[Mors]

My Zune should be here on thursday

I'm wondering what is the best audio files to put on it - format-wise? I know it supports WMA, MP3 and AAC. With my Clix2 (before it went off to the diabolical iRiver support) I was using top quality OGG's, but I don't know what I'm better off using to get the best quality on the Zune?
It's not going to be going via an amp (yet), just straight to my E500's.
Most of my source files are going to be either from FLAC/CD Rip/or any 320kbps mp3's I've got in my collection.
What am I best off coverting to for the Zune?
I'm reading that there's not really much point in converting to 320kbps mp3's (using a my LAME encoder) as the difference between 192kbps and 320 is only really size, as from an audio point of view the difference is virtually non existant to the human ear.
Should I just convert everything to 192kbps LAME mp3's? Or is it better to use MS's own format on this device to get the best sound?


Thanks for any advice

 

[lutwey]

most people say that they cant tell the difference between 320 kbs and top quality lossless.........320 should be good enough. some people only use the highest quality "just to be sure" with zune's some what decent capacity(30g) u can use any type of format. hope u enjoy it.

if its okay can you tell me what happened to ur clix 2 im in the market for the clix or d2, unless there are better platers that i might come across with before i pull the trigger.

 

[syndrome]

I don't know how audiophilistic you are, but VBR192 MP3 should do the trick. It saves space but sounds great

 

[Mors]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lutwey /img/forum/go_quote.gif most people say that they cant tell the difference between 320 kbs and top quality lossless.........320 should be good enough. some people only use the highest quality "just to be sure" with zune's some what decent capacity(30g) u can use any type of format. hope u enjoy it. if its okay can you tell me what happened to ur clix 2 im in the market for the clix or d2, unless there are better platers that i might come across with before i pull the trigger.

I'd advise you NOT to buy a Clix. Not because they aren't any good, it's purely because iRiver are diabolical to deal with. I had my Clix 3weeks and it broke (not from over use / abuse - It was treated like a small child), I sent it to iRiver in Germany (I'm in the UK) 1month ago after creating an online RMA. I have emailed them 15 times now regards to my Clix, and an ETA of if/when I would get it back and they have not replied to a SINGLE email. I've even tried emailing iRiver USA for help with no joy. They do not have a contact number either, and don't respond to emails.
They are the worst company I've ever dealt with for customer service.

The Clix itself was a great little device, even though it felt a little easy to break the click screen. I was in the same boat - Wondering whether to buy a Clix or a D2, and opted for the Clix as it looks better and I didn't want a touchscreen device. But my god iRiver's support is really bad. Apparently their support is ok if you live in Korea though.....

Is it really worth me putting 320kbps LAME mp3's on the Zune though if I'm not going to be able to tell the difference? Are the mp3's going to give me better quality than the WMA's or AAC's on the Zune?

 

[wgr73]

I uses LAME VBR v-0 = ~320kbps

 

[LaBreaHead]

There's no real need to use WMAs (which are pretty good vs. MP3's at lower bit rates such as 64kbps, which is really low -- used in very low capacity players several years ago).

MP3s are versatile and widely used across a variety of player brands ... you wouldn't need to re-rip if someone were to give you a present of an iPod or a Sony in the future, or if you decided to buy one on your own. Just a thought ... it can be argued that AAC or WMA can/might offer better sound, but LAME encoded MP3s should work very well.

 

[judas391]

Just wondering, how much did you pay for the zune?

 

[Mors]

Quote:

Originally Posted by judas391 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just wondering, how much did you pay for the zune?

£135. Cheapest I could get it in the UK.

There will plenty of the chap in your avatar going on it

 

[Mors]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaBreaHead /img/forum/go_quote.gif There's no real need to use WMAs (which are pretty good vs. MP3's at lower bit rates such as 64kbps, which is really low -- used in very low capacity players several years ago). MP3s are versatile and widely used across a variety of player brands ... you wouldn't need to re-rip if someone were to give you a present of an iPod or a Sony in the future, or if you decided to buy one on your own. Just a thought ... it can be argued that AAC or WMA can/might offer better sound, but LAME encoded MP3s should work very well.

Sounds like I'm going to have to start to doing some LAME and WMA 10 Pro transparency tests

when it turns up!

 

[wgr73]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaBreaHead /img/forum/go_quote.gif MP3s are versatile and widely used across a variety of player brands ... you wouldn't need to re-rip if someone were to give you a present of an iPod or a Sony in the future, or if you decided to buy one on your own.

Take this advice!!! I used to rip in proprietary formats...until I got a zune/ipod/zen, and guess what? I had to re-rip all to mp3. Just do that form the beginning and save yourself the hassle!

 

[judas391]

<3ing the gnr!

 

[Omari149]

rip all your cd's to mp3 192kbps, and when you get your Zune just convert the mp3's to wma in the Zune software. Using just wma on the Zune improves battery life and wma has better quality than Mp3's. I think I converted my mp3's to wma 64kbps using Zune's software. The Zune software saves the output file which would be the wma on the Zune player so you won't have doubles of everything on your hardrive.

 

[Mors]

I've now got a full set of WMA 10 pro encodes at cbr and vbr >192
A set of Lame mp3's cbr and vbr > 190
And for a laugh I've thrown in a set of Nero AAC's cbr and vbr > 192

I should be able to work out the transparency on the Zune from those seeing as it doesn't support anything else. Don't think it supports it's own WMA lossless yet.


p.s
There's no real difference between me encoding with the Nero AAC to the Apple AAC is there? I didn't think there was?

 

[jmourik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omari149 /img/forum/go_quote.gif rip all your cd's to mp3 192kbps, and when you get your Zune just convert the mp3's to wma in the Zune software.

I would stay away from transcoding from one lossy format to another. But, to stay in the spirit of the above suggestion, I would rip to flac, and transcode to whatever you like best for the player you want to use it on.
I ripped my whole cd collection to flac, using eac. I recently purchased DbPowerAmp to make the transcoding part easy. The music on my Zune is now in WMA vbr250. But I don't think I can hear the difference between wma and mp3 with bitrates above 128k...

 

[judas391]

Just install the whole Pleasure Pass dammit!