wav or mp3?

bwatt00

I have an option of downloading and buying mp3 or wav whats the difference wav is more expensive than the mp3,whats the best one to get and why

Jzpop

The mp3 will be quicker to download, and as you say, cheaper.

The wav will be slower to download, more expensive, but (should be) of a higher quality.

Whichever you buy, there are many, many free programs that will convert from mp3 to wav, or vice-versa.

One final consideration is what you are going to finally play them on. If it is an average-quality portable device (ipod or similar), go for the mp3, as you will have to convert it to an mp3-type format in order to listen to it. Similarly, on most PCs you will struggle to hear the difference in quality. The wav is only worth considering if it is a high-quality recording, and you will be playing it on a high quality sound system.

ccbrucer

Uncompressed WAV files are quite large in size, and have a higher quality.

MP3 is an audio-specific compression format. The compression removes certain sounds that cannot be heard by the listener, i.e. outside the normal human hearing range.

So i think mp3 is enough for u.(u can find more information on wikia)

seaweasel

wav is uncompressed, depending on the source of the audio it should be the same as CD quality. mp3 is lossy and therefore doesn't sound as good. Depending on how compressed the mp3 is though it should still sound good enough for you (192kpbs or above - almost CD quality unless you've got a very good hifi, 160kbps - passable, 128kps - crap).

The good thing about downloading in wav format is that you can then encode it in any format you want, e.g. a higher bitrate mp3 (depending on the quality of the mp3 files you've got the choice to download), AAC (mp4, which is better quality than mp3 and takes up less space), Ogg Vorbis (also good, and open source), FLAC (lossless compression) etc.

stevemcol

With increasing trnasfer rates and storage capacity, I think we won't be far away (a few years maybe) from WAV / CDA becoming the norm and MP3 / WMA becoming obsolete.

randomtask_2

seaweasel makes the argument fairly clear - I would prefer having the uncompressed WAV file as the 'source' file. I would then encode that again to a compressed format like MP3/AAC etc for use on any portable music player.

But for the convenience of shorter download time and lower cost, you should be OK with the MP3 option if it's purely for listening via a portable device like an iPod.

wolfman

stevemcol wrote: »

With increasing trnasfer rates and storage capacity, I think we won't be far away (a few years maybe) from WAV / CDA becoming the norm and MP3 / WMA becoming obsolete.

We're not already. Lossless formats like FLAC and WavPack are getting more common. those are what I always rip to, and then use Ogg Vorbis for any compressed music.