preferred compression settings?

[lord patton]

The thread on lossless bitrates and my experience listening to AACs got me wondering...
what compression settings do you use, and in particular, how far have you gone to compare various options?

I recently got my first iPod (4G nano) and at first was just digging it. With time, I'm discriminating, and finding some source material isn't up to snuff.
I've ripped my collection in AAC, between 128 and 192. While Pantera sounds great, some orchestral and vocal music sounds kinda terrible.
In particular, I've been disappointed with Brahm's German Requiem and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, both of which feature orchestra, choir, and soloists.
I'm away from my physical CD collection right now, and so haven't been able to experiment, but intend to re-rip these works at better AAC settings, as well as apple lossless. Then I'll see (hear) what my ears tell me.
but in the meantime, does anyone else have experience and/or opinion on this? What's you're preference?

[Lacero]

Do you have Sound Check turned on? If you do, sometimes classical and vocal music becomes distorted. You may want to try 192Kbps for classical music and 128Kbps for regular mainstream music or music that has been highly compressed sonically.

[student_trap]

well, most of my music is ripped at 192 AAC, but for jazz or Classical I'd always go for something higher, personally, this means 256.

Problem with this is that you'll get a third fewer songs onto your ipod, and with a Nano, this could be a hindrance. However, the boost in quality is worth it IMO, especially if you have decent headphones or play it through a decent Hi Fi.

[Scarlet Fever]

its a fine line to walk. I find 192 AAC is too big, and my already ageing iPod battery suffers, and 128 AAC sounds very average... so most of my stuff is in 160 AAC. Saves the worries on either end :D

[tag]

its a fine line to walk. I find 192 AAC is too big, and my already ageing iPod battery suffers, and 128 AAC sounds very average... so most of my stuff is in 160 AAC. Saves the worries on either end :D

Yeah thats how my library is as well, my entire library is at 160 AAC. Execpt for those evil iTunes Music Store ones at their lowly 128. It throws my whole library out of wack. :p

[Ashapalan]

I've only just become aware of the custom section under aac :rolleyes:

Therefore all of my songs are in 128.

To be honest, i was comparing them to AIFF and personally just couldnt hit on the difference. Maybe i need good earphones, but whatever, i will probably stick to 128.

[After G]

Compared by ripping one track into ALL formats - lossless, AAC, MP3, etc ...

I found AAC 192 was the best compromise between quality and size.

[Lacero]

128 Kbps AAC is equivalent to 192 Kbps MP3.

Since not all MP3 encoders are created equal, I'll say iTunes MP3 and AAC encoder is one of the best encoders out there. Easily in the top 5% percentile of the best encoders. You simply can't go wrong with 128 Kbps AAC for 99% of the music out there.

Here's to the Crazy Ones http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=35452 (http://www.uriah.com/apple-qt/movies/think-different.mov)

[alexstein]

I used to have my library ripped at 320 kbps AAC. Than my library become to big (can you imagine that)and now I reripped everthing from cd again into 192 kbps AAC. The quality is still superb (for my ears that is) and the file size seems to be a little bit more appropriate. Oh and all the stuff I bought from the iTunes music store is 128 kbps AAC.

However it's up to you how you rip your music if you have the room go lossless if you don't do what sounds best to you. Everybodys ears a little different. What suits one may sounds like crap to someone else.

[Scarlet Fever]

When listening to music for a good quality encoding, a good place to focus is on the cleaner high treble note, like crash cymbals. If they start to sound grainy or artificial, re-code the song from the CD at the next highest rating until you get something which sounds good.

[Jovian9]

My top 10 is now ripped in AAC 192 and in lossless (I create seperate playlists).
Most of the stuff I listen to on a regular basis is ripped at AAC 160. It goes down from there. Bands/Songs I do not listen to that often, but still enjoy are at AAC 128. Old CD's of Bands/Songs that I never listen to any more but keep for nostalgia reasons I guess are ripped at AAC 92.