[HiWire]

I'd go with AAC. Remember when mp3PRO died a hard death?

 

[flargosa]

I personally cannot hear the difference between lame 256vbr and lame 320cbr, but I rip it at lossless for peace of mind.

 

[jinx20001]

i recently downgraded some lossless files i had to 320kbps but enabled a higher sample rate of 48,000khz and i have to admit although i am a bit lossless mad i cant tell the difference at all

 

[Skylab]

Out of curiosity, why raise the sampling rate when you are going to use a perceptual codec that isn't going to encode anything up there? This seems a little odd to me.

O/T, I did some comparisons of 256k VBR AAC vs MP3 and preferred AAC.

 

[SactoMan101]

I would probably use AAC 256 kbps VBR, especially since not only iPods support them but a lot of the very latest portable music players now support the AAC format. If you stay with the MP3 format, trying using the Audiograbber program with the latest LAME MP3 encoder and rip it at 256 kbps VBR.

 

[NMB]

I've just realized after ripping 2200 CD's from my 3000 CD collection that 128 kbps AAC is not of a high enough quality. I've now upped it to 256 AAC but I am sure some of you can sympathy with what I am feeling now.

Nicholas

 

[RollsDownWindowsManually]

Personally I use -V2 vbr mp3 (roughly equivalent to 192 kbps) and can't consistently identify the mp3 from lossless in ABX tests, even on so-called "problem" or "artifact revealing" clips. This is using decent headphones and a quality headphone amp too; MS-2's, ER-4s, Beyer 250's, etc.

Personally I would go with the vbr because it seems to strike a good compromise between file size and sound quality.

 

[htbyron]

NMB: Been there, done that. I'm now in the process of reripping everything to FLAC for archival purposes (and also for desktop listening). Then I transcode the FLAC to MP3 for portable use (I'm using Lame VBR -V0 since I have plenty of space on my ipod 80GB for now). dbpoweramp is a very powerful and easy to use program for this purpose (I'm using the pro version, which costs $28). If you're going to re-rip, do it once and for all, to a lossless archival format.

 

[davidr2287]

What about 256 AAC at a sample rate of 44100 vs 256 AAC at a sample rate of 48000? What are the benefits(if any) of ripping at a higher sample rate?

 

[RollsDownWindowsManually]

There shouldn't be any audible benefit of upsampling to 48k. CD recordings are mastered at 44.1, so I don't thikn you would gain any resolution by umpsampling. In fact, you may end up adding artifacts to the music. Here's an interesting thread from another forum about the topic:

Upsampling?

Personally I've listened to my MP3's in their native resoluation (44.1) and upsampled to 96k and couldn't really tell a difference.

 

[E.B.M.Head]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickchen /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ah, E.B.M., back in town? I re-ripped some of my CDs recently (before 160 kbit Fraunhofer, now 320 kbit LAME) and was quite astonished to find a wider soundscape with the HQ pieces.

Yes, what can I say, I'm addicted to Head-Fi

Sadly I don't have much time anymore to read the threads here regulary...

Back on topic: Upsampling usually introduces artefacts, so you better should avoid doing that. Best AAC Encoders are iTunes and Nero. Avoid FAAC or ancient stuff like Psytel. For MP3 best to use is Lame 3.98 (3.97 is recommendet by HA, but I can hear flaws with that even at simple electronical music at highest bitrates which I can't hear with the actual 3.98 alphas and betas) or Helix MP3 (Real Player).

 

[sandman2338]

Good day all: my question is this, I'm new to all this and ripped several CD's into WMA 320kbs, now as I've become more educated with this digital audio I added these files to iTUNES, and it converted them to 256VBR, any reason for concern about quality or any other issues I may not be that knowledgeable about. thanks

 

[Skylab]

Running one loose codec (WMA 320) through yet another lossy codec (256k VCR as you mentioned) is about the WORST thing you could do sound quality wise. You should get those CDs and re-rip them in iTunes, if iTunes is what you now plan to use.

 

[Fuzziekiwi]

I think iTunes VBR files sounds slightly worse than 320kbps, but that's just my ears. I prefer to have everything in MP3 so its compatible with everything and my car doesn't play VBR. 

 

[sandman2338]

Quote:

Running one loose codec (WMA 320) through yet another lossy codec (256k VCR as you mentioned) is about the WORST thing you could do sound quality wise. You should get those CDs and re-rip them in iTunes, if iTunes is what you now plan to use.

Thanks for the advise looks like I got a little work ahead of me since its over 300 songs and all info has to be input manually