Ripping CD's : Format?

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alexa9

Ripping CD's : Format?

Post by alexa9 »

I used to use MP3 because I couldn't tell the difference between it and lossless and I had a lot of files with a small hard drive on my iPod. Now I'm looking into lossless formats and I am leaning towards WAV format. Is this a good format before I spend hours ripping my CD's? I scoured the audiophile forums and there seemed to be a little debate between WAV, FLAC, and a few others. I now have some better headphones and a stereo system and I am wondering if it's even worth it.
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MintBean

Re: Ripping CD's : Format?

Post by MintBean »

FLAC is better unless you've got devices that only support WAV.
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Flemur
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Re: Ripping CD's : Format?

Post by Flemur »

alexa9 wrote: Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:28 pm Now I'm looking into lossless formats and I am leaning towards WAV format.
FLAC and WAV are both lossless but FLAC makes more sense since it's compressed.

A nice semi-technical article on sampling, etc.:
https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
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xenopeek
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Re: Ripping CD's : Format?

Post by xenopeek »

If you need to also be able to play the files on an iPod, you'll have to go with WAV. AFAIK the only lossless audio file formats that iPods support are WAV and Apple's proprietary ALAC. While FLAC is the superior lossless audio file format, it's not supported on iPods. Audio quality is the same between all three formats (lossless means lossless).

Now whether lossloss is worth it, that's a different question. Personally, I couldn't hear which was which in a blind test between a 320kpbs MP3 file and a FLAC file. Depends on your surroundings (ambient noise), gear and your hearing. And for anybody that didn't confirm with a blind test they can actually hear the difference, a dollop of imagination.
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alexa9

Re: Ripping CD's : Format?

Post by alexa9 »

xenopeek wrote: Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:40 pm If you need to also be able to play the files on an iPod, you'll have to go with WAV. AFAIK the only lossless audio file formats that iPods support are WAV and Apple's proprietary ALAC. While FLAC is the superior lossless audio file format, it's not supported on iPods. Audio quality is the same between all three formats (lossless means lossless).
Thanks! Good to know. I will be using an iPod for my stereo. Although I suppose I could use a cheap Linux laptop.
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CaptainKirksChair
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Re: Ripping CD's : Format?

Post by CaptainKirksChair »

Just stay away from anything with Digital Rights Management. The industry has.
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Re: Ripping CD's : Format?

Post by Hoser Rob »

I prefer to at least have uncompressed files ... I use FLAC, and since it's lossless you can convert from wav to flac and back again and they'll be identical ... but I often convert them to mp3.

The thing about sound quality is that you're ultimately a slave to how well the source was recorded, and most recordings aren't that great. Very few studios use high quality microphones because they're expensive and if you drop them they tend to break.

It's not always easy to tell but you can always just convert one lossless track to mp3 and A/B them in any music player. SInce conversion doesn't change output levels unless you tell it to, this method is reliable.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
alexa9

Re: Ripping CD's : Format?

Post by alexa9 »

Thanks for all the feedback. I have a lot of CD's that have a lot of good songs but then I have a lot of one hit wonders that will be hard to track down the WAV or FLAC file for. I am not familiar with a place where you can buy lossless format songs. I have mostly used iTunes and Amazon MP3 along with my CD collection.
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Re: Ripping CD's : Format?

Post by xenopeek »

Bandcamp sells everything in FLAC format, mostly for Indie artists but there's something for everybody on here :) 7digital and hdtracks, for mainstream artists, generally have the option to purchase in FLAC format (at a premium). If you're in Europe the undisputed best website, for mainstream artists, however is Qobuz as you get FLAC by default and you can download at any time in any other format you need. They also offer hi-res audio for many albums if that's your thing.
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