[bubbers214]

I was just lookin around in these forums today and kept finding people who were talking about how bad mp3 is compared to FLAC or APE lossless formats. I really didn't think that they could have THAT much difference, because I really liked the sound of my 192 VBR mp3s. Well I decided to do some direct comparison, and I cannot believe how flat and lifeless my mp3's sound compared to the flacs I have now. Its amazing, now if only Apple would put FLAC support on their new firmware for the Ipod. I will now only rip to MP3 if i am planning on putting the files on my Ipod, oh dear here comes another 80 bucks for an 80 gig hard drive to store my FLACS.

 

[krmathis]

Yeah, lossless is really the way to go for sound quality!

Why dont you encode to aac for use on your iPod? Its considered to be transparent at a lower bitrate than mp3!

 

[ted_b]

Yeah, if you're encoding something that will only be for your iPod, then you should look at the option of letting iTunes encode to 224 AAC, available as a simple pulldown in the custom AAC options menu. It's only slightly larger file storage than your vbr MP3's and MUCH better sound quality IMHO. And ITunes actually does have one of the best sounding AAC encoders out there (a version of the Quicktime AAC encoder). I use flac as archival storage and for the occassional pc listening (although I'll use my iTunes library usually if just listening through pc speakers).

Ted_B

 

[blessingx]

Another 224 AAC/iPod, FLAC/home user.

Don't hold out for FLAC support on your iPod. You could always go AIFF/WAV though.

 

[bubbers214]

what is the best way to rip both an AAC and a FLAC with only having to rip the wavs off of the cd once? Can Itunes convert a WAV to AAC or does it have to be CD to AAC? I have been using EAC to rip and it has successfully ripped a few of my cd's(and cd's im borrowing) that are severly scratched. But it takes a long time to do this so i only want to rip the wavs once.

 

[ted_b]

Bubbers,
I copied and pasted from a reply two min ago in another thread:

Net/net: use daemontools after you rip to wav from EAC. It make iTunes think the wav file (cue sheet, really) is a cd. Encodes 224 AAC at about 17x speed.

Anyway.....

Yes, the AAC encoder in iTunes is one of the best. No need to look elsewhere. Now, MP3 is another story. If you're going that route, use LAME and something like alt preset standard, which is a LAME VBR setting that's roughly equivalent to a 192 AAC (no flames here, just trying to simplify). I use 224 AAC and love it. I don't use iTunes to rip, though. Poor error detection/correction. I use EAC to rip to wav (copy image and cuesheet) then load the wav file,, as if it's a cd, from a virtual drive that daemontools created, and voila, iTunes encodes to AAC in no time. I then store my wav files as flac files and keep them archived (and have a back up drive). Don't want to lose all that time and effort with a hd crash. Once flac is encoded, I delete the wav file...it's no longer needed, and flac has stored it lossless for about 60% of the space. Flac is open freeware, and daemontools is a dummy-proof virtual drive maker.

 

[bubbers214]

Thanks Ted, making an image right now of a cd to test this out.

 

[bubbers214]

Quote:

Originally posted by ted_b Bubbers, I copied and pasted from a reply two min ago in another thread: Net/net: use daemontools after you rip to wav from EAC. It make iTunes think the wav file (cue sheet, really) is a cd. Encodes 224 AAC at about 17x speed. Anyway..... Yes, the AAC encoder in iTunes is one of the best. No need to look elsewhere. Now, MP3 is another story. If you're going that route, use LAME and something like alt preset standard, which is a LAME VBR setting that's roughly equivalent to a 192 AAC (no flames here, just trying to simplify). I use 224 AAC and love it. I don't use iTunes to rip, though. Poor error detection/correction. I use EAC to rip to wav (copy image and cuesheet) then load the wav file,, as if it's a cd, from a virtual drive that daemontools created, and voila, iTunes encodes to AAC in no time. I then store my wav files as flac files and keep them archived (and have a back up drive). Don't want to lose all that time and effort with a hd crash. Once flac is encoded, I delete the wav file...it's no longer needed, and flac has stored it lossless for about 60% of the space. Flac is open freeware, and daemontools is a dummy-proof virtual drive maker.

Thats awesome Ted thanks! I ripped an image and made my AAC files in a matter of a minute or two and my flac files in the same amoutn of time. Thats a great way to do things. Thanks.