# MP3 Sermon Audio



## AV1611 (Mar 30, 2007)

How is Sermon Audio for MP3s?


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## historyb (Mar 30, 2007)

Do you mean the quality or quantity?


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## AV1611 (Mar 30, 2007)

historyb said:


> Do you mean the quality or quantity?



Quality, I have been thinking about buying an MP3 player to listen to sermons but not sure if i should bother...


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## historyb (Mar 30, 2007)

I have listened to a few and those seem to be good quality, but I'm no expert there. Sorry about not helping much


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## Blueridge Believer (Mar 30, 2007)

My experience has been good. It does vary though between the different preachers. Some are better that others on the sound quality.


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## Chris (Mar 30, 2007)

I've got a really old 64MB .mp3 player, so I actually prefer lower-quality audio. 

I've got sermons encoded across a wide range of bitrates, and really don't see any disadvangtage to the lower bitrates, quality-wise. 

This would be different, of course, if I were listening in a controlled environment. Most of the time, I'm outside with noise around me anyway.


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## Bondman (Mar 30, 2007)

I've been listening to Pastor Steven Dilday from sermon audio on my way to work with a cheap mp3 player and I have greatly benefited from this.

This is especially a great idea for anyone with a long commute. Just get an FM transmitter ($20) and hook it up to your player. I don't have any problems with quality.


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## Ravens (Mar 30, 2007)

Actually, the few Stephen Dilday sermons I've listened to have all been fuzzy. Like someone said, it varies from preacher to preacher. I would assume it depends on the quality of recording equipment they use, how they transfer it, convert it, whatever, etc.

However, most of the best ones (in my opinion, of course) have very good audio, e.g., Brian Schwertley, David Silversides, John Greer, etc. I would say 80% of the stuff I've downloaded is of great quality, and if something is fuzzy or low quality... move along.


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## Ravens (Mar 30, 2007)

Also:

I mean...

it *is* free. So poke around for awhile and see for yourself.


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## JM (Mar 30, 2007)

AV1611 said:


> Quality, I have been thinking about buying an MP3 player to listen to sermons but not sure if i should bother...



DO IT!

My wife won her mp3 player at work and I hijacked it, this was a few years ago, I use it all the time. I loved using SermonAudio so much I bought a mp3 disc player, now I burn discs with hours upon hours of sermons and listen at work. Some days I listen to 5 or 6 hours of sermons! 

j


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## polemic_turtle (Mar 30, 2007)

There are excellent sermons available, brother! My iPod is one of the best investments I've ever made! I've got lectures on systematic theology, ethics( all three branches: normative, situational, and personalistic ), history of philosophy, Christian philosophy, Church history, economics, apologetics, exegetical studies, Bible surveys, debates( Gun control, Existence of God, Trinity vs Modalism, homosexuality, JWs, Open theism, Islam/Judaism/Christianity, etc ), university lectures, seminary lectures, you name it, I've got it.

It's simply the best idea ever, in my opinion, if you've got any time to kill away from home. I love to listen to lectures or podcasts while driving at my construction job; I listen to probably about 4 or 5 hours on a good day, while getting paid! Of course it doesn't always make sense for me to listen to lectures and thereby be distracted, but when you can, you simply should. Ohhhhhhh, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it!!!

*2 cents*


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## fredtgreco (Mar 30, 2007)

I don't like the sound quality of SermonAudio - it is very low bit rates (16kbps usually). The sound has a "tin-like" quality. I personally have our sermons recorded at 64 kbps and I think the sound quality is much better. Having said that sermon audio has an unsurpassed distribution system. I don't know any place that has as many sermons as it does. The other thing they can be very helpful is, in many churches who publish on sermon audio maintain a shorter archive of sermons on their own website as well, at higher bit rates. So you can get to those websites from sermon audio.

In general, however, there are just a ton of MP3s sermons available on the web. It is a gold mine.


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## AV1611 (Mar 31, 2007)

Thanks guys! I bought myself the second cheapest MP3 player I could find off Amazon for 20 quid. My commute if 2 hrs per day so thought I would put it to some good use.


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## HanleyBri (Mar 31, 2007)

*SermonAudio.com/Quality Recording*

SermonAudio.com does identify good audio with the words "_Quality Recording_" on the play button. 

You can see this with Pastor Anthony Dallison's sermons from NC.
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?sermonID=3250719264


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## Semper Fidelis (Mar 31, 2007)

AV1611 said:


> Quality, I have been thinking about buying an MP3 player to listen to sermons but not sure if i should bother...



