Which audio format is your music library in?

[Npoess]

I've tried to search for this topic, but I couldn't find anything.

 

I'm trying to decide which format to rip my CDs in. But I've been hearing so many mixed responses. I am well aware of the different pros and cons there is with the different formats.

 

I recently ripped some CDs to FLAC, and I'm pretty sure I can hear that the audio quality is slightly better, but I'm not quite sure to be honest. And if so, I'm not sure if that small audio quality advantage is worth the extra space it takes.

 

I'm not expert on the area, but I would appreciate some of you're opinions on what you're choice of format is.

[Guest bitroast]

v0

 

variable bitrate 0 (which is ~245 kbps)

 

copy and paste from wiki.

Variable bitrate (VBR) is a term used in telecommunications and computing that relates to the bitrate used in sound or video encoding. As opposed to constant bitrate (CBR), VBR files vary the amount of output data per time segment. VBR allows a higher bitrate (and therefore more storage space) to be allocated to the more complex segments of media files while less space is allocated to less complex segments. The average of these rates can be calculated to produce an average bitrate for the file.

[coax]

I get flacs of some stuff, mostly it's v0 and 320 CBR mp3 though.

[ChrisRyder]

LAME v0 mp3.

 

If I ever got round to flashing rockbox to my ipod 160, I might consider going full FSF zealot and convert all my FLACs to ogg vorbis

[Friendly Foil]

I know this is soooo not IDM, but.. MP3 (usually 256).

 

It doesn't take up a whole lot of space, can be played pretty much everywhere and it sounds pretty good to me. I have pretty much everything on CD, so if I want to listen to something in the best possible quality, I'll just go and put it on. For causal listening, transportation etc., I see nothing wrong with mp3s.

[Captain James Mission]

FLAC.

[Squee]

I may be OCD about my music library but I do not limit myself to ONE format.

[KovalainenFanBoy]

MP3, either 320 or v0. I used to go the lossless (FLAC) route but I ended up not finding it worth the hassle

[goDel]

Library: flac

Listening: aac

 

I changed from mp3 to aac years ago because of discussions on some other forum about mp3 having more problem samples. Both formats can be completely transparant, but the odds you're running into problems can be slightly bigger with mp3. At least, that was around that time. Things might be different nowadays.

 

Rips are in tvbr, highest settings.

 

Physical cd's are only used once...*makes ripping sound*

[Npoess]

I know this is soooo not IDM, but.. MP3 (usually 256).

 

It doesn't take up a whole lot of space, can be played pretty much everywhere and it sounds pretty good to me. I have pretty much everything on CD, so if I want to listen to something in the best possible quality, I'll just go and put it on. For causal listening, transportation etc., I see nothing wrong with mp3s.

 

Is there a particular reason why you choose 256 kbps, and not 320 kbps?

[Guest Adam]

DenseFLACs™

[Friendly Foil]

I know this is soooo not IDM, but.. MP3 (usually 256).

 

It doesn't take up a whole lot of space, can be played pretty much everywhere and it sounds pretty good to me. I have pretty much everything on CD, so if I want to listen to something in the best possible quality, I'll just go and put it on. For causal listening, transportation etc., I see nothing wrong with mp3s.

 

Is there a particular reason why you choose 256 kbps, and not 320 kbps?

Space. And to be honest, I can barely hear the difference.

 

I rip some albums in 320 though. Like AE.

[mcbpete]

.ra (or v0 mp3)

[Guest Aserinsky]

FLAC on my main desktop (I sample a lot of stuff so having lossless files is pretty important), 320 mp3s on the laptop and VBR v5 on my phone / mp3 player, although quite honestly I still struggle to tell the difference between v5 and FLAC in ABX tests.

[eugene]

the most reasonable solution is probably high quality mp3, but i still can't make this step psychologically so im hording flacs.

[Npoess]

the most reasonable solution is probably high quality mp3, but i still can't make this step psychologically so im hording flacs.

