Newbie With Questions! - NWQ

[Guy Owen]

NWQ -- Newbie With Questions!

Take it easy on me. I stopped buying music just about the time MP3s and iPods hit the market. So all my experience is based on cassettes and CDs and something called "records". I was used to chasing the best sound for my living room that my paltry income could afford, but I was no audiophile by a long stretch. I have about 700 CDs, which I started buying before I had a player, and right from the beginning of when they were first introduced. So, converting to MP3 or AAC or Flac or anything else is a bit foreign to me -- although I'm catching on.

I'm being forced to do this because my new Dodge Durango has no CD player -- only USB, Bluetooth and SD Card options. When I started looking for choices in CD Rippers, I found dbPowerAmp by way of forums like this. Where I'm confused are the choices open to me. The Durango's system does not understand Flac or WMA ver 10. It does understand MP3 and WMA ver 9.2 Lossless (and before) and probably iTunes or AAC. So...

a) I'm going to all the trouble of using a professional polisher machine to buff everything up after all these years (I opted for the JFJ Easy Pro because I've never had much luck with the hand-crank models). And it's working wonders on my collection -- removing nearly every scratch after all these years. Some of the first CDs that I tried to Rip kept running into "difficult to read"-type issues, although they would play just fine. So I think this effort is worth it.

b) Where I'm confused is the dreaded MP3 vs. AAC vs. WMA argument. If I wanted to have decent sound in the Durango -- which has a very nice Alpine Sound System with a Sub (500+ Watts of System Power) -- and knowing the Durango has decent quietness within the cabin (as opposed to my 2008 Honda Ridgeline that had a fair amount of road noise) -- what's the better choice?

Side Note: I am not an Apple-oriented person, although I own an iPad. Android phone (Note 2) and PCs are more my thing. I don't dislike Apple, but I'm thinking going with AAC ties my hands to certain Players. Maybe all that has changed by now? I mean, I'm fine using AAC if the consensus is this beats WMA and MP3 for quality of sound.

c) With Thumb Drives and Memory being so cheap these days, is it really necessary that every file or album be so small in size? More to the point, do I lose a lot going with the smallest file size I can? Have any of you really determined a happy median?

d) I just bought a set of Orb Audio Speakers that I plan to install in my Living Room at some point -- hooked to an Onkyo Receiver. So should I Rip to FLAC because of this possible dual-use, then convert from there to MP3 or WMA for the Mobile uses? This question is prompted by my belief that FLAC is a true digital copy -- or am I wrong?

e) If MP3, I guess anything above 192kbps is warranted? Yes? No?

f) If I go WMA 9.2 Lossless, is there a Bit Rate you suggest for the car scenario?

g) I saw 5.1 as an optional feature, and my truck has Surround Sound with a Sub -- will it improve anything in that vehicle? I'm not sure if it supports true 5.1. In the house, that's my goal with the Orb Audio setup.

h) Is there a Guide that I should read first? Maybe there's a Step-by-Step to explain "For best quality sound do this, then this, then this." or "For best portability do this..." When I look for these answers on the Web the respondents seem to fall into an Apple vs. Microsoft tirade and it loses all focus.

Thanks for any advice!

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Newbie With Questions! - NWQ

b) Where I'm confused is the dreaded MP3 vs. AAC vs. WMA argument. If I wanted to have decent sound in the Durango -- which has a very nice Alpine Sound System with a Sub (500+ Watts of System Power) -- and knowing the Durango has decent quietness within the cabin (as opposed to my 2008 Honda Ridgeline that had a fair amount of road noise) -- what's the better choice?

Side Note: I am not an Apple-oriented person, although I own an iPad. Android phone (Note 2) and PCs are more my thing. I don't dislike Apple, but I'm thinking going with AAC ties my hands to certain Players. Maybe all that has changed by now? I mean, I'm fine using AAC if the consensus is this beats WMA and MP3 for quality of sound.

The first thing to understand is that any difference in audio quality between them wouldn't be audible in a vehicle. Second, when ripped at an adequate bit rate, any "technical" or theoretical differences wouldn't be audible even in critical listening situations. (I honestly doubt that anybody could hear a difference between high-quality MP3 and ACC in blind listening tests.) So bottom line.....audio quality should not be the deciding factor here.

