iPod Best balance of sound quality vs. file size?

[electronboy]

I'm finally going to get an iPod and rip my collection of 200 CD's to my PowerMac G5 and then sync to a new 60GB iPod.

I am a stickler for sound quality. I own upscale stereo components, cabling, and speakers--yes they do sound better. When MP3 and mini disc were first released I was not impressed with sound quality.

Now I am ready to make the digital jump. Should I encode using AAC 128 kbps or 256 kbps?

 

[alywa]

Definately use 256kbs. I'm not such a stickler, and I prefer mp3 for compatablilty issues, but I rip at 160kbs for all of my music, and it sounds fine to me. From what I understand, 128 AAC = 160 mp3... 256 kbs AAC = 320 kbs mp3. Of course, apple lossless would be the best choice (audio wise), but realize that 200 CDs will be approx 70GB in lossless format, so this wouldn't be a great use of the space on your iPod.

 

[frankblundt]

i went 224 AAC - the quality is a big step up from 128, and even 192, but it was becoming marginal at 256 and the jump in file size from 224 to 256 was large enough for me to stick at 224.