first of all, Hi! I'm new here!

I started this thread here because it's a neutral topic so it doesn't fit in mp3 or ogg!

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I can't decide on which codec to rip with?

I want good quality! size does matter but is secondary!

can you guys please suggest me which one to use? MP3 or OGG?

also

can you guys please answer this questions!

in mp3 which is the best option?(highest quality at the same bit rates)

ABR(up to 320) vs CBR(up to 320) vs VBR(alt-preset-standard,extreme,insane)

and in ogg which is the recommended option going with bitrates 128,160,192 or with the quality like 1,2,3,4,5,......10?

and finally which one do I go with? OGG or MP3? which is better at higher bitrates(192 and up)

I think i'm stuck between choosing ogg - 8 vs mp3 alt-preset-extreme

I really don't care about compatibility(going to use it on my pc anyway!) battery life, or size(as long as it's not over 15megs), quality of sound, is what i'm interested in!

i tried comparing ogg(6) and mp3(alt-preset-standard) but I couldn't tell the difference! tried comparing standard with extreme, couldn't tell the difference! I have GradoSR225 and Echo Indigo sound card, so that's the reason I'm asking you these question(s) guys! I can't tell the difference but you guys can! and maybe my ears will get trained and I will too! someday and on that day I would love to have high quality audio!

Thanks!

Since compatibility isn't important go for mpc for its encoding / decoding speed and quality.

I an give you 2 answer immediately

1. use mp3 if you want compability
--preset settings (medium, standard, extreme, insane) are the best you can get from LAME. version 3.90, 3.92, 3.96 are considered safe

2. use OGG Vorbis, its free, needs less CPU power to decode/playback, a faster encoder than LAME 3.96, will surely offer better quality than mp3 if its TUNED

I really don't want to start another flame war about which codec is best, but, I think there is also another point of view, another factor to take into count beside the pure acoustic quality of a codec: future support. That is for how long I can feel confident there will be support for that codec in future hardware/software/technological environments.

Today I can be perfectly happy with XYZ codec running on my PC, but potentially tomorrow I could be very upset to discover that it is not supported by the new sleek home appliance or portable personal information system or any new technology that instead support many others, but not mine. I will be even more upset if my XYZ codec were a lossy one. Transcoding to the "new one" will mean "to loose something more".

That is why I'm now mostly using lossless codecs (two of them, actually) and for the rest I'm still with MP3, which I think is still by far the most diffused one and so likely to be supported for a long time. I'm now caressing the idea to move to AAC, though... A brake to this is the fact that AAC is not yet supported by my preferred "music library", but today in this field (music libraries) many other alterenative are emerging that can be perfectly viable.

I think adherence to some international recognized "standard" can represent a big plus in this optic, but also the availability of "public domain" algorithms and implementations can represent an important factor...

I have to admit that this attitude can represent a "stopper" in technological advance, but... sorry, my music collection is so important to me!

Just my thoughts...


Sergio

Ogg. Ogg does not suffer from some shortcomings of MP3. (e.g. Better tagging. Inherently gapless. If it needs it can encode with higher than 320kbs)

As for future support all the portable etc manufacturers will end up supporting MP3, WMA, ACC and yes Ogg Vorbis. Probably not more than that. Simply because they need to to stay in competition.

Also Ogg is free from license fee and it has a conscious following. So small companies who want market share will adopt it to grab that slice of the market. This is already happening. Ogg is always a headline feature.

I am in the same position. Just about to encode all my CD-s which are in FLAC already. I was pondering on this and I chose Ogg Vorbis.

Triza

So your PRIMARY codec is FLAC, a lossless codec.

If you have all (or even most) of your music in a lossless format, it really doesn't matter much which lossy codec you use NOW. You can freely pick the one you enjoy the most for whatever reason.

You can always recode from the lossless format to a new lossy format the day you discover the one you use now is not supported by the system you decide to use. Imagine that for some reason I LOVE the iPod or somebody made a gift of it to me (I can't afford one, right now): I couldn't choose Ogg.

My point is: go lossless and then use the one that fits your needs today for portable or everyday listening. Triza, I think my wording is different but conclusions are very similar to yours...

Sergio

I think I'm going to go with ogg too! judging from your replies it's kind of middle ground between mpc and mp3! better than mp3 and has support which mpc does not!

I think i'm going to start encoding cds with quality: 8

I tried but couldn't tell the difference between 6 and 8 but still I'm going to go with 8 just in case someday I will get better stereo and will tell the difference

Thanks for all your replies guys they were very helpful!