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Best file format & bit rate for cd ripping?

Pinky

In suspense, not compressed
Hi All,

Firstly, apologies for a basic question. I'm new to ripping cd's to my computer and don't know the best file format and bit rate to rip them to. As well as playing off the computer I also want to transfer some of them to my Sony Walkman so it needs to be compatible with that too. I thought that WAV lossless might be good but don't really know.

Suggestions welcome please...
 
Depends.. Best for what? Quality? Lots of tunes on something portable?

Personally, FLAC is what I tend to use, its lossless so (in theory) is as good as the original. I also rip to high bitrate mp3 (320kbps) for on the move usage.

Sam
 
Thanks Sam. Quality is the priority for me.

WAV lossless is showing at 1411.2 kbps on my computer options. Of all the options it gives me that seems to have the highest kbps.
 
Hi,

with some patience you'll be able to find a number of useful tips here, because the subject is sharing more and more interest.
As far as I can tell, there are two major choices: WAV (uncompressed, same bit rate as CD - 16/44.1 -. writable on a CD-R and playable by almost any piece of equipment, typical of the Windows platform and seen by virtually any digital player or streamer; FLAC, a compressed but lossless format which is also much used, in fact almost all Hi-res files - such as those in 24/96 - are available in FLAC for download. FLAC, though, is not recognized by Windows Media Player unless you add a specific piece of software, and I believe not by iTunes either, while media players like Foobar2000 and VLC, free, play almost any format in existence.

Ripper software is much discussed, but in spite of a common belief, rooted in times when PCUs were slower, a software like EAC (Exact Audio Copy, free) does not rip files significantly better than Windows Media Player or iTunes, provided the CD is in normal conditions. All the three mentioned software can provide bit-perfect storage of CDs in normal conditions.

I don't know Sony gear, but the most common format for portable players - excluding Apple ones, which have a proprietary format called AIFF - is probably MP3, which can be used in a variety of bi rates, from very poor to quite acceptable. It's possible that Sony favors a proprietary format in their own software, but in general I believe that MP3 is almost universally accepted.

Many will be able to give you much more accurate informations, but this is grossly where to begin with.

I hope I have been accurate enough,

Best wishes
Massimo
 
Thanks Massimo. That's useful information for me as I'm just starting out at this.

I've just ripped a few cd's with Windows Media player using WAV lossless. You're right in that FLAC does not appear as an option for me.

I'm more interested in sound quality than storage space but maybe on the Walkman (which is MP3 & MP4) I wouldn't hear a difference between MP3 files @ 320 kbps and WAV lossless files @ 1411 kbps anyway? Perhaps I would hear that difference if I connect to the hifi though. I think I have a lot of experimenting to do, including seeing what files the Walkman is prepared to accept![/I]

Thanks, Pinky
 
If you are mainly ripping to play on a walkman then rip to mp3 320kbs it will be enough, unless you have a high quality portable headphone amp and phones to match.
For home use on the hifi then Wav or Flac.
 
Yes, I was starting to think that might be the sensible way to go. Trouble is, the portable device 'syncs' with the pc as soon as I connect it. Therefore whatever I've ripped to the pc copies over as is, including the file format. I haven't figured out how to overcome this one yet.
 
Pinky,

I am not sure this is what you need to know, but there's a good and free software called Easy CD extractor which lets you choose easily format and bit rate for your output files before ripping the CD, and does conversion of various formats. You could bypass the use of WMP and try that.

Massimo
 
I'm probably deaf, but in my car and on the phone I use 128 kbps. 320 could be better but this sounds excessively nerdy to me, counting in the fact that we are talking about noisy listening conditions (engine, wheels, city noise etc.). In a situation called 'life' I probably wouldn't hear a difference, and if there is, it's not a drama. 128 kbps certainly sounds flat on a proper system, but using hi-res mp3s is no more than a waste of memory space IMO.
 
FLAC is best for quality as it is lossless compression and it supports embedded tags like MP3. There are numerous players that support FLAC and it can be easily transcoded to MP3 for use with iPod etc.

As FLAC is free and open source it is a good bet for the future as you are not at the mercy of some big corporation changing their mind and burying a format.
 
Thanks for the really useful info everyone. I'll do some experimenting and report back. Won't be for a couple days as I'll be offline for then unfortunately.

Thanks, Pinky
 
Thanks Massimo. That's useful information for me as I'm just starting out at this.

I've just ripped a few cd's with Windows Media player using WAV lossless. You're right in that FLAC does not appear as an option for me.

I'm more interested in sound quality than storage space but maybe on the Walkman (which is MP3 & MP4) I wouldn't hear a difference between MP3 files @ 320 kbps and WAV lossless files @ 1411 kbps anyway? Perhaps I would hear that difference if I connect to the hifi though. I think I have a lot of experimenting to do, including seeing what files the Walkman is prepared to accept![/I]

Thanks, Pinky
Could you list all the formats the Walkman supports? They used to support only Sony's own ATRAC (similar to MP3).

Would you be prepared to use 2 formats, one for the Walkman, one for "serious" listening?
 
Any lossless format is fine IMO - with Apple Lossless if you use iTunes and FLAC if you don't.

If you have to save storage space then compressing to 320kbs lossy is a good compromise. Very hard to tell from lossless, if you even can.
 
Rip them with EAC to FLAC in the highest quality possible. Then it's 'done' and your starting point for all that follows.

If you need them as low bitrate mp3, transcode them from FLAC to mp3 with Trader's Little Helper. If you need high bitrate mp3, use the same.

The last Sony 'mp3' walkman I used was partnered with Sonic Stage, and I imported the mp3s into Sonic Stage, then copied them to the player.

If you get a streamer later, you won't need to re-rip your CDs, for they'll be ready in FLAC to be copied to whatever storage device you use with the streamer.
 
Rip them with EAC to FLAC in the highest quality possible.
Just to be clear, FLAC is lossless, there is only one quality (in case your comment implied that different rates of compression affected the quality.

The other point being, I don't think EAC does anything special over, say, iTunes.
 
Just to be clear, FLAC is lossless, there is only one quality (in case your comment implied that different rates of compression affected the quality.

The other point being, I don't think EAC does anything special over, say, iTunes.
I suspect that this is based on the belief that some rippers are more "bit-accurate" than others. Only in the land of the audiophool ...
 
I rip to WAV on a 2TB drive. I can then fart about reducing quality to my heart's content later.
 
I do all at 128k MP3 (joint stereo enabled, of course). Files are played
in the car and on the PC, both noisy environments. Occasionally
in the lounge as background music. Nothing wrong.
 
I suspect that this is based on the belief that some rippers are more "bit-accurate" than others. Only in the land of the audiophool ...

You don't believe that EAC is? Why do you think the programmers went to the effort of developing it?

To hoodwink the public in a big practical joke?

Why do you think Naim makes a big show of their ripping as 'bit-perfect'? Would they do this if iTunes was 'bit-perfect' ?
 
You don't believe that EAC is? Why do you think the programmers went to the effort of developing it?

To hoodwink the public in a big practical joke?

Why do you think Naim makes a big show of their ripping as 'bit-perfect'? Would they do this if iTunes was 'bit-perfect' ?
It's not an issue of belief, can you show some evidence that EAC gets more bits off a disk that other software?
 


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