[Jigglybootch]

So here's a dumb question...

Just got the Beatles mono box set. Going to rip it to iTunes, but I'm not sure if I should rip it as stereo or mono, or if it even matters. Any suggestions?

 

[Steve Eddy]

I assume that both channels were used on the discs. And unless you're going to play it back through just one speaker (which would be the purist way to do it), rip it as it is on the discs.

se

 

[IPodPJ]

Well that's assuming it's not on the CD as one channel. That would be pretty horrible to listen to. If it's encoded as 2 channel, rip it as is. If it's just a single channel, you'd want to force it to stereo and then probably use some crossfeed implementation on playback.

 

[SirDrexl]

It's two channels, and encode it as such. BTW, if you use a lossless codec, it will recognize that it's mono and use disc space as if it was one channel. Essentially it encodes one channel and tells the decoder to play it through both speakers.

It will be more than half the size of a true stereo mix (because I guess true stereo has redundancies that make it more efficient), but still much less, maybe 65%. Try encoding the mono and stereo versions of a track on the CDs that have both (Rubber Soul and Help!) with Apple Lossless to see this.

I find that Dolby Headphone makes the mono much more listenable on headphones.

 

[Bilavideo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirDrexl /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's two channels, and encode it as such. BTW, if you use a lossless codec, it will recognize that it's mono and use disc space as if it was one channel. Essentially it encodes one channel and tells the decoder to play it through both speakers. It will be more than half the size of a true stereo mix (because I guess true stereo has redundancies that make it more efficient), but still much less, maybe 65%. Try encoding the mono and stereo versions of a track on the CDs that have both (Rubber Soul and Help!) with Apple Lossless to see this. I find that Dolby Headphone makes the mono much more listenable on headphones.

You nailed it.

 

[|Static|]

Or you could always rip a few songs in both to see which way you like best before ripping the set.