R. G. Newbury wrote:
> I'm also looking for comments on the relative advantages of ripping to
> mp3 versus wav files and the 'best' software to play those files back
> from the harddrive.
the FLAC audio format provides exactly the same quality (lossless) as
the WAV format but are only a fraction of the size. Compatibility with
audio applications is medium to low...but for lossless compression, it's
worth it over WAV.
Of course, if you have a flac, you can make a lossy copy of it any time
you want (e.g. keep flac on your hard disc and use it to make mp3s
for a portable player). So compatibility isn't so much of an issue. If
I rip anything that's going to be difficult to re-rip (e.g. vinyl), I'll keep a
flac copy. That way I can go back to the recording.
- the MP3 audio format provides a very close (but lossy) version of your
audio. Filesize tends to be a fair bit smaller than FLAC (maybe half
the size with default 128k settings). MP3 support does not work out of
168 or 192kbps is a better choice. Of course it depends whether you
can hear the difference, but I used to find 128kbps mp3 didn't sound
great.
the box with Fedora due to certain patent/licensing restrictions. MP3s
are very compatible with portable devices and audio application on other
operating systems (iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc).
- the OGG Vorbis audio format provides a very close (but lossy) version
of your audio. Some people argue that it's a little better quality than
MP3, but they're close enough for most people. Filesizes tend to be
slightly smaller or about the same as MP3. The big difference between
Depends what bit-rate you use, some people will claim you can do
lower bitrates with Vorbis at the same sound quality, some (a very few)
will claim the other way around.
the two is the OGG vorbis support is much better under Linux because it
doesn't have any patent/licensing problems. However, portable devices
and audio players under other operating systems are not very compatible.
You'd probably need to download a special audio player or codec under
Windows to play them for example.
Winamp will play out of the box, most of the other major players (RP, QT,
WMP) have plugins available. Many of the more community based players
(foobar, MuiskCube, VLC) support Ogg/Vorbis natively.
The big problem is usually hardware, though this is getting better, with
most quality manufacturers supporting Ogg/Vorbis (there is one
glaring exception of course but, let's face it, they're overhyped anyway).
