With the agreement of Synthetic Soul, I started a new bunch of polls. As explained in a private message, I'd like to see a more rationalized usage of polls, with a fixed duration. Polls are interesting to see how what tools they're using at home. But a succession of identical polls could also teach us how people are changing with time. It could interest people fond of statistics but it could also give to developers (especially lossless' ones) good information about the popularity of their product.

This poll merge the two most popular questions into one single topic. Please answer to all questions when it's possible. Even if you rarely use a lossy or a lossless format, tell us which one you prefer to perform this rare task.

N.B. As said, the opening period should now be fixed but the duration haven't been set. It could be one new poll per year, or two polls/year, or one each quarter.


link to previous polls (2006):
• your lossy codec of choice in 2006
• your lossless codec of choice in 2006


N.B. I deliberately ignore some possible answers (like mp3pro, vqf, LA, TTA) based on results obtained in the last poll. I already add TAK lossless encoder even if it's not available for the public. Future voters could therefore give their voice to this promising encoder. The formats are sorted by popularity (results of last polls).

P.S. This thread's right place belongs to the "poll" forum but I don't own the right to directly create it at the right place.

Ripping program of choice would also be an interesting poll question to add to the bundle.

yeah that would be nice... (well I think EAC is winner right here, but maybe not.......)

I'd like to see which other rippers are used as well (I think foobar2000 should also be added to the poll then...)

For use with my iPod Nano 2G and my Sony Ericsson K750i, I encode to LAME MP3, 80 kbps mono (my left ear is totally deaf so I never knew what stereo sounds like anyways).

For lossless, I went with WavPack after trying out Monkey's Audio and FLAC. The compression ratio is good enough for me and the encoding speed is excellent.

I use dBpowerAMP RC12 for ripping and rip to single tracks.

In 2006, things looked somewhat different. Until recently, I used EAC only with my Plextor PX-755A in order to have - what I thought - "perfect rips" including the 30 samples from the lead-out. In the meanwhile I realized that it's bullshit and not worth the hassle. I also used to encode to WavPack image + CUE. Additionally, I encoded using WMA Lossless in order to import the tracks in iTunes and rip to AAC at 128 kbps VBR (WMA Lossless can contain tags that are recognized by iTunes).

For general use [bitrate between ~128, ~300 kbps] LAME
for low bitrates AAC
Lossless: monkey's audio, others codecs have better decoding speed but the compression ratio are decreased and decoding speed aren

Yes but I could only put three questions in the same poll.

For general use [bitrate between ~128, ~300 kbps] LAME,for low bitrates AAC.
Lossless: monkey's audio, but this just with classical and metal musics.

I'd move to (embedded) cue + flac image if more players supported it (meaning most standard players: wmp/winamp/mediamonkey/etc).

Go MP3!!!! Go WavPack!!!!

Lossey format:

MP3 (LAME 3.97 VBR V2)

LAME Mp3 can be played gaplessley with a few more different players now , such as Winamp, iTunes and mpg123 (Unix). And i can listen to Dark Side Of The Moon, The Downward Spiral, The Fragile and other gapless albums without any clicks or pops on my 4GB 2G iPod Nano. 2006 was a good year for gapless playback for mp3.

Lossless format:

FLAC and PCM Wave

I use lossless for ABX test samples are if i have really bad CD that needs to be backed ASAP.

MP3/WV/IMG+CUE

I don't think my preferences will change throughout the whole year (except maybe when TAK becomes a full-blown codec with a nice license), but I would like to have quarterly votes on this subject anway. The more often these polls are being conducted the better. PS: ...and I think it was a good idea to splice all of them together.

Lossy = MP3
No lossless, although I'm thinking of ripping to FLAC images in the future.
One file per track MP3s.

MP3. Universal compatability. Transparency for me at V5 ~128 kbps. Thanx LAME

Compatability & ease of use for lossless - I flipped a coin and picked WavPack over FLAC.

LAME 3.97 -V 2 --vbr-new seperate tracks for my Sandisk M260.

