[Omari149]

Hi Head-Fi its been a long time since I posted something. I have a zune 120gb right now with Sennheiser HD 218 headphones along with the PX 100. I will be getting a Ipod 120gb real soon as a back up and I want to know which file format should I go with that both players can use without any conversions? I want all my music with me so I want something compressed but not compressed enough to make the sound suffer, by the way I have 16,134 tracks so I want a format with a decent bit rate so everything can fit. Thanks in advance.

 

[tstarn06]

256k MP3, though the Zune will play AAC. I also have a ton of 192k downloaded files and they sound good to me, but that's me.

 

[Lobe]

I am in a similar situation, choosing bit rates for when i reorganise my collection. I am taking the easiest route and just placing everything in mp3 320kbps. My music collection isn't that large so it will easily fit on my ipod. Of the top of my head, 16,000 tracks at 320kbps should fit fairly closely on a 120gb drive, however it will depend on the average length of tracks. At 320kbps the sound quality won't suffer much at all. At lower bitrates, how much the SQ will suffer depends on the specific music

 

[mteorman]

For file format, go with mp3 for universality. Both players can play mp3 and aac; I like opening things up with Audacity so I use the former.

As for the amount of compression, that's for you to decide. Pick an album you are familiar with and rip it with varying bitrates, and then ABX them with foobar2000. My guess is that it will come down to using -V 0 (~250 Kbps) or -V 2 (~190 Kbps). I use the latter since I can't tell the difference in my normal listening environment.

 

[Omari149]

i forgot to mention that I will also be adding pictures and DVD's on them. I remember when I had mp3's encoded at 192 kb/s when I had the 30gb Zune and 60gb Ipod but switched over to wma 64kb/s when I donated the ipod to a friend that lost everything in a fire. and I have been using wma's ever since.

 

[Omari149]

is aac smaller or bigger than mp3, and can majority of the players today play aac if I decide to go that route?

 

[paaj]

AAC is considered better than MP3 with the same bitrate, it's a newer codec. Especially with lower bitrates, in the higher parts (160+ ?) it should not matter much. Same bitrate = same filesize. Most players should be able to play it.

Why not go lossless? 120GB is more than big enough for a lot of music. Even half that (rest movies) should last you weeks.
You also could rerip to lossless once, and transcode to flac/alac/mp3/aac if needed for your portable player.

 

[krmathis]

320kbps AAC is my suggestion.
AAC is considered transparent on lower bitrate than MP3, and since it is supported on both players it is imo an obvious choice.

 

[wcahyono]

128 kbps CBR is totally rubish...

Go for 192 minimum

 

[ilney]

Just use lame v0 and forget about bitrate all together

Why people chose 320 vbr/cbr mp3 over lame v0 is beyond me. More does not mean better.

 

[chinesekiwi]

Depending on what codecs your DAP takes:

At least

-q5 Ogg Vorbis
VBR 192k LAME 3.98.2 mp3
VBR 192k AAC

I personally use -q8 Vorbis and VBR -V0 LAME 3.98.2 mp3

If they are alreadly mp3 or any other lossy format (e.g. AAC, WMA, MP3, AC3, Vorbis, .MP4), there is no point converting/transcoding them as you'll only lose quality.

You should only rip to lossy from lossless formats (e.g. FLAC, WAV, .APE, WMA Lossless, Apple Lossless [ALAC], actual CD)

 

[tds101]

Niether the iPod nor the Zune uses OGG Vorbis, and WMA's only work on a Zune (between these 2 players). I'd go with the AAC option, since almost all players support it nowadays. Even Sony dap's allow the codec - we've come a long way!!!!

 

[Punnisher]

I'd use v0 lame mp3. It has a very good reputation of being transparent. It's also vbr so you won't waste as much space as 320 cbr.

In addition it's also supported by every device known to man.

For archival purposes, I use FLAC.

 

[wolfen68]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punnisher /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'd use v0 lame mp3. It has a very good reputation of being transparent. It's also vbr so you won't waste as much space as 320 cbr. In addition it's also supported by every device known to man. For archival purposes, I use FLAC.

I almost totally agree with this....but I've found V1 Lame VBR mp3 to be a good compromise. It seems to yield bitrates around 225 - 250 (depending upon song of course) and sounds great.

 

[Omari149]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punnisher /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'd use v0 lame mp3. It has a very good reputation of being transparent. It's also vbr so you won't waste as much space as 320 cbr. In addition it's also supported by every device known to man. For archival purposes, I use FLAC.

I might try that, whats a good program that allows you to rip cd's into Vo Lame mp3?