Compatibility....of audio and tag format....should determine which codec is best for this purpose. MP3 and AAC are almost universally compatible, so I'd stick with one of those, and rip at high quality. (Your post suggests that the car is picky about WMA.)

c) With Thumb Drives and Memory being so cheap these days, is it really necessary that every file or album be so small in size? [B]More to the point, do I lose a lot going with the smallest file size I can?

Yes, you do. Don't try to go to the smallest file size....think in terms of "optimal" file size. Ripping at a high bit rate gives very high quality audio and significantly smaller files than lossless. You can fit a lot of those kinds of files on a burned CD, thumbdrive, etc. Do check to see whether the car's audio system has a limit.

d) I just bought a set of Orb Audio Speakers that I plan to install in my Living Room at some point -- hooked to an Onkyo Receiver. So should I Rip to FLAC because of this possible dual-use, then convert from there to MP3 or WMA for the Mobile uses? This question is prompted by my belief that FLAC is a true digital copy -- or am I wrong?

Yes, I would rip to lossless for your home audio system. But no need to rip to lossless and then convert that to lossy for the car. dBp does multi-encoder ripping, so you can do them simultaneously. FLAC (and all the other lossless codecs) is a lossless format, which means that you don't lose any of the audio data. It's not an exact "copy" of the CD itself, since it's converting the audio to a different format.

e) If MP3, I guess anything above 192kbps is warranted? Yes? No?

f) If I go WMA 9.2 Lossless, is there a Bit Rate you suggest for the car scenario?

I would definitely go higher......I never rip lossy below 200kbps, and I prefer to use 320kbps if possible. There really does come a point, which will vary for different listeners, listening environments, and playback equipment, where lower bitrate lossy music starts to sound noticeably "compressed."

Since your vehicle is picky about WMA, I'd avoid it.

g) I saw 5.1 as an optional feature, and my truck has Surround Sound with a Sub -- will it improve anything in that vehicle? I'm not sure if it supports true 5.1. In the house, that's my goal with the Orb Audio setup.

Don't bother in the car....I really don't think you'd notice a difference. ("Surround" is kind of a gimmick in car audio.) Most of the music you'll be ripping will be two-channel anyway. In the house, 5.1 is definitely the better way to go for a home theater set-up, where you use the system for movie audio. But again, most music is distributed in stereo, so it tends to sound best played back that way, on a system optimized for it.

h) Is there a Guide that I should read first? Maybe there's a Step-by-Step to explain "For best quality sound do this, then this, then this." or "For best portability do this..."

No, there really isn't. (A common complaint about the program.) There's a basic set-up guide in the Help section of your program download, which should help you set the various ripping parameters. Also note that there's a little red-question-mark help button in CD Ripper....you'll probably find it useful to browse around in there.

Take some time to familiarize yourself with the basics of tagging before you begin. Good metadata is critical to making your digital music library easy to use. It can always be edited afterward, but it's more efficient to get it (at least mostly) right during the rip. Also, car audio displays can be quirky, so you might want to experiment a bit with your tagging and see what works best in the there before you start ripping in earnest.

Finally, you'll probably have additional questions come up as you proceed. The best approach for getting prompt, focused assistance on the Forum is to label your threads in a way that identifies the specific concern (i.e., "Issue with multi-artist albums" instead of "new-user question"), and to separate disparate issues into different threads (threads get messy when they have concurrent conversations on multiple topics).

[Spoon]

Re: Newbie With Questions! - NWQ

When you rip you want to rip to lossless (FLAC, Apple Lossless, etc) and if you need a smaller file for portable use then rip to mp3 or AAC at the same time (to a different location).

WMA Lossless will not be playable in your car, 5.1 is a no also as CDs are stereo. WMA is not in the same league as mp3 or AAC these days, if you want 100% compatibility then rip to mp3 with -v0 setting (VBR), this will be the best sounding file at around 6MB per track.

[Guy Owen]

Re: Newbie With Questions! - NWQ

Thanks, guys! These replies were very educational and underscored what my feelings were about which way to go.