Re: MP3, OGG, WMA: when does it matter?

ukrneal@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Mar 27, 8:26 pm, Kimba W. Lion <KimbaWLion> wrote:
"ex-neo-con" <ex-neo-...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
How, I _can_ tell the difference between the sound quality of my $30
Sony portable CD player and the iRiver. I was listening to the
Chailly Mahler 1st on each, and the CD sound was clearly inferior to
the MP3 encoding I had done of the same recording. Perhaps this is
comparing apples to oranges.
I would first suspect frequency-response differences between the two devices
causing the MP3 player to sound better. A defective CD player would be my
next guess.

So, under what circumstances--that is, what configurations of playback
devices and media--will these formatting decisions make a noticeable
difference?
The rule of thumb is, with WMA you can get away with approximately 50% of the
bitrate of an equivalent-sounding MP3 file; therefore you can fit twice as
many WMA files onto a portable device.

MP3 will be compatible with the most devices; WMA with a few less. Ogg Vorbis
claims to sound better than WMA, but it will be compatible with the fewest
devices.

All 3 formats are lossy; therefore, converting from one to another is not a
good idea. If you decide to go with Ogg Vorbis, you may be limited in your
choices of new devices in the future.

I am also sort of at a 'loss' (groans) about the formats as well, so I
want to make sure I am understanding you right. If I rip a a cd at 256
kps in mp3, it will sound like a wma file that has been ripped at 128
kps?


Or you can rip to a lossless format and leave all these discussions and fine points behind you, as you'll have an exact clone of your CD. You can easily mass convert all your files between lossless formats with no loss in quality.

Steve
.

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