Going over to the Dark Side?

Cwlondon, many of us think otherwise because the burden of proof is on our side. Please provide some evidence of your fantastic hearing and sound system in you convertible. Specifically, use the foobar ABX test--post the results here. Also please be sure to let us know the codec and presets used for your mp3's and the settings you're currently running in EAC. And I'll even make it easier--you can do this on your main system. Then we can discuss this issue using at least some semblence of logic and (I know these forums often run from this...) science.

Arafel, congratulations on actually listening and being honest in what you hear. I'm sorry, but you will probably be mocked for that. I picked up a set of Shure e5c's for my ipod and I have never ever been able to tell the slightest difference between APS mp3 and lossless. Even on my main system, using the method that Cwlondon's hopefully going to wow us with, I can have never been able to consistantly identify the source in a blind listening test. Hint: neither has any one else to any statistical significance--ever. Perhaps Cwlondon will be the first...

All that being said--I was in a similar situation as you. I have a few thousand albums, wanted them all ripped to my computer and was largely content with APS or APX mp3. However I still ripped to FLAC (and bought a whole bunch of hard drives). My reason was simply that this ripping process took me months and I NEVER want to do it again. If you keep them in lossless format, you can transcode to another future lossless format with no loss in quality if you current format is ever to become extinct. APS mp3 is great for now, but if you try to transcode a lossy format into something else, you will start to see some serious sound degredation.

If you're not specifically looking for equipment purchases, I would recommend you head over to hydrogenaudio, if you haven't already, and ask this same question over there. They would be better served to help you make this decision and help you pick a lossless format for archiving your collection to disc

I'm with cw in the sense that if you are going to take the time to rip, you might as well rip in a format you can use in a home system, since I think things are irreversibly headed that direction. I'll differ in that I like taking my little iPod nano, and using AAC doesn't bother me in that context--just for biking, airplanes, and skiing. My solution is maintaining a pair of libraries, one in Apple Lossless for home use, and one in AAC for iPod use. You can ask iTunes to downconvert whatever format you normally use into AAC on the fly when it syncs to the iPod, but that can take a looooong time. Easier to just maintain dual libraries in my book.

Thanks, Edesilva, for the answer of that itunes can downconvert on the fly. I will be ripping lossless from now on!

It really does take a *long* time to do it on the fly... If I load my iPod Nano with a thousand songs, I'd have to start it the night before I wanted to fly...

I decided to go with AAC at 320. I plan to keep my CDs, so I don't see the point in ripping in lossless. Although, I guess it could be nice from the point of view of storage. All the racks for my CDs and vinyl and DVDs take up a LOT of space. Of course, before going to that system I'd have to get a nice AD converter. And, having done some work with engineers in pro audio environments, I'm a little skeptical of a computer for playback, as it is such a noisy piece of gear.

Anyway, I'm in the middle of a week long project ripping all the songs I want into the computer. Even at 320 kbps, I'm at almost 20 gigs and still have about 100 more CDs to load. Damn!