 

lol

 

This is the problem I'm struggling with at the moment.

[triachus]

But I'm not a music library

[YO303]

Alac for home listening MP3 for portable listening.

[Npoess]

Alac for home listening MP3 for portable listening.

 

How do you organize that?

[YO303]

Alac for home listening MP3 for portable listening.

 

How do you organize that?

 

I have two different playlist on itunes, one labeled ALAC the other MP3, when i sync music to the ipod i just select the option "sync playlist MP3", when i'm at home i just click on the alac playlist

 

Oh and i first rip/convert music to ALAC, tagged it properly then i convert it to MP3 (320)

 

 

 

[Npoess]

Ahh.. of course.

 

But having two versions of every song, that would just annoy me.

 

 

OCD

 

[MisterE]

i use flacs. i don't see why space should be any kind of deal nowadays. you can get a 1tb external HD for around 70$. i bought one just mainly for my music library. i have a dresser drawer full of cds and it took several days to rip all of them, and they barely put a dent in that disk in flac. i'm not going to say that i can hear a difference between 320 mp3s and flacs, and i think any difference at that point would be very subtle. so the mp3 would be fine, BUT on the other hand, if i want the absolute best why not just stick with flac? why cut out some of the data or process it in any way if i don't need to? besides that, i remember always having problems trying to get mp3s to play without a gap between them. maybe i'm just a dummy but i remember looking it up and seeing that it was either not possible to have a seamless transition, or that it was a major hassle to do it. that was a while back though. what if i want to listen to a pink floyd album without hearing a stupid gap between the tracks that are supposed to flow right into each other?

[Friendly Foil]

i use flacs. i don't see why space should be any kind of deal nowadays. you can get a 1tb external HD for around 70$. i bought one just mainly for my music library. i have a dresser drawer full of cds and it took several days to rip all of them, and they barely put a dent in that disk in flac. i'm not going to say that i can hear a difference between 320 mp3s and flacs, and i think any difference at that point would be very subtle. so the mp3 would be fine, BUT on the other hand, if i want the absolute best why not just stick with flac? why cut out some of the data or process it in any way if i don't need to? besides that, i remember always having problems trying to get mp3s to play without a gap between them. maybe i'm just a dummy but i remember looking it up and seeing that it was either not possible to have a seamless transition, or that it was a major hassle to do it. that was a while back though. what if i want to listen to a pink floyd album without hearing a stupid gap between the tracks that are supposed to flow right into each other?

Works fine here.

[YO303]

Ahh.. of course.

 

But having two versions of every song, that would just annoy me.

 

 

OCD

 

 

Why? that shouldn't bother you. Look at my fucking library is organized as fuck, i spent a shit load of time tagging my library, i just have two version of every song because my ipod doesn't have enough space to fit all the songs in lossless format (plus listening to lossless music on earbuds tru an ipod is pointless)

 

 

(also people who claim to have ocd dont have ocd)

[Npoess]

i use flacs. i don't see why space should be any kind of deal nowadays. you can get a 1tb external HD for around 70$. i bought one just mainly for my music library. i have a dresser drawer full of cds and it took several days to rip all of them, and they barely put a dent in that disk in flac. i'm not going to say that i can hear a difference between 320 mp3s and flacs, and i think any difference at that point would be very subtle. so the mp3 would be fine, BUT on the other hand, if i want the absolute best why not just stick with flac? why cut out some of the data or process it in any way if i don't need to? besides that, i remember always having problems trying to get mp3s to play without a gap between them. maybe i'm just a dummy but i remember looking it up and seeing that it was either not possible to have a seamless transition, or that it was a major hassle to do it. that was a while back though. what if i want to listen to a pink floyd album without hearing a stupid gap between the tracks that are supposed to flow right into each other?

 

 

If you have a phone/MP3 player with only 32 gb, FLAC is obviously not a good choice, if you like to have as much music as possible with you at all times.

 

But maybe I should consider having a home listening library and a portable library.