Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Preferred Digital Audio File Type

Aloha again Axiomites. Just got a new Squeezebox - no more expensive than another multidisk changer. I'm trying to decide what file type / quality to use for ripping CD's. I was hoping to get feedback regarding the levels at which users can actually hear audible differences on their systems. For example, 128 kbs MP3 sounds good on computer speakers, but can a difference be heard when using higher sampling rates or lossless encoding like flac ?

I recently heard somemusic in flac and it sounded pretty good, better than MP3.

Lossless will be significantly better than mp3s encoded at 128kbps. When you get to 256kbps and beyond, then it becomes very difficult to tell the difference.

It depends on your system. I cannot hear a significant difference on my iPod above 192K, but a big one from 128K/192K and a slight one between 160K/192K.

On my sound systen, with my older speakers (DBX-1000; don't even try to look for them on the Web!), I could barely hear the difference between 256K and a CD (but yes with under 256K), so I scanned everything at 320K to be on the safe side. After I received my M80s, I had to rescan everything as lossless. So, again, it depends a lot on what you listen to and on what you do it. Also, I think newer formats such as Vorbis are much better, but I never had the chance to try it on my sound system.

Lossless is forever. Storage is cheap. FLAC me, baby.

I can't hear a difference above 160-192K in an AAC file. Not sure about mp3. In any case, I rip at 256K now, mainly because I still use a 2 GB nano.

On what are you listening them?

M80s.

I redid all my stuff in 320 VBR for space reasons and there is a significant difference from 192 .mp3 (on computer or Creative Zen Nomad).
However, for home, if you've got the space I would go with FLAC.

The clarity of my M60s made me re-rip everything into flac. I am much happier now.

At the same time, I also re-ripped everything to a parallel library of 256 MP3 for my MP3 portable. I experimented and I couldn't tell the dif between 192 and 256 on the portable but I went 256 just in case players improve someday.

I love the Squeezebox. It is normally the first thing I click on , after lights, as soon as I get home.