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iPod What do you encode at?

D

Demon Hunter

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 30, 2004
2,284
39
I'm going to be importing my collection soon, so I was wondering what you setting you guys use. :)

  1. What bit rate? (128, 192, etc.)
  2. What format (AAC, MP3, Lossless, etc.)
  3. Where do you listen to it most? (iPod, high-fidelity stereo, etc.)
  4. How big is your collection?
  5. Any other relevant tidbits.
 
1. 192 kb/s
2. MP3
3. iPod and PB speakers
4. 1073 songs
5. no other relative tidbits :)

Edit: Not on my iPod anymore as it was just stolen. :(
Edit Edit: Back on my iPod again, as I got it back :)
 
dferrara said:
I'm going to be importing my collection soon, so I was wondering what you setting you guys use. :)

  1. What bit rate? (128, 192, etc.)
  2. What format (AAC, MP3, Lossless, etc.)
  3. Where do you listen to it most? (iPod, high-fidelity stereo, etc.)
  4. How big is your collection?
  5. Any other relevant tidbits.
Click to expand...


1. 128
2. AAC
3. teh iPod of course
4. sorta big
5. get the latest updater :cool:
 
1) 128
2) AAC
3) 3G 20 GB iPod
4) 4398 songs, 15.46 GB
5) iTunes has so many "hidden features..." if it looks clickable, click it and something cool WILL happen (for example, clicking the litte play icon in the top when a song is playing changes from, for example, Now Playing, Equalizer, Do Not Disconnect iPod, etc.
 
1. 128
2. aac
3. my emac (through stereo)
4. 1055 songs, ~3 days, ~4.67gb and growing
5. get Acquisition and don’t remove a query until you’ve restarted the program (it crashes)
 
I see most people use 128 AAC, is that better than 192 MP3? And also which takes up more space?
 
killuminati said:
I see most people use 128 AAC, is that better than 192 MP3? And also which takes up more space?
Click to expand...
the 192 mp3 takes up more space--the codec has nothing to do with size; only bitrate does.
 
edit: just managed to decipher your sig (very light/unreadable..) and noticed the really nice headphones you have which might affect what you rip at. often a really good pair of speakers or headphones will show defects/whatever in lossy encoding.
edit: why the hell did i start this post with edit...
 
Well, here goes:


-160kbps
-mp3
-Equally split between an iPod and high fidelity speakers, usually across an Express.
-52GB, about 9700 songs

I use mp3 because it's a pretty universal format although I'm fully aware of its shortcomings.
 
killuminati said:
But which one is better quality?
Click to expand...

A 128 AAC file is about the same quality as a 160 MP3, except it offers more than an MP3, such as surround sound (MP3s are stereo) and take up less space. A 128 AAC file sounds so great, however, that most people use it - also, its advertised for ipods and comes from the iTMS
 
killuminati said:
But which one is better quality?
Click to expand...
i think that's fairly open to debate...
edit: i think aac's better, but not necessarily of better quality. why do i think it's better? well, it's used by apple...:eek:
double edit: i gave my friend a dvd of some of my itunes shtuff (please leave this one alone piracy police™) and he converted all the aac's to mp3 for his collection cause he said his player (sometimes winamp sometimes mplaye)r doesn't support aac (wtf?!) anyway, the whole point of this setup is that he says itunes adds drm to any aac file you import. true? untrue? completely unfounded? absolutely asinine cause aac's encoded in itunes play in winamp or pretty much anything else? opinions please.
 
1. 320 kbps
2. AAC
3. iPod (4G 40 GB)
4. 3306 songs, 27.61 GB
5. With nice headphones, songs I bought from the iTMS sound irritating (too much distortion is audible), but 320 kbps AAC sounds great.
 
mduser63 said:
1. 320 kbps
2. AAC
3. iPod (4G 40 GB)
4. 3306 songs, 27.61 GB
5. With nice headphones, songs I bought from the iTMS sound irritating (too much distortion is audible), but 320 kbps AAC sounds great.
Click to expand...
your sig's about 300 songs off...just so ya know
btw, i absolutely love this thread...idono why; just like it.
 
