[bba1973]

Excessive dynamic range compression isn't too hard to detect as long as you know what to listen for. It's quite obvious in some cases (the last few Red Hot Chili Peppers albums... stuff like that is going to sound bad no matter what bitrate or format you use). Now if you're comparing a remaster of a classic rock album to the original, that sort of comparison can get difficult. But that would most likely be slight compression. You would also have to listen for noise reduction, EQ choices, etc. If you want to learn about this sort of stuff, check out the Steve Hoffman forums. There's guys over there with $10,000+ systems (some of those guys hate headphones) that say they can tell the difference between a CD and a CD-R copy of it burned at 10x with EAC. Not sure if that's as much audiophile as it is OCD...

You should still try OGG Vorbis and do some tests with it. Try some VBR files too if you haven't already. VBR files might end up sounding better than CBR files.

 

[JohntheChristian]

I do use VBR, I'm curious about ogg, but I currently use ipod and even if i get another type of player in the future it likely won't support ogg.

I am curious enough to try it on an album or two though.

What's a good program for ripping to vorbis?

 

[bba1973]

dBpoweramp, with the right plugins installed can deal with pretty much any format you can think of. Use it in secure mode, and you're all set.

 

[shigzeo]

what if you don't use windows? im a MAX user, but are there great apps which i can build from source, or OSX alternatives other than MAX?

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif im a MAX user, but are there great apps which i can build from source, or OSX alternatives other than MAX?

Two alternatives, with sources freely available:
Rip from sbooth.org (source: sbooth's Rip at master - GitHub )
X Lossless Decoder: Lossless audio decoder for Mac OS X

 

[bba1973]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif what if you don't use windows? im a MAX user, but are there great apps which i can build from source, or OSX alternatives other than MAX?

Then google it.

 

[JohntheChristian]

I did a Pop Punk album at 256 AAC and OGG and couldn't detect a difference

 

[Malakai]

Wavpack/.MPC is by far the best sounding lossy codec. Unfortunately it is not widely supported, and few if any portables support it.

I encode my full quality source audio first as FLAC for my archive, then transcode that to OGG -q7 for use on portable players.

If a player does not support at least ogg, and ogg and flac preferred, I wont even consider it.

Not that MP3's at -alt-preset-standard or -alt-preset-extreme sound bad, but ogg is better.

 

[krmathis]

I guess "best" refer to a lot of aspects:
* Sound quality (sound vs. size ratio).
* Hardware and software support.
* Encoder/decoder licensing and availability. Open or closed source, restrictive licensing, fees, ...
* Features.
* More?

So without defining which part is more important the results will certainly vary.

 

[bakhtiar]

To date, based on the features in most of DAPs, the MP3 (vbr) is the best choice, for now, IMHO.

 

[hogger129]

Vorbis or AAC.  I can't understand why someone would choose MP3 over these two other than for compatibility's sake.  Vorbis and AAC both require less bitrate to produce equal sound quality.  

 

[IgorC]

BTW, there is an open public listening test 
 
MP3, AAC/MP4, Ogg Vorbis, Opus.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/728636/public-listening-test-of-codecs-mp3-aac-mp4-ogg-vorbis-and-opus
Everybody is welcome to participate