Best format for music

[xtremedrummer498]

I have a ton of files, but I also have massive storage on my player (Gigabeat F40) and I want to know what format to put my music into. Because of all of the formats supported by RockBox, I can't decide what to convert all of my music to. . . can I get some opinions in terms of size, quality, etc?

[saratoga]

What is your music in now?

[xtremedrummer498]

My music catalog has been building since I got my Creative Zen Nomad back in 2002, so my music is in a hodgepodge of different formats. I have tons of mp3's, wma's, and some wav files as well.

But I know that RockBox supports many more formats than those, and I'm wondering if there is something better.

[Llorean]

Well you can't convert to a new format and improve the quality. All your wav files should be at least in a lossless format (flac, alac) as there's no quality loss there, but anything already in a lossy like MP3 or WMA can't be improved by conversion. You'd have to re-rip from the CD first.

[xtremedrummer498]

So basically I should be ripping all of my new music as wav files?

[Llorean]

No. I did not say that. I said specifically that your wav files should at least be converted to a lossless format. Lossless means exactly what it's said, no data is lost, so a CD ripped to any lossless format is the same as the original CD (assuming no errors during the rip).

As to lossy formats like Ogg/Vorbis, WMA, MP3, or AAC, you'll have to listen for yourself and compare and decide which format and bitrate is suitable for you. Nobody can really answer that, and this forum isn't the appropriate place to go into a discussion of the relative merits of each. Hydrogenaudio often has useful information on this.

[xtremedrummer498]

Please excuse my naivety one more time and help me out. What format is lossless?

[Mikerman]

E.g. flac, alac.

Please do not discount lossy formats.  Who knows, in the end, what the brain and ear really notice.  But some studies have shown that people cannot select lossless (or close thereto) files from well-encoded lossy files.

[saratoga]

Simple version:

Convert your WAV files to FLAC.  Its lossless like WAV, but much more efficient.

Do not convert any WMA, MP3, AAC or Ogg files.

Rip your new CDs or any CDs you decide to rerip into a well supported lossy format, MP3 or Ogg would be good choices.

[xtremedrummer498]

Simple version:

Convert your WAV files to FLAC.  Its lossless like WAV, but much more efficient.

Do not convert any WMA, MP3, AAC or Ogg files.

Rip your new CDs or any CDs you decide to rerip into a well supported lossy format, MP3 or Ogg would be good choices.

Thanks! I appreciate the input.

[Davide-NYC]

You could also look into wavpack's 'hybrid mode'. Kill two birds with one stone.
Read all about it here: http://www.wavpack.com/wavpack_doc.html#wavpack
Cheers.

[scorche]

I am not quite sure on this, but I seem to remember something about wavpack's hybrid files not working fully with Rockbox.

[safetydan]

I think the issue with wavpack is more to do with trying to play the combined lossy and correction file on Rockbox since it would mean opening two files for playback. The lossy file by itself should play fine.

[scorche]

I think the issue with wavpack is more to do with trying to play the combined lossy and correction file on Rockbox since it would mean opening two files for playback. The lossy file by itself should play fine.

Aye...that is what I was thinking of.  The wvc file.