homerjward said:
i think that's fairly open to debate...
edit: i think aac's better, but not necessarily of better quality. why do i think it's better? well, it's used by apple...:eek:
double edit: i gave my friend a dvd of some of my itunes shtuff (please leave this one alone piracy police™) and he converted all the aac's to mp3 for his collection cause he said his player (sometimes winamp sometimes mplaye)r doesn't support aac (wtf?!) anyway, the whole point of this setup is that he says itunes adds drm to any aac file you import. true? untrue? completely unfounded? absolutely asinine cause aac's encoded in itunes play in winamp or pretty much anything else? opinions please.
Click to expand...

I've "borrowed" some of my friends high-quality aac rips. And by borrow, I'm long overdue. They were done with iTunes last year (late 2003)...so maybe iTunes does it differently now?
 
homerjward said:
double edit: i gave my friend a dvd of some of my itunes shtuff (please leave this one alone piracy police™) and he converted all the aac's to mp3 for his collection cause he said his player (sometimes winamp sometimes mplaye)r doesn't support aac (wtf?!).
Click to expand...

Hmm for that, I think I will stick to MP3s as they seem more universal and I am frequently sharing tracks.
 
1) 128 for some, 320 kbps for emusic mp3s
2) AAC for some, mp3 (emusic downloads), just started using Apple Lossless for new cds
3) Cheap computer speakers, cds
4) Small (773 songs, 1.8 days, 5.86 GB); I still have about 20 more cds to convert, but I haven't gotten around to it...
 
homerjward said:
this setup is that he says itunes adds drm to any aac file you import. true? untrue? completely unfounded? absolutely asinine cause aac's encoded in itunes play in winamp or pretty much anything else? opinions please.
Click to expand...

Lol, it doesn't add DRM to anything. You couldn't if you wanted to!

I really wish iTunes would let you import with VBR AAC...

I want high quality but I'm afraid my Mini will not approve, since larger files don't work as well with the cache and battery life.
 
1. 192 kbp/s
2. AAC
3. iPod/High Fidelity Stereo
4. 4039 songs (20.06GB)
5. I'm sure most are aware that iTunes 4.8 can store video clips as well but it's still pretty cool. I've been downloading music videos of iTMS and storing them in a smart folder under album title 'Music Videos'.
 
dferrara said:
I'm going to be importing my collection soon, so I was wondering what you setting you guys use. :)

  1. What bit rate? (128, 192, etc.)
  2. What format (AAC, MP3, Lossless, etc.)
Click to expand...

I tend to use 128 AAC for stuff ripped from audio CD, and lossless for stuff ripped from DVD-A (which is time-consuming, plus I haven't figured out how to play the MLP-encoded tracks, just the lower-quality AAC, but I digress).

homerjward said:
anyway, the whole point of this setup is that he says itunes adds drm to any aac file you import. true?
Click to expand...

Completely untrue. Only iTMS purchases have DRM.
 
I use Apple Lossless exclusively. I don't do it because I'm an audiophile (I can't hear the difference between Apple Lossless and 80 kbps (stereo) AAC most of the time), but rather because I don't want to lose any additional quality when I convert to HE-AAC whenever Apple offers it in iTunes. I'll save HUGE amounts of space by doing this - at this point, the ball's in your court, Apple.
 
dferrara said:
  1. What bit rate? (128, 192, etc.)
  2. What format (AAC, MP3, Lossless, etc.)
  3. Where do you listen to it most? (iPod, high-fidelity stereo, etc.)
  4. How big is your collection?
  5. Any other relevant tidbits.
Click to expand...

1. 224 AAC on my Pb (the first bit rate at which I cannot hear a difference on my headphones)
Lossless on my external HD (the only thing I can really listen to on my stereo and on really good headphones)
2. AAC, Lossless (I don't care if it is not universal, I don't plan to use anything else but an iPod or iTunes)
3. Mostly at home but also on the road. Mostly good stereo, headphones, rarely iPod and regular headphones.
4. about 6000 songs
5. I will go Lossless only, once HDs have the sufficient size to do so
 
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