I'm considering buying a 4GB ipod mini, but I'm not satisfied with the sound quality of mp3s. What are the alternatives with iPod (wavs? but they take up a lot more space)? Is it possible to transfer my CD tracks to the ipod without a loss in music quality? I'm thinking that if I want higher quality, I should get a 20GB ipod, but the ipod mini is a bit more appealing.
The obvious answer to your question is to buy the 20 or 40Gb iPod and rip to lossless WAV files. That was certainly my intention when I bought a 40Gb iPod - I didn't think I could listen to MP3 files (I listen mainly to classical). However, having bought it, I did some tests (there is a thread if you can be bothered searching) and discovered I couldn't actually tell the difference between MP3/alt-preset-standard and WAV files, so I now rip all my files to MP3/aps and have hundreds more CDs on my iPod. Note that some of us have experienced problems using alt-preset-extreme and alt-preset-insane with the iPod (there is also a thread abou this), but alt-preset-standard does a perfectly good job in producing music that is virtually indistinguishable from the original on the iPod.
If you really want to listen only to uncompressed files, a 20Gb iPod or bigger (or a 60Gb Create Noman Xtra) is really the only way to go, but do try to compare MP3/aps with an open mind, you may be as surprised as I was.
I wouldn't use WAV files. To me, that defeats the purpose of having a portable mp3 player that can hold so much. Try 320kbps if you're that concerned, I doubt you'll be able to tell, especially in portable environments.
But I can hold about 80 cd's worth of music in lossless AIFF(40 GB ipod), which is hell of a lot more than I could ever carry with a portable cd player. I use my ipod at work with a PPA amp and etys. If you're just going to use the headphone out, lossless is probably overkill.
Also, if you are going to use lossless with the ipod, use AIFF even on a PC. Itunes uses tags with AIFF but not with WAV. If you move a WAV to a different folder or drive, the tagging will be lost.
Originally Posted by downingp The way I have my 40gb ipod set up really works well for me. I have my favorite albums in WAV and everything else in alt-preset-extreme
That was going to be my original approach but then my pc crash due to a virus so I figured I might as well do them all in lossless. I also have a duplicate set in 160 AAC on my girlfriend's computer for her ipod. She's had a 10 GB in doesn't need lossless files (no amp and only px200 headphones). So if I ever want me whole collection at once, most of it should fit in this format.
I doubt you'll be able to tell the difference between 320 kbps, or even 256 or 224 and WAV files unless you're doing a super anal a/b comparison (and maybe not even then). When I first got my ipod, I only encoded with AIFF, but I realized I couldn't really tell the difference between AIFF and high encoded AAC, so I chose the space saving method.
Originally Posted by third_eye I am ripping into 128AAC, is there a big loss in quality compared to 160AAC? Since I have an ipod mini, space is an issue.
Big loss? Only you can decide for sure. Rip a few songs in both formats, listen to both sets of files and see if you can discern the differences between them. If you can't you might as well just stick with the 128Kbps AAC files to save some space on your iPod mini
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