Ripping CD's

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If you are one of those people who can tell the difference between different bitrates and formats use something else

If you can't use WMP

[Deleted User]

Personally I'm happy with AAC, 192kbit/s (VBR). A happy medium between crap and a huge file size.

AAC was designed to improve on the MP3 format (which was specified in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2) by the ISO/IEC in 11172-3 and 13818-3.

Advanced Audio Coding is designed to be the successor of the MP3 format and demonstrates greater sound quality and transparency than MP3 files coded at the same bit rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

The advantages of VBR are that it produces a better quality-to-space ratio compared to a CBR file of the same data. The bits available are used more flexibly to encode the sound or video data more accurately, with fewer bits used in less demanding passages and more bits used in difficult-to-encode passages.
The disadvantages are that it may take more time to encode, as the process is more complex, and that some hardware might not be compatible with VBR files.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_bitrate

nicks

OMG it all sounds so complicated - lol

[Deleted User]

Not really. Depends how bothered you are. If you're not bothered at all carry on using WMP.

Marty_J

I use 256 kbps VBR AAC files made using iTunes. They sound great on my Shure SE530 earphones, which weren't cheap.

nicks

Just downloading iTunes as I type. WIll import my cds from WMP & see if they are better quality when I get my new Ultimate Ear headphones tomorrow. Thanks for all the advice.

Are ACC files the same size as MP3s?

Nicks

nicks

I presume I can use iTunes using my Sony MP3 player? I don't have an iPod?

Nicks

Marty_J

nicks wrote: »

Just downloading iTunes as I type. WIll import my cds from WMP & see if they are better quality when I get my new Ultimate Ear headphones tomorrow. Thanks for all the advice.

Importing WMA files into iTunes will convert them to AAC files. Converting from one lossy format to another deteriorates the sound quality.

If you want to hear AAC files properly, you need to rip them from your original CDs.

Are ACC files the same size as MP3s?

If they're the same bitrate, yes, they should be about the same size. However, you can theoretically use lower bit-rate AAC files and get the same quality as a higher bit-rate mp3. A 128 kbps AAC file should sound as good as a 160 kbps mp3 file, and it will have a smaller file size.

nicks wrote: »

I presume I can use iTunes using my Sony MP3 player? I don't have an iPod?

It won't appear in iTunes the same way an iPod does, but if your mp3 player supports drag and drop, you can just drag music from iTunes into it.

nicks

Which is the better quality - AAC at 256kbps VBR or AAC at 128kbps?

Thanks

Nicks

Marty_J

nicks wrote: »

Which is the better quality - AAC at 256kbps VBR or AAC at 128kbps?

Thanks

Nicks

The higher the bit-rate, the better it should sound, so 256 kbps would sound better than 128 kbps. It would use twice the amount of information to encode the music, so it would sound more similar to the original.

A variable bit-rate file should sound better than a constant bit-rate file at the same bit-rate. So a 256 kbps VBR file should sound better than a 256 kbps CBR file. That difference would be less pronounced though.