WavPack 4.32 -hx1 single file with CUE for lossless. I'll very likely be switching to TAK once Thomas has it feature complete and expresses his confidence in using it for real.

LAME 3.97 -V0 --vbr-new, using EAC to rip from CDs and Foobar2000 to convert my FLAC backups.
For lossless, I'm too lazy to reencode everything in a different format, and most people already use it, so I just stick with FLAC too. As far as I can see, it's already the standard for everything but DVD-Audio.

Amen brother!

Max (cdparanoia mode instead of comparison w/ C2 becuase my CDs are barely scratched) rips to q5 Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, track-by-track. The oggs go on my Rockbox'd iPod 5.5G 30GB. WavPack looks interesting though, I'll have to check it out. I did a quick test and it encoded really fast, but it has even less player support than FLAC and Ogg...

Currently I use Lame to encode my music as AAC is confusing and the open source encoders are not as well developed as the commercial alternatives. And if I used lossless I would probably be using Flac, but because I don't want to re-rip all my music, and because it doesn't enjoy hardware support I probably won't be using it for a while.

Vorbis q-2 (it's transparent to me, especially on the go); WavPack; one file per track. I absolutely hate single file per disc + CUE.

I rip everything as WavPack Images for backup purposes then use foobar2000 + iTunesEncode to convert to 128 VBR AAC for the iPod.

I've been thinking about switching back to MP3 for lossy so I can stream to my Xbox 360 through WMP11, but so far I've found too many problem samples at V5 and I don't have enough space on my iPod to go with a higher bitrate... plus I've had the dreaded iTunes LAME VBR seek issues.

WV,
MP3,
mixed - cue for WV archive/PC playback, single MP3s now for portable use (Rockbox on iRiver h120). Was WVC for portable...

May I suggest that future polls split the "Other / I don't use x AT ALL!" question into two separate options? even if there are only 8 poll options max it looks like that answer is coming in about third or forth most popular, and it might be more interesting to get a breakdown than to see a fight for sixth and seventh.

Good idea about doing this regularly btw.

LAME -V5 for portable/car, FLAC and/or WV image+cue for PC. Although AAC and Vorbis have cought my eye a few times (I keep up with aotuv and lancer releases) they are simply not a convenient solution for me.

Ogg Vorbis for lossy, FLAC for lossless.

I rip in one file+cue for archiving purpuse (FLAC) and then convert to Ogg Vorbis in separate tracks for PC playback.

mp3 -v5 --vbr-new for my traveling player. musepak for my archive. good enough for these old ears

cheers,
herefornow

My Muvo likes WMA Standard, and with two-pass VBR WMA, I couldn't get MP3's with the same quality any where near as small the file size.

Flac played through Foobar for my non-portable listening.

Right now I have FLAC backups of all my discs, and i transcode that to AAC for my iPod, and MP3 for streaming to my XBOX 360... would like to get rid of the AAC and/or the MP3, but I haven't figured out how to tag iPod-compatible album art in MP3, and althought the XBOX will play back AAC files, it won't read them streamed over the network for some reason (only local or off an iPod). Oh well!

This started with a discussion in the 2006 lossless poll. guruboolez and I agree that a fixed term poll, preferably with a short duration (3 or 6 months in my opinion), will provide a more accurate representation of users' preferences.

The current TAK situation is a good example: If the majority of voters vote before TAK is released, and then many start using it, if the poll is left open for a year or more (2005's was open for twenty months) the poll will not accurately reflect usage for 2007. If two or four polls are taken in that time the migration is well documented.

The idea to join the two is a good one; I think the number of votes already reflects that. I agree with one poster that perhaps "I don't use any" should be a separate option so all such votes to that question can be "discounted". I could add the option now if you want guruboolez, but it should probably wait until the next one, considering the number of votes already.

I told guruboolez that I would be interested in the image vs tracks question, but I'm afraid that the votes are being polluted by users that only rip to lossy. I mean, 99% of people use tracks for listening, we're more interested in your archive/lossless version. Maybe only people who use lossless should answer the question, and an option added for a null vote?

