What bit rate do you use?

[TheRollingStoner]

If using this:



or laptop/PC speakers

Use mp3 at 192kb/sec or greater.

If using this or similar:



Or listening to this:



Use FLAC.



Any questions?

[evildragon]

I I have to compress for space, like on my iPod, it's 320kbps AAC..

[Elusive]

Just go with 192 MP3, dude. You can listen to it on anything - or even use it as a phone ringtone! - and it'll sound perfectly fine. The software that came with your computer's OS will even rip it for you, tag it, probably add album art, and file it away neatly for convenience.

[N.Saibot]

LOL @ FLAC elitists. Most people can't tell the difference until the bitrates are too low.

I'd recommend you go with AAC (M4A). Use Nero's AAC codec along with a GUI to get the best results. MP3 is a serious waste of space, and Ogg Vorbis isn't widely supported. As for the ideal bitrate? I'd say ~200kbps is the sweet spot for me, but don't take my word as gospel you can try experimenting before deciding on an optimal value. Oh and always use VBR, not CBR.

It makes sense to use flac. I ripped all my CDs to PC with flac, this way I can do a
perfectly fine .mp3 OR .ogg OR whatever else I want, any time. If I would have
everything in lossy, then converting it to other lossy formats would result in an audible
decrease in quality. With 160 GB of space there really is no point in trying to keep the
filesize down.

And if I feel like it, I can even do peak analysis in Audacity or just look at how
compressed/dynamic my music really is. When converting to something lossy you
would change the waveform as seen in Audacity, thus making such fun activities
rather pointless.

[N.Saibot]

I use headphones mostly and I can clearly hear a difference between 192kbps and 320kbps.



I think it depends a lot on the source material though. 128kbps at q=0 probably is a pretty decent setting for audio books, etc. But the more things are going on at the same time, the more you loose when encoding to lower bitrates (or perhaps more correctly: the more noticeable your loss becomes).

Hmm, headphones might be better for hearing small differences. Too bad I can't test my
hearing ability with good headphones, mine are in the slow process of dying right now
and were never good to begin with.

[TmEE]

I never rip to MP3, be it 56kbit or 320kbit... MP3 sucks with most codecs...

If I rip, i'll do straight WAVs, or FLACs or APEs or anything else thats lossless. If I want to send a file to a friend etc. I'll OGG the file... low Kbit OGG sounds better than much higher kbit MP3, spectrograms look much better too.

[N.Saibot]

Yeah, .ape is something I forgot about. Monkeys audio codec rules! It has bigger
compression rates than flac and is lossless. A shame that support under Linux is kind of a
problem.

[sasuke]

For me, it really depends on the device I use it for.

I initially rip most of my CD's in FLAC format, and then encode them to other formats for my portable players. I use 128kbs AAC files for PSP, 256kbs AAC for iPods, and OGGs for everything that supports it.

[Pulstar]

The OP could just rip straight to AAC using EAC or a similar program (I use dbPoweramp myself, greater flexibility with external encoders), bypassing this FLAC business in the process. I'm sure he didn't ask how to archive his CDs.

I wish MP3 would just go away. It's a serious waste of space. I like Vorbis but let's face it the format will never be supported as much as AAC.

[Pulstar]

I'd appreciate some song recommendations to test various codecs with. Songs like Enigma's Eyes of Truth where compression artefacts can be heard by most people. And no metal please

[TmEE]

metal is quite good for testing, because cymbals get really messed up with most codecs, especially MP3 :P

[OldSchool]

320 is the way to go... Wav first, 320 second.

metal is quite good for testing, because cymbals get really messed up with most codecs, especially MP3 :P

You do realize that cymbals can be in 'any' kind of music right?

[Christuserloeser]

I've been using several tracks from Fragile by Nine Inch Nails to compare 192kbit vs 320kbit.

[MN12BIRD]

FLAC or 320 VBR. I say most of the time on my headphones 192 just doesn't quite cut it.

[TheRollingStoner]

FLAC or 320 VBR. I say most of the time on my headphones 192 just doesn't quite cut it.

I would think that with your setup, you'd be a FLAC man exclusively. I haven't seen your headphones, but I think the same rule would apply.