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| PC | 53% | 199 votes | Total: 375 votes | |
| Mac | 47% | 176 votes |
PC
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Add to FavoritesThe PC has iTunes and Windows Media Player. One made by the multi-million dollar company Microsoft and the other by the struggling company Apple. Apple on the other hand only has the iTunes software for multimedia files. iTunes plays the MPEG formats very well but, has to convert the Windows Media Formats for playback. As a result the PC is better suited for the music-minded as it allows more doors to be opened.
Though, Apple is currently having a hard time in the computer industry it has managed to grab more than seventy percent of the music industry. There popular software, iTunes, works on both Windows and Mac. As a result the Mac has no reason to say that the PC can't compete.
The PC has support for more MP3 players then the Mac does. Since Windows systems support the Windows Media Formats (*.wma,*.wmv) it opens up even more MP3 players. Some that are even more reasonably priced then the iPod. For example you got iRiver, Microsoft Zune, and other MP3 players. These can support several formats and even get music for cheaper then iTunes using the Napster environment.
All in all for music the Windows platform has more options for those who are music minded. They support more formats and have more MP3 players to choose from.
Learn more about this author, Travis Pessetto.
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Mac
Many people who know me would find it hard to understand why I'd say that Mac is better than PC at anything. For over 20 years, all of my computers have run windows, after all. However, as a computer engineer, I was also cross-trained in Mac and can use them easily as well.
It has actually been asked quite often of me, which is best, Mac or PC. Frankly, both are great for certain purposes. These really haven't changed much in the last ten years, though Windows Vista did narrow the gap. From the inception of both, Mac has been better for sound and video, while PC has been better for everything else.
There is a reason why major music recording studios and movie studios use Macs. While they are more expensive than a comparable PC, they have better sound and video reproducing abilities. In the case of large companies, Apple is also very happy to design computers to fit their needs, for a price.
Examples of how well it works can be found in both the remix of Natalie Cole, singing with her late father, Nat King Cole, and in the graphics in the movie Terminator. Both were done using Mac computers.
A large part of this is in the abilities of the Apple RISC processor. Again, PC narrowed the gap when the dual processors came into production. Yet, it isn't quite the same thing, and PC hasn't concentrated on music and video. It isn't a matter of if they can or not, because Windows can make it competitive. However, Microsoft has been concentrating on what the majority of people are most interested in. Music is usually low on the list of what computer users say they are looking for in a computer.
There isn't much difference in music playback ability between the two operating systems. Most of the difference is in recording, mastering, and remixing of the music. With the right software, this can still be done on a PC, but it tends to be bulky in operation and the quality generally isn't quite as high as with the Mac.
This is to say that since Macs generally cost more than a comparably equipped PC, if the only desire is to listen to music, a person is just as well off saving money and going with a PC. If the goal is music composition, Mac holds the edge, if the monetary difference between Macs and PCs isn't an issue.
Learn more about this author, Rex Trulove.
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