Though i know this has been discussed before, the search tool is not much help in finding the topic so i'll ask this here.
What would be a good, non-lossy format for ripping that 'hopefully' will stay around into the future?
Wav- way too large a file size
WMA- i just hate any MS format given they change things around so often, today WMA is popular, in 5 years it could become .WMX or something entirely new say .STC ('screw the consumer').
I have heard 128 vs 256 vs 320 mp3s and although i agree the quality improves with bitrate, the 320 mp3s don't sound as dynamic as a cd song. The 128 rate encoded songs pale in comparison to anything else. The quality difference is incredibly obvious however i do know that depending on how the songs were ripped, some sound louder or more bassy than the cd versions which makes me wonder about the person and method used to rip the song possibly to make it sound 'better' by using some band tweaking.
I have tried the mp3 vs cd a/b on my home computer though some argue i would need to move the mp3 off the computer b/c of electronic interference within the machine affecting sound quality, etc. etc.
I'm just not sold on ripping to a lossy format so i would rather rip to a non-lossy format thinking that into the future, i could turn those original rips into anything else if required. What lossless formats can be stored and played on iPods or other units though?
From what i've seen so far, everything plays mp3s, with addon apps or otherwise, most play WMA, some play AAC, do any play WAV? Whatever happened to FLAC?
Another passing through codec?
These files would be the digital masters, originals and remain archived as such. Storage is cheap these days anyway so who knows? Maybe i'll stick with the archaic wav files.
Any thoughts?
(Alternatively if someone has a link to the thread(s) where this topic was discussed recently, they could just pass that along; i just can't seem to locate it).
