Colt that would shift like that. Of course, that probably wasn't good for his car. The only real annoying shifting for me is the German's reverse. I love German cars but why did they put the reverse all the way in the upper left. You have to push down to get it over there. It just doesn't make any sense. I love a stick though. Automatics just don't know exactly what you are doing or what the road is like ahead so they hardly ever shift correctly. I want to try that paddle shifting one day. Looks fun. Umm, were we talking about music? I can't wait until my system is finished. I want to hear some Hilary Hahn play some Brahns or even the Dire Straits "Telegraph Road." Do you have any recommendations do add to my collection that fits somewhere in classical, rock, metal, blues and jazz? I like singers from Ella Fitzgerald to Eddie Vedder and any musician who has talent and skill.

Posted Mon Dec 1, 2008, 7:14 PM — By eree

[url=http://www.inwowefre.com/]wow[/url]

Posted Sun Jul 5, 2009, 11:05 PM — By Cleveland Business Directory

As a Newbie, I am always searching online for information that can help me. Thank you. Please come visit my site Cleveland Yellow Page Business Directory when you got time.

Posted Sun Jul 5, 2009, 11:07 PM — By Cincinnati Business Directory

I found your site on google, great site, keep it up. Will return in the future. Submitted this post to Google News Reader. Please come visit my site Cincinnati Yellow Page Business Directory when you got time.

Posted Tue Jul14, 2009, 3:38 AM — By DrovosekusDD

Случайно наткнулся через гугль! Очень интесно ;) По моему мало развернутая мысль, хотелось б более обширно почиатать.

Posted Sat Aug22, 2009, 11:21 AM — By Nashville Business Directory

sorry to ask this here but… I really love your theme, would it happen to be a free one i can download somewhere, or is it a custom theme you had made? Soon i will be launching my own blog, however i’m not great with designs but i do like the style of your site so it would be excellent if i could find (or buy) something with a similar look as my last designer cannot finish my site. Thanks! Please come visit my site Nashville Yellow Page Business Directory when you got time.

Posted Tue Aug25, 2009, 5:23 AM — By Dallas Business Directory

You may have not intended to do so, but I think you have managed to express the state of mind that a lot of people are in. The sense of wanting to help, but not knowing how or where, is something a lot of us are going through. Please come visit my site Dallas Yellow Page Business Directory when you got time.

Add Comment