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Compression settings, what do you use for your personal consumption

  • mp3 128

    Votes: 6 4.4%
  • AAC 128

    Votes: 27 19.9%
  • mp3 160

    Votes: 9 6.6%
  • AAC 160

    Votes: 12 8.8%
  • mp3 192

    Votes: 28 20.6%
  • AAC 192

    Votes: 31 22.8%
  • mp3 256

    Votes: 9 6.6%
  • AAC 256

    Votes: 11 8.1%
  • use lossless as well as above compression.

    Votes: 12 8.8%
  • only use lossless

    Votes: 10 7.4%

  • Total voters
    136

Eraserhead

macrumors G4
Nov 3, 2005
10,434
12,250
UK
AAC 160 VBR is what I usually use, though I've heard LAME sounds the best and as it's mp3 is most compatible.
 

Sesshi

macrumors G3
Jun 3, 2006
8,113
1
One Nation Under Gordon
Eraserhead said:
AAC 160 VBR is what I usually use, though I've heard LAME sounds the best and as it's mp3 is most compatible.


Honestly, I think that's just the FLAC / Ogg / LAME (open souce / free codec) pwnz j00 crowd. AAC is a superior codec which offers decent performance at all bitrates in comparison to other codecs.
 

sunfast

macrumors 68020
Oct 14, 2005
2,135
53
192kbps MP3 is a good balance between size and quality for me. I don't like proprietory formats.
 

Sesshi

macrumors G3
Jun 3, 2006
8,113
1
One Nation Under Gordon
sunfast said:
192kbps MP3 is a good balance between size and quality for me. I don't like proprietory formats.

It's perhaps not surprising how many people, especially the 'anything but iPod' crowd equate at least one of the A's in AAC to Apple and view it as an Apple lock-in codec even now when other vendors are introducing native AAC support. AAC is about as proprietary as MP3. MP3 is simply a wider supported codec.
 

Some_Big_Spoon

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2003
855
0
New York, NY
I use 192 AAC. Sounds pretty good to my ear and the size is decent. Now that HD space is less of a problem, why wouldn't you spring for a higher quality?
 

Bibulous

macrumors 6502a
Jan 19, 2005
716
0
Today 192 AAC VBR, rip it and give it...

Makes me think about the weekend I spend in '02 ripping all my CD's into iTunes...those were good times in the middle of a corn field.
 

Coda

macrumors newbie
Sep 16, 2006
4
0
CZ
Sesshi said:
AAC is a superior codec which offers decent performance at all bitrates in comparison to other codecs.

Is this actually true? I have heard that low bitrate AAC nails MP3, but does it hold true at 256-320?

I'm going to import one of my Jarre CD's that was mastered at some incredible rate into both AAC and MP3 and have a listen. The only problem is that I dont think I have any equiptment thats capable of reproducing it good enough for a proper test :confused:
 

miTunes75

macrumors 6502
May 29, 2006
280
0
I use LAME ~320 VBR. I found this sounds best for me. I keep all the cds I purchase so, I already have the originals of everything. I have considered making a copy of my library and converting it to 128 aac for my ipod mini as the only time i use my ipod is in the car and apple ear buds. But....I just haven't brought myself to do that just yet.
 

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
"In an ideal world", I'd have a mean mother of a RAID equipped, 3GHz Mac Pro, with all my music digitised in lossless format. Then when transferring to the media player of choice, iTunes would encode (or should that be transcode in this case?) to the chosen format in the fly, then transfer it.
 

extraextra

macrumors 68000
Jun 29, 2006
1,758
0
California
jréh said:
128kbps but would any faster really help that much?

Better quality.


I'm limited on space, and generally don't care how the music sounds as long as it's listenable, so I use 128kbps MP3.
 

Sesshi

macrumors G3
Jun 3, 2006
8,113
1
One Nation Under Gordon
whooleytoo said:
"In an ideal world", I'd have a mean mother of a RAID equipped, 3GHz Mac Pro, with all my music digitised in lossless format. Then when transferring to the media player of choice, iTunes would encode (or should that be transcode in this case?) to the chosen format in the fly, then transfer it.

Still too slow for me. I've done some projections and I'd need 2 x 4-core (and not the proposed low-end ones) before it comes usable. Transcoding is one of the things that really benefits from multithreaded usage as each instance can crunch on one track (although iTunes doesn't seem to take advantage of multiple cores - but a fairly well-known Windows app which I use does).

Coda said:
Is this actually true? I have heard that low bitrate AAC nails MP3, but does it hold true at 256-320?

I'm going to import one of my Jarre CD's that was mastered at some incredible rate into both AAC and MP3 and have a listen. The only problem is that I dont think I have any equiptment thats capable of reproducing it good enough for a proper test :confused:

The differences become pretty much indistinguishable at 320, but to all intents and purposes AAC is a better codec than MP3. It's also better than WMA as implemented by online shops.
 

steelfist

macrumors 6502a
Aug 10, 2005
577
0
although i do appreciate a higher bitrate, i don't have the money for good earphones. that's why I only use 128 kbps AAC. i find 192 kbps Mp3 to be the best, not too big (filesize), not too ugly (sound).

my familly thinks it's spoiled to spend $50 or more on earphones, so i'm not going to be able to afford shure earphones. BTW, how good or V-moda remix Earphones? they are right at the right price i would pay for earphones.
 
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