Richard,

Just remember that SermonAudio is not the only reason to get an MP3 player. I fill my hours up with Podcasts and none of them are from SermonAudio.


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## AV1611 (Mar 31, 2007)

SemperFideles said:


> Richard,
> 
> Just remember that SermonAudio is not the only reason to get an MP3 player. I fill my hours up with Podcasts and none of them are from SermonAudio.



Well this is embarasing...what are podcasts?

I have listend to Rev. Campbell with much profit: http://www.backfreechurch.co.uk/index.jsp


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## Semper Fidelis (Mar 31, 2007)

AV1611 said:


> Well this is embarasing...what are podcasts?
> 
> I have listend to Rev. Campbell with much profit: http://www.backfreechurch.co.uk/index.jsp



Podcasts are like Sermon Audio but Sermon Audio is just one of thousands of places on the Internet where people record something, place it online, and then allow you to subscribe to regular content.

Check out this page of those Podcasts that PuritanBoard members like:

http://www.puritanboard.com/local_links.php?catid=29


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## AV1611 (Mar 31, 2007)

Thanks


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## non dignus (Mar 31, 2007)

I download all of Bob Vincent's stuff on SermonAudio'

This is good too:

http://www.upper-register.com/mp3s.html


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## Semper Fidelis (Mar 31, 2007)

David,

I wouldn't be pushing Lee Irons' site here too much:



> My wife Misty is a writer and homeschooler. She runs a website and a blog in which she reflects on the relationship between homosexuality and Christianity: Musings On and More Musings On.


In which Misty argues for Christians to allow for Gay Civil Union.

Whether or not Irons has some occasional pearls of wisdom, I think his theology is incredibly unstable and would not recommend him to any novice.


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## crhoades (Mar 31, 2007)

Two words: Joel Beeke. Hundreds of .mp3's on sermon audio.


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## non dignus (Mar 31, 2007)

Thank you, Rich. 
I was unsure of his status here. None of his mp3s are pushing a gay agenda, and I appreciate his fervor for Meredith Kline's perspective.


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## non dignus (Mar 31, 2007)

polemic_turtle said:


> There are excellent sermons available, brother! My iPod is one of the best investments I've ever made! I've got lectures on systematic theology, ethics( all three branches: normative, situational, and personalistic ), history of philosophy, Christian philosophy, Church history, economics, apologetics, exegetical studies, Bible surveys, debates( Gun control, Existence of God, Trinity vs Modalism, homosexuality, JWs, Open theism, Islam/Judaism/Christianity, etc ), university lectures, seminary lectures, you name it, I've got it.
> 
> It's simply the best idea ever, in my opinion, if you've got any time to kill away from home. I love to listen to lectures or podcasts while driving at my construction job; I listen to probably about 4 or 5 hours on a good day, while getting paid! Of course it doesn't always make sense for me to listen to lectures and thereby be distracted, but when you can, you simply should. Ohhhhhhh, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it!!!
> 
> *2 cents*




 

I'm a house painter so I listen to sermons and lectures about 6 hours a day. I feel extremely blessed that God has called me to this kind of service.


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## Semper Fidelis (Mar 31, 2007)

non dignus said:


> Thank you, Rich. I was unsure of his status here. None of his mp3s are pushing a gay agenda, and I appreciate his fervor for Meredith Kline' perspective.



I'm not saying he's a banned topic. I just think that if you want to show that Kline's theology is worthy of consideration, you can do better than a guy whose wife advocates gay civil union and a man who quit the ministry (OPC) in lieu of accepting the discipline of the Church in which he took a vow to uphold the WCF.

As I stated, he's unstable. I listen to Doug Wilson occassionally but I don't recommend him to anyone.


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## AV1611 (Mar 31, 2007)

SemperFideles said:


> I listen to Doug Wilson occassionally but I don't recommend him to anyone.



Interesting you say that; on Wednesday past I was at our housegroup social where the leader chose a book review on Wilson's literature on marraiage entitled "Promises for Future Men" from _The Briefing_. He did not know who Wilson was so I made it clear.


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## JM (Mar 31, 2007)

crhoades said:


> Two words: Joel Beeke. Hundreds of .mp3's on sermon audio.



Dr. Beeke!


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## gwine (Apr 1, 2007)

From the OPC website you can go to their audio sermons link page and find many OPC sermons. I would imagine the PCA does the same.

And Covenant Theological Seminary's has over 20 topics with multiple MP3s on each one. The website Apologetics Audio is nice, too.

There is waaaaay too much out there. It used to be, "so many books, so little time". Now we have to apply it to the audio portion of our lives.


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