What's the best music/compression format to choose?

[soarwitheagles]

Hi all!

I was hoping to gain some insights before converting all my music CD's into a compressed format.

I am not sure what is the best for my specific situation...

1. I would like to keep a nice copy of all my music just in case something ever happened to my CD collection.
2. I would like excellent quality while maintaining a good compression rate.
3. I would like the format to work on my Windows Media Player, Ipod, Ipad, smart phone, ASUS Tablet, and car radio, etc.
4. And yes, I do believe in miracles

I read somewhere that WMA cannot be used in several different scenarios, such as Apple...
 
Thanks,

Soar

I just finished experimenting with my new Intel 2500k rig using Windows Media Player and found some pleasant surprises....

Compressing to WMA requires three or four minutes per CD
Compressing to MP3 requires 5-6 seconds per song, or less that 1-2 minutes per CD
 

[absic]

Hi Soar,

How good are your ears? Might sound a silly question but what sounds good to one person can sound really bad to another. Trust me I know and I have heard some really bad audio files where people have compressed the hell out of them only to believe they are perfect!

If you want to do is keep the CD's backed-up and use the song across the widest possible spectrum of devices then I would say use MP3 with a bitrate of 192 kpbs. If you are worried about storage space then you could lower the bitrate to 160 kpbs or even 128kpbs but don't go any lower than that as you would start to notice a big difference in quality. Do not believe those who tell you that you have to go above 192kpbs as any extra details that are retained are not usually heard and the difference in quality is really negligible.

Other formats such as Wav, AC3, FLAC, BroadcastWav64 etc, have the uses but in general terms are not much use to you with what you are tring to achieve.

[soarwitheagles]

Hi Soar,

How good are your ears? Might sound a silly question but what sounds good to one person can sound really bad to another. Trust me I know and I have heard some really bad audio files where people have compressed the hell out of them only to believe they are perfect!

If you want to do is keep the CD's backed-up and use the song across the widest possible spectrum of devices then I would say use MP3 with a bitrate of 192 kpbs. If you are worried about storage space then you could lower the bitrate to 160 kpbs or even 128kpbs but don't go any lower than that as you would start to notice a big difference in quality. Do not believe those who tell you that you have to go above 192kpbs as any extra details that are retained are not usually heard and the difference in quality is really negligible.

Other formats such as Wav, AC3, FLAC, BroadcastWav64 etc, have the uses but in general terms are not much use to you with what you are tring to achieve.

Absic,

Ok, thanks for the informative post.  I had a feeling you would respond and knowing how much you love music, I trusted you would give me an accurate answer!

My ear [hearing ability] is one of my greatest weakness [I am hearing impaired/disabled].

I suffered auditory damage in three ways:

1. Loud rock music concerts in the 1970's with no ear protection and lots of ignorance on my part [ZZ TOP, Kiss, etc,].
2. Lots of shooting of fire arms some of which was also done without ear protection.
3. Brain disease [viral meningitis encephalitis, contracted by a mosquito bite] that did most of the present damage to my auditory nerves.

I am still very happy because I can still hear ok [most of the hearing loss is high frequency loss], I never got killed by a bullet, and, last, I survived a very terrible incurable brain disease!  So no complaints! 

Now, back to the topic...

Ok, I have taken your advice and converted everything from the CD files to MP3 format you suggested.  It is a nice compression for me because I cannot tell any difference whatsoever [obviously I am not an audiophile], and also, instead of 500+ MB per CD, it is now ten times less [average is 56 MB per CD].

I appreciate your help Absic!

Keep up the good work on your music!

Soar