Differences in Lossless audio

[Kassem]

I've been ripping my cds using Windows Media Player 9 Lossless. How does this compare to some of the other programs that can rip lossless audio?

Jeremy

 

[Publius]

It's pretty lossless, but not as lossless as others.

 

[FrzzMan]

Man, lossless is lossless, there's no lossless that is not lossless, even some say some kind of lossless is not lossless, lossless is always lossless.

Phew... is there enough of lossless???

Well, there're several lossless codecs outthere, you can try yourself out to choose the best solution for you, FLAC and APE (MonkeyAudio) are pretty popular and have decent support (software and hardware), WavPack packs lot of useful features (features differentiate lossless codec, not quality, it's lossless) with version 4, but it's quite new (even tho I decided to transcode all my FLAC to WavPack), WMA lossless is newer than them, but with M$ power, it's future is quite bright. Btw, I don't have much information about WMA lossless, so I think you should go with WavPack with embedded CUE sheet, create WavPack CD images, you can transcode it anytime without worry about quality degrade.

 

[Sinbios]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Publius It's pretty lossless, but not as lossless as others.

FLAC is more lossless than all your other losslesses!

 

[johto]

.ape monkey audio wont loss anything for your other lossless !

 

[MagusG]

All your losslesses are belong to me
-Mag

 

[Kram Sacul]

Lossless is lossless but I still think FLAC is the best. It also sounds better to say than Windows Media Player 9 and Ape Monkey Audio. Seriously, I don't want monkies screwing with my audio.

 

[RotAtoR]

There are actually a lot of other consideration even though sounds quality is obviously not one of them. There is a very nice comparison of lossless codecs at Hydrogenaudio.org.

 

[ittech]

I use MS's WMA Lossless...

However what matters more than any lossless codec you pick is the DAE extraction quality from your drive...

I find the plextor premium cd burner to do the best job at ripping, at around 4 to 8x.

Oh and make sure to use that green pen just for good luck.

 

[CSMR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kassem I've been ripping my cds using Windows Media Player 9 Lossless. How does this compare to some of the other programs that can rip lossless audio? Jeremy

Not perfect. The file format is good, and the software is very easy, but the ripping is not perfect on bad discs. You will have to learn to use EAC (unless you have a Plextor).

 

[necropimp]

the differences between the lossless codecs are mainly going to be file size

FLAC is good... but for most things wavpack tends to get a little more compression in...

there are always exceptions... like Django Reinhardt - Djangology Vol. 1: 1934-35... which is 110MB in FLAC (mono recordings compress REALLY well) and 126MB in Wavpack

 

[blessingx]

EAC is not perfect either.

 

[TooNice]

Monkey Audio was the first lossless format I used. It compress a bit more than FLAC overall, but I think FLAC is more flexible (there are existing hardware support - and the way I understand, easier to decode, making it more suitable for portable devices - not a bad thing).

 

[MikoLayer]

How is wavpack in cpu utilization department? Last thing I remember from FLAC vs APE discussion is that the former uses far less cpu cycles at the cost of just a few % of compression efficiency. Naturally, my choice of lossless file format is FLAC. I got a few ape songs as well, however.

 

[TooNice]

I think that is one of the reasons why FLAC is more suitable for portable hardware devices.