What bitrate do you use? (2011), MP3, AAC, Vorbis, MPC and others. Options

[IgorC]

It was a long time since poll like this. It will be interesting to see what bitrates people use in 2011.

Please, move this topic to the poll section.

This post has been edited by IgorC: Feb 17 2011, 07:56

[MahFlac]

I use 320 mp3. mp3 is compatible with everything and storage is so cheap and vast that I don't bother with any vbr. Plus, I get some comforting sense of having the best possible mp3 that soothes my OCD. I archive everything in FLAC with logs and cue sheets.

[JJZolx]

I use 320 mp3. mp3 is compatible with everything and storage is so cheap and vast that I don't bother with any vbr.

I only listen to MP3 on portable players, all with 32GB or less of storage. While that storage is relatively cheap, it is limited, so I use VBR at about 180kbps, which nearly doubles the number of files I can get on the devices compared to 320 kbps. And considering that I'm usually listening to those players while in a noisy gym, the sound quality is way more than adequate.

[MahFlac]

I use 320 mp3. mp3 is compatible with everything and storage is so cheap and vast that I don't bother with any vbr.

I only listen to MP3 on portable players, all with 32GB or less of storage. While that storage is relatively cheap, it is limited, so I use VBR at about 180kbps, which nearly doubles the number of files I can get on the devices compared to 320 kbps. And considering that I'm usually listening to those players while in a noisy gym, the sound quality is way more than adequate.

That's cool. I don't use any portable music devices. At the gym they have TVs on the treadmills. I do all my listening either at home on my computer, where I shuffle my music, or in my car, where I just listen to CDs old school style.

[JJZolx]

I don't use any portable music devices. At the gym they have TVs on the treadmills. I do all my listening either at home on my computer, where I shuffle my music, or in my car, where I just listen to CDs old school style.

Then why don't you simply listen to the FLAC files that you have? Why a need for MP3s at all?

[MahFlac]

I don't use any portable music devices. At the gym they have TVs on the treadmills. I do all my listening either at home on my computer, where I shuffle my music, or in my car, where I just listen to CDs old school style.

Then why don't you simply listen to the FLAC files that you have? Why a need for MP3s at all?

FLAC files are very large. Thus, instead of keeping them on my computer I archive them. Plus, I do a lot of manipulation to the mp3 files that I don't want to do to the flac files, things like renaming, retagging, replay gain, etc. The FLAC files are directly from rips and archived exactly as they are. Even with a 2TB drive flac fills it up pretty quickly whereas I can have weeks and weeks of music to shuffle with mp3 and still tons of room to add more. So, if I ever need to burn a disc, I have the flac album. If I ever need to encode to some other lossy format, I have the flac, etc.