Best quality option?

[kdub]

Hi all, new here.

I wanted to buy an album (Atlus Plug - 2 days or die), and I have a couple options to do so, but I want to end up with mp3s.

First I can get the music as a real physical CD. I would then rip it to mp3.

Second I can get the music off iTunes (protected aac). I would somehow convert it directly to mp3 (maybe it's not possible, I'm not exactly sure). Or I would burn the album into an audio CD, then rip it to mp3.

Third, I can get the music off Sony Connect Store (openMG). I would somehow convert it directly to mp3 (maybe it's not possible, I'm not exactly sure). Or I would burn the album into an audio CD, then rip it to mp3.

The first option obviously would take the longest (and be most expensive) for me to get my music (shipping and whatnot), but it'd be worth it if it had the highest quality (assuming I can't directly convert protected aac or openMG to mp3). But would there be a loss of quality there, too? And how much?

Sorry if my questions are extrememly "newbie-ish", I'm kinda new to the scene, and just want to have freedom with the music I really want to buy :D

Thanks!

[kdub]

Another option:

I also found out I can get the songs/album through Napster's download service, and apparently they come in the format of "192Kbps Windows Media Audio (WMA) files". I'm not sure if Napster uses DRM (and which version) though, does anyone know?

And this may sound incredibly "newbish", but what format is CD audio music in (if I were to buy the real, physical CD). Is it a lossless format? If I wanted to rip it to mp3s, should I rip it to another lossless format first (for storage/backup), and then convert that into mp3?

Thanks again!

[Deano]

Yes, Napster uses DRM.

[xoas]

The audio in CDs you buy is essentially in Wave format with .cda files that contain extra information (like length of the track and where the track is located on the CD).

Wave is essentially uncompressed lossless audio. Wave files are enerally not offered for download because they are so large although there are some places that may offer FLAC downloads. Flac is a compressed lossless format meaning it creates smaller files than Wave (about .4 to .6 times the size of a wave file for the same track) but it preserves all of the same audio information that the original wave file would have.

Your best bet would be to get the CD and rip your .mp3 file from the CD directly. This is because the other formats you mention are all lossy codecs themselves. They provide higher compression (hence smaller files) but this is at the cost of losing audio information. You cannot add the lost audio information back (by converting to a lossless format) to these tracks. You will also lose further information by converting your tracks to another lossy format (.mp3). The CD also offers a physical back-up and you could also archive the CD in a lossless format for further use. The downsiddes are cost, space for CDs, and the unfortunate fact that copy protection measures are being added to increasing numbers CDs and when you run into one of these it might be a bit harder to make copies.

The advantages of the other options you mention are speed and flexibility of access (you can get the downlopaded tracks faster than you can get the physical CD and you can purchase only the tracks you want). You will lose some amouont of quality (although this loss may not be perceptible to you) and you will have to deal with the DRM measures (which generally involves burning tracks to CD and then ripping the CD, although I am not completely sure this will work for each of the formats you mention).
Perhaps users who do downloads can provide more insight into the relative advantages of the particular services you mention.

Good luck and best wishes,
Bill

[LtData]

First, I have heard only bad things about Sony and their store, so I would avoid that unless you have a Sony player and HAVE to use their store

Second, for the best quality, get the CD, period. I believe iTunes is 128kbps AAC and Napster is 192kbps WMA. Also, all online music services have DRM, which is either easy or annoying to bypass, the difference being if a program can do it (easy) or if you have to burn a CD and then rip it (annoying).

Personally, I just buy my music on CDs, either online or at a brick-and-mortar store the week they come out, when they are discounted.

[kdub]

Wow, thanks everyone! I learned quite a bit, and you guys definitely answered my questions, and then some.

Looks like I'll buy the CD (I'm willing to wait, especially for the added benefits of having a [lossless] physical backup around), rip it to FLAC, and then encode that to .mp3 (or not... maybe i'll just stick with FLAC, as I've never used it before and I have enough HDD space).