Which one? Mp3, Vorbis, Aac, Lossless?

wolfman

At current I use mp3 (Lame) which offers good quality, but more importantly excellent support and compatibility.

I've blind tested a number of tracks with the above codecs though and the mp3 is the bottom of the bunch (not by much).

Was just wondering what everyone else uses and why? Ideally, I'd like to switch to Ogg Vorbis as it's open source, and I find offers the best overall sound quality. Only problem is that it's not hugely supported.

I was also considering lossless (Flac or WavPack) as I'd then have a compressed version of the original without losing any quality. These aren't hugely supported either though and do take up more space (although that's not such an issue).

So am kind of stuck and undecided as to which to pick.

Also anyone used the Rockbox firmware on their iPod?

amcluesent

As an Ipod owner, I rip my own CDs using AAC at 224kbit/sec with iTunes. Use Foobar2000 to play on the PC. But to be honest, MP3 created by LAME with -extreme parameter is OK for non-classical.

Aiadi

So far I can't find a better quality compressed format than AAC.

wolfman

amcluesent wrote:

But to be honest, MP3 created by LAME with -extreme parameter is OK for non-classical.

Yeah very true, and what I currently use. For your average Coldplay or Snow Patrol I did find it difficult to tell the difference between any of the formats. It was only on really bassy tracks (Influenced by the Chemical Brothers) that I could tell a slight difference.

I am quite diverse with my music taste though, and do have a lot of classical stuff. When testing (for example) Beethoven, Symphony 9, Molta Vivace I could easily tell the difference between vorbis/aac and mp3.

Of Ogg Vorbis and AAC I did on 8/10 occassions blindy pick Vorbis over AAC, hence it being my preferred format but in all honesty there wasn't much difference. Which AAC encoder do you use? The iTunes one? I've read that the Nero one is the best but not tried it. It of course costs though (another reason why I'm tempted by the open Ogg format) and I don't like embracing Apples strangle hold on things.

I do like iPods though The only solution for using Ogg files on an iPod would be to install RockBox. I'll see if I can persuade my brother to do so, so that I can see what it's like


PS - foobar2000, nice to hear someone else using it. I'm actually using Winamp but do like foobar2000.

amcluesent

>I don't like embracing Apples strangle hold on things<

But the ACC files produced by iTunes don't have any DRM and the format is a standard AFAIK. Even allofmp3 can generate .mp4 OK.

I do d/l FLAC and APE , but just burn these to standard CD. Can't be bothered keeping such large files on hard-disk.

wolfman

Eh. Oh, I thought iTunes tracks did have DRM. That's why they only play on iPods.

And yes, AAC was actually developed by Dolby and Co, not directly Apple, they merely support it. It's just a format they are heavily pushing which I guess puts me off. It's not a free codec either, royalties have to be paid, the same as with mp3's.

Hmm yeah I'm considering FLAC or actually maybe WavPack. I think having a lossless original may be best. Gives me more flexibilty and is only around 3x the size of mp3's I currently have.

Rex_Mundi

I find MP3 at 320kbps not too bad. You can certainly tell the difference between this and 128kbps MP3s (or even 192kbps).

fairytooth

Rex_Mundi wrote:

I find MP3 at 320kbps not too bad. You can certainly tell the difference between this and 128kbps MP3s (or even 192kbps).

Doesn't 320 make them big files. I recently downloaded I-Tunes and the MP4 audio seems very good to me - any comments?

jeglet

I use Ogg on my iRiver and it's great, smaller than MP3 and better quality per kb. I also use RockBox which is great. I don't think RockBox is supported on an iPod

jeglet

I stand corrected, RockBox now supported on an iPod! How good is that...

Rex_Mundi

fairytooth wrote:

Doesn't 320 make them big files. I recently downloaded I-Tunes and the MP4 audio seems very good to me - any comments?

I've just checked a few tracks out. The average size comes in at betwwen 8MB and 10 MB. Longer tracks are a bit bigger (I've got some here at 12MB to 14MB).