[ghart999]

Hi there. I am new to this world of headphones, etc. I just ordered a Porta Corda MII amp and most likely a pair of Grado 225s to mate with my iPod. Currently all my music is encoded with lame encoding alt-preset-standard. I am sure that even though this is the best encoding for MP3 format, that some other lossless formats are better. Of the formats that iPod supports, what would you recommend that I encode my CDs with for the best quality/size ratio? Thanks for the advice.

 

[blessingx]

You really need to test for youself. Plus it really depends on the phones/amps used.

LAME -aps, 192-256 AAC and ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) are all good options. I really depends on how you slant the ratio. Using Apples guide to battery life, anything averaging over 224 (for average song length 4-5 minutes) would increase bat consumption. They recommend keeping your songs under 9Mb in length.

I just started experimenting between 256 AAC and ALAC. Bat life definitely take a bit hit going lossless.

 

[Slimshizzy]

How big is your iPod?

How big is your CD collection?

Unless you're really trying to cram stuff on, I think you should use EAC+LAME (mp3s at alt-preset-standard) for ripping.

http://www.bestmp3guide.com/ is the resource that taught this to me - takes about 5 minutes.

I have no reason to believe this would not sound amazing.

 

[ghart999]

http://www.bestmp3guide.com/ is what I have used for all my CDs so far. I just didn't know if upping to AAC or somethign else would be worthwhile. Myabe I should be happy with what I have and just not worry about anything else...

 

[scottder]

Try both....you may be able to get away 192kbs AAC and save a bit of space and battery life. I use Lame -aps myself....does the job for me, and I have plenty of batt life for work.

 

[DoomForce]

does the 9mb limit-for-battery apply to other daps too?

my latest lame encodes are all over 9mb...

 

[blessingx]

No one quite knows how the 9Mb directly impacts things, and I haven't seen a study of how dramatic the bat consumption is above and below it, but since every DAP has a different buffer size (and in some cases different methods for preloading), I doubt it's universal.

 

[jpr703]

I recently got a 40 Gb 4gen iPod and I read a million articles and played around with audio formats forever before settling on one.

After doing my own listening tests, I settled on 320 AAC. It's not a real popular choice, but with my equipment (Gilmore Lite with upgraded PS on the way, Grado 225s, Zu cable) I thought it sounded the best without having to go Apple Lossless. The Lossless files were just too big.

As for the 9 Mb issue and other "skipping" problems that are rumored to occur with larger files, I haven't experienced any of that. So far I've had no problems at all with 320 and I can still fit a boatload of albums on my iPod.

 

[fr4c]

with portable gear, 224 AAC is more than sufficient enough for me. occassionally, i rip some of those "most listened to" CD's into lossless.

 

[easypeasy]

I starting to try the EAC/LAME codec, but what is the -aps switch for lame ?

 

[scottder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by easypeasy I starting to try the EAC/LAME codec, but what is the -aps switch for lame ?

If you are using a current version it's --preset standard , have you read the Chris Myden guide to quality MP3's here?

 

[AndyRx7]

I've been using ALAC on my 40G, and so far I've been extremely pleased. I haven't experienced any skipping, delays or audio defect whatsoever. My battery life has been approximately 7-8 hours to a charge, which I'm perfectly happy with.

 

[scottder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyRx7 I've been using ALAC on my 40G, and so far I've been extremely pleased. I haven't experienced any skipping, delays or audio defect whatsoever. My battery life has been approximately 7-8 hours to a charge, which I'm perfectly happy with.

That's pretty good for ALAC, about how much music are you fitting on the 40GB?

 

[AndyRx7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottder That's pretty good for ALAC, about how much music are you fitting on the 40GB?

I was surprised too; I think there's a bit more potential there as well, since so far I've been skipping around between artists, etc, a fair bit while listening. This is without the backlight on - when I've used the 'backlight timer' mode (set at 2 seconds) at night the battery life is noticeably reduced.

I'm not all that concerned about battery life; I figure if need be I can always get an external battery pack. Really though, I doubt I'll frequently find myself unable to plug in for long periods given my lifestyle. My preferences lean toward adjusting other aspects while holding audio quality constant, rather than the other way around.

Right now the drive is almost full (a gig or two left) and I've got a little over 1200 songs on - plenty for me. The transfer speed is so fast, it's a piece of cake to add/replace some music when need be.

I feel really lucky to have gotten an ipod with no skipping / audio defect, and good battery life; at least so far

 

[chumley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpr703 I recently got a 40 Gb 4gen iPod and I read a million articles and played around with audio formats forever before settling on one. After doing my own listening tests, I settled on 320 AAC. It's not a real popular choice, but with my equipment (Gilmore Lite with upgraded PS on the way, Grado 225s, Zu cable) I thought it sounded the best without having to go Apple Lossless. The Lossless files were just too big. As for the 9 Mb issue and other "skipping" problems that are rumored to occur with larger files, I haven't experienced any of that. So far I've had no problems at all with 320 and I can still fit a boatload of albums on my iPod.

Yeah, if I were to go with anything other than AL, it would be 320 AAC... it provides, IMO, the best sound quality of the compressed formats available... since I started using my Emmeline SR-71 and L/O with my 4G 40GB iPod everywhere that's not home or office (I do a LOT of travelling), I've found that doing an occasional 'rotation' of my music in AL onto/off of my iPod (until 80/100 GB drives are available, anyway...

) gives me significantly better sound quality (using L/O>Sik Din , a new Cardas mini-to-mini cable from Headroom and my HD-25 1s, Ety ER4S, or Shure E5Cs...

For me, (even portable) SQ is everything, much more important, to me, than having my entire (or even a big part of) my CD collection on one 40 or 60 GB iPod... which would be impossible x 10 anyway, even at 64kb bitrate mp3...