Replacement for school CD player/library?

[TheNiceGuy]

Hello all
We're looking for an audio player that can be used in class settings. We've been using CD players and a large library of expensive CDs (educational material). This can get a bit disorganized and over the years a couple of CDs have gone missing and more scratched.
I'm currently trying to make a harddisc library of all the CD for replacement (EAC program?).
Is there a good replacement for this setup? We need 2 units that are portable, tough, easy to use, loud, and not too expensive. Any ideas?
I was thinking maybe convert all the CDs to MP3 in some kind of all-in-one digital portable boombox or something. The audio quality doesn't need to be clinical, just decent.
Thanks

EDIT:
What's a resonable format/style to archive all our audio CDs to harddrive? I just tried uncompressed wave file, in FLAC format.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

If you're using EAC (since you mentioned it) + lame (mp3) I think you'll be gold /shrug

-V 4 --vbr-new %source% %dest%

This is what I use to archive my music collection and without an $80+ head phones, I can't tell the difference between the lossy version and the CD. That's not to say someone else can't tell the difference, but in the class room I doubt most anyone would be able to tell the difference on the kind of equipment likely to be used for playback, unless you're getting a $300+ sub and everything else to go with it!

As for the components for holding the MP3s and playing the audio, there are a lot of options.

You could ipod or cheap mp3 player + most any computer speakers. There's really cheap computer speakers that come default with most oem desktops, and then there's nice sets that'll have your apartment building neighbor knocking on his ceiling with a broom. That said, price can vary wildly.

You could probably find some kind of mp3 playing boombox. That, however, very well may leave you relying on optical discs as quite a lot of them simply play mp3 CDs. I haven't seen very many that will take an SD card, but that may be an option too. I have seen quite a few boombox kind of systems that will dock an ipod, though.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Maybe the iPod boom box is best. I need something compact to be portable without loose cables etc for kids to trip on. And I need 2 of whatever I get, so not too expensive.
One step at a time though. I just attempted to burn an audio cd from the saved cd, and it kept refuseing it. I followed the recommendations for saving, which took a while (about 20 min). All done with EAC.
First step, I just want an archive of our CDs that can easily be burned and used on cheap CD players when needed.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Maybe the iPod boom box is best. I need something compact to be portable without loose cables etc for kids to trip on. And I need 2 of whatever I get, so not too expensive.
One step at a time though. I just attempted to burn an audio cd from the saved cd, and it kept refuseing it. I followed the recommendations for saving, which took a while (about 20 min). All done with EAC.
First step, I just want an archive of our CDs that can easily be burned and used on cheap CD players when needed.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

Maybe the iPod boom box is best. I need something compact to be portable without loose cables etc for kids to trip on. And I need 2 of whatever I get, so not too expensive.
One step at a time though. I just attempted to burn an audio cd from the saved cd, and it kept refuseing it. I followed the recommendations for saving, which took a while (about 20 min). All done with EAC.
First step, I just want an archive of our CDs that can easily be burned and used on cheap CD players when needed.

If the ipod boombox idea is going to work well for you conceptually, why would you need to burn any CDs?

How about instead, convert what you have to another file format that the ipod will play (mp3 or aac or whatever else), put those conversions on an external hard drive (to aid in portability for you to manage the collection: home, school, or whatever), put the contents of that hard drive into itunes or whatever program will help you migrate those files to the ipod and then dock the ipod into the boombox that's compatible.

This way, if someone steals an ipod, you still have the external hard drive with all your disc ripping hard work that will allow you to quickly get another ipod up and running again.

Whatever you do, check for compatibility between the ipod and the boombox. As I understand it, the newest i gadgets are requiring a different connection? I'm not sure, don't own an ipod/phone.

 

[olds]

I'd worry that if the equipment was ipod related that a kid would steal it.