For my part I use LAME -V5 --vbr-new for general playing (car stereo, Nano Plus, PC) and WavPack image with cuesheet for my archive. I use EAC with REACT to rip, and foobar2000 to play and manage my files.

Good work guruboolez, and kudos for geting this so close to the start of the year!

Lossy: MP3 (lame 128kbps CBR) because of its soft and hard compatibility, and great quality with lame

Lossless: Monkey (3.99 high) because of its excellent compression. I do not mind its poor compatibility since I only use my PC and foobar for lossless. I think I'll switch to wavpack 1 day though...

Ripping: 1 track per file, using EAC because it's the best one

- AAC because my phone-DAP handles it : the "compression rate/quality" ratio of HE-AAC is simply amazing.
-FLAC for lossless, but I rarely use it.

Lossy: MP3 -V 2 --vbr-new for my laptop, -V 5 --vbr-new for my 4G iPod just because MP3 is so ubiquitous in the digital world.

Lossless: Wavpack -hmx because it has one of the highest compression rates I've seen for my lossless collection.

Ripping: 1 file per disc (image+cuesheet) using EAC+REACT because it produces the smallest file size possible for a particular album (ripping to individual tracks introduces overhead for each of the tracks). Only thing I don't like about image+cuesheet is that AccurateRip doesn't work in verifying the rip, which is pretty depressing.

I use lame -V5 for portable use with my ipod nano and flac for archiving.
I rip with EAC (mareo)

I think my signature pretty much says it all when it comes to my personal ripping policies.

For actual playback/library I use WMA and MP3

For archiving I use MAC

As you wish. I guess that will reset the poll but revoting shouldn't be too hard
I already had the possibility to split the last aswer (10 answers are allowed) but I hesitated and finally merged both into a single one. I originally tried to avoid or limit 'ghost' answers - you know, all answers that only end with 1 or 2‰ of voters and which can't therefore be considered as totally useless. My choice seems to be valid but only for the lossy part; for lossless it seems that an important part of voters don't use lossless - hence the 10% after 160 votes. The poll is only 12 hours old; voting a second time is just a matter of few seconds so I guess it shouldn't be annoying for most people to vote again. Editing the title (provisionally) could be worth :
2007 ripping/encoding poll [UPDATED 02/01/07: VOTE AGAIN] or something like that.

What do you think?

And if you see something else to change (poor wording, etc...) especially on the thirs poll: don't hesitate.

MP3 - because of hardware compatibility and because LAME exists. Otherwise I would use OGG Vorbis.
Monkey's Audio - because I use it only for archiving, so compression ratio is what's important to me, not decoding speed.
One file per track - mostly, because gapless ain't a problem on PC.
One file per disc - rarely, because some albums are not listenable with gaps and my car mp3 stereo can't playback mp3s gapless.

I use EAC. Before that I was using CDex and way before that Audiograbber.

lossy: MP3 (rip with EAC into LAME -V2 --vbr-new)

lossless: Apple Lossless due to iPod/iTunes compatibility. Will look at FLAC if I ever go the Rockbox way. In either case, my use of this is very limited (subliminal/binaural audio).

rip method: One file per track. Much more conducive for mix-maxing and general silliness with MusicIP.

I don't mind voting again, and I'd be very interested to see how many people, like me, migrated from EAC to DbPowerAmp's CD Ripper.

It seems a little unfair to gauge the move at this point in time considering the release is so close. I'm personally waiting for the release R12 to purchase it and, even then, may only use it on tough discs, due to lack of Image Rip.

Until then, I am sticking with EAC.

-brendan

Personally I think it should be left as is for now. It's not a major deal; it was more a suggestion for future polls really. I wouldn't edit your poll without first consulting you, as it seems a little intrusive, or arrogant. Your English may not be perfect, but neither is mine (as foosion knows ). I think the poll should continue as it stands, it works well.

mp3 and wavpack. But if I can afford, nero aac for lossy.
For ripping: I'm using foobar2000 more and more...

http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#hardware

I agree, we should wait until the final release. People are at this moment using free versions for testing. If they're crippled (no more accuraterip db access) when it goes final or the cost is too much people may well switch back to EAC.

