Where to start with the music?

[pokemon]

I've got a set of z5500 and getting my BlueGears X-mystique card any day now (going the digital route), what do I need for music quality? I've heard many things about FLAC encoding and such, but does this just pertain to ripping CDs? I wanted the best quality music, so what is the best route to go?

 

[astrallite]

FLAC is a good point to start as a lossless source to convert to others like VBR Lame mp3.

 

[pokemon]

I downloaded the codec but where do I need to go from there, I knew absolutly nothing about audio about a week ago, so bare with me.

 

[astrallite]

Oh, you mean for your own CD collection? I personally do CBR Lame 320kbps for all my songs, although I do *ahem* download FLAC occasionally.

And I really don't want to get nude with you, sorry

 

[pokemon]

Thanks, so whats the difference between 128kbps and 320kbps?

Oh, and I understand, we don't need to go there then. I can do that myself .

 

[chuckshissle]

The difference between the two are sound quality and capacity. 128 kilobytes per second ( kbps) takes less space but in doing so reduces the quality of the audio because it's compressing it. 320 kbps would be the exact opposite.

So you choose between sound quality and space.

I've always set mine to 320 kbps.

P.S. You two get a room. haha. :?: :?

 

[pokemon]

Itunes seems to be doing this with CDs Im importing, is the quality worse than than it could be using the Lame encoder?

 

[astrallite]

From what I've heard, lame is the best encoder out there, and the mp3 encoder for itunes is closer in quality to the wmv ripping of windows media player.

 

[uncle_ben]

just take a song with lots of instruments and lots of dynamics. Some Metallica maybe. Rip it at 320 CBR and 128CBR separately. Listen to the results. If you cannot hear the difference listen again. Once you dislike 128CBR and can tell the diff rip the same song using iTunes, listen to it and compare results. Pick one that you like

 

[pokemon]

harhar, I accidenty downloaded the DOS app rather than the XP frontend version. Thats why it was acting weird.

I just got the frontend version, so when I get time today, I will test what uncleben suggested. I can tell a difference between them, but Im not sure if it was because the person didn't encode for best quality, because the two files both read 320kbps but one was 10MB and the other was 6MB.