MP3 and Wavpack for me.

lossy=MPC, lossless=LA
I have been using this combination of codecs for several years now. It works, so there's no reason to switch.

Lossy: AAC. Only for my podcast.
Lossless: WavPack, if I'm encoding. If I come across some other lossless format, I'll keep it as is unless foobar2000 doesn't support it.

I dropped Musepack about a month ago. No particular reason; I just figured I'd switch over to lossless as my primary format. If I could, I'd rather use Musepack than AAC for podcasting.

I will only ever rip to one-track-per-file until someone puts out a one-album-per-file or one-disc-per-file solution that is as elegant. None of them are there yet. Matroska could clean house here, but no one bothers to put the work into the foobar2000 side of things to make it work well.

I have decided to start working on having a lossless backup of all my music, so I can easily update my collection as improvements are made to various encoders.

So the plan so far for 2007 I believe I am going to do this.

Lossless - FLAC files (1 file per album, with cuesheet and replaygain)
Lossy - MP3's (LAME 3.97 at either - V 2 --vbr-new or - V 3 -vbr-new), one track per song

Ripper - Max (http://sbooth.org/)
Player - iTunes 7 on OS X

LAME MP3 V0...MP3 because it's universal, and V0 because to me it seems like a good tradeoff between quality and size...it's not that I could hear the difference between V5 and V0, but if you have the luxury (read: disk capacity) to easily suit your entire collection in V0, why go for less?

IMHO

I'm primarily an MP3 guy with a few APE and FLAC files here and there. I had to grin at the results for ATRAC. I received a Sony Network Walkman as a gift and I messed around a bit with that nasty Sony SonicStage app and ripped a few ATRACs. Have to admit, they sound good, but nobody else supports it.

I have two portable players that I just about never use. My question would be this:
When/where do you use your portable?

I listen to my stereo at home unless I'm on my PC and then I use that. I listen to my car stereo in the car. I can't wear the thing at work. It's not exactly sociable to sit with other people and wear earbuds while you nod your head and play air guitar.

My other one is an older RCA Lyra with a 20 GB drive. I use it more for file transfer than I ever use it to play music or look at pictures or videos. I often wonder when/where all these bazillion iPods get used...

I use EAC-REACT to rip to: Lossless=FLAC -5 and Lossy=AAC ~190 VBR

Since I use foobar2000 exclusively, I use FLAC-images+cuesheet for archiving and for playing on my home computer. AAC is strictly for my iPod. I normally use Nero, but I use iTunes for albums with gapless playback. Though, gapless playback is always a sticky proposition for me with my 3G iPod. Some play as expected, while others still have a tiny bit of silence between tracks.

My choices:

Lossy format: MP3
Lossless format: WavPack. I love the speed while decoding and transcoding. Not concerned about hardware support as I use them exclusively on my PC with foobar2000 feeding an amp from LINE OUT on my soundcard.
Ripping: EAC rip to one-track-per-file. Somehow I am not too fond of single large files with CUE sheets, embedded or otherwise.

Hmmm... based on the results, it looks like the people have spoken: one file per track seems to be the norm here at HA. Now I feel torn as to whether I should revert back to that method or stay the course with image+cuesheet.

A small debate regarding the issue can be found here.

EDIT:

Perhaps a new poll is in order? I would think that would be a good idea.

Another disambiguation suggestion: the "it depends, I mix both" option covers people who do this randomly (experimentally perhaps) and those who have a set policy, for example ripping lossy per-track and losslessly per-disc. I'm not sure how you'd change the questions to split the two, but it might be interesting to do that especially if we were looking for trends that develop.
Anyway, not a biggie.

Another suggestion given some of the feedback: add a "I can't make up my mind!!!" answer for each question. Those would've been the correct answers for me up until about 6 months ago...