The best format

[TedSmith]

Re: The best format

First question... Windows media player of course did not play it. I happen to have Foobar2000 installed that does play it. What do you recommend to play FLAC?

I'm a foobar2000 user, I've also used WMP, Winamp, J River Media Center and eLyric Music Manager, there are lots of others: MediaMonkey comes to mind. There are plugins for Windows Media Player that support flac, but I don't have specific recommendations. (Personally I want a media player that offers more transparent control than WMP.)

Second question. Why does it sound flat or subdued? And I had to turn the volume up much higher than the MP3 I played. Right afterwards I played a MP3 that was much louder and better quality sounding.

As you noticed volume level makes a huge difference in the apparent liveliness of music. You can't do a fair comparison unless you make sure there's no DSP involved and that the volume levels are the same.

Third question. I don't find anything on converting it to another format but I just opened; Music Converter.
From here just select MP3, Apple Lossless?
Is one format better quality than the other?
Do you add any DSP effects?
I converted it to Apple .m4a as a test and played it in iTunes, it still sounds flat and subdued, low volume like the FLAC does.
Thanks for any help.

Once again all lossless formats are technically equivalent quality. If you use the same DSP and volume you'll hear essentially the same thing, format and player independent. (There are small details/bugs in various pieces of software or hardware that may make a difference but it will be very subtle.)

If you turn the volume up in iTunes it will sound lively again.

I'm not a fan of DSP, but that's purely a personal preference. DSP is appropriate for many things and feel free to experiment: just don't DSP during ripping

[Flrun]

Re: The best format

Yes. This is the best approach. I use FLAC for ripping, playing at home, and mp3 for my portables.

I am getting there.
I installed dbpoweramp and configured all the settings they give you on their website. I ripped my first CD using FLAC.
So like you are saying I can leave it as FLAC to play on my computer and convert to MP3 for the car.

First question... Windows media player of course did not play it. I happen to have Foobar2000 installed that does play it. What do you recommend to play FLAC?

Second question. Why does it sound flat or subdued? And I had to turn the volume up much higher than the MP3 I played. Right afterwards I played a MP3 that was much louder and better quality sounding.

Third question. I don't find anything on converting it to another format but I just opened; Music Converter.
From here just select MP3, Apple Lossless?
Is one format better quality than the other?
Do you add any DSP effects?
I converted it to Apple .m4a as a test and played it in iTunes, it still sounds flat and subdued, low volume like the FLAC does.

Thanks for any help.

[garym]

Re: The best format

Is this what your saying; Rip using FLAC and then convert to m4a or mp3 as needed?

Yes. This is the best approach. I use FLAC for ripping, playing at home, and mp3 for my portables.

[Flrun]

Re: The best format

TedSmith - Thanks for the info and link, I am looking on there too.

Is this what your saying; Rip using FLAC and then convert to m4a or mp3 as needed?

Thanks.

[Spoon]

Re: The best format

CD = FLAC = WAVE = AIFF = Apple Lossless

they are all lossless.

[TedSmith]

Re: The best format

When you rip you should rip to a lossless format.

All lossless formats are technically equivalent in terms of audio quality, tho they have other features that distinguish them. I personally use FLAC since it handles metadata well, has internal checksums of the audio and is widely supported. (Since you asked your question in the context of ripping CDs we can ignore all of the issues of different sample rates, etc. Just use 16/44.1 for CDs and if you don't know why, continue to use it as you educate yourself.)

Lossy compression is a whole nuth'r thing. Since lossy formats offer tradeoffs in output size/speed/fidelity there isn't a simple hierarchy there either, you can look around for recommendations of appropriate settings for what ever format/converter you use. I'd just convert from a lossless format to what ever lossy format need at the time (and never convert a lossy format to anything at all.)

There's plenty to read here and at other sites tho I'd specifically also recommend http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ for quality information on this subject.

[Flrun]

I am getting ready to purchase Dbpoweramp and start ripping my cd collection to my computer.
The two things I would like to be able to do from there is play it through my home Pioneer receiver which is network capable and play them on the stock radio in my Nissan that has USB. Unfortunately the car stereo does not support .m4a so I have to convert it to mp3 but that is another story.

What does everyone recommend? Rip my CDs to .m4a format? If I want to play them in my car convert those to mp3?

Could someone tell me what the progression of file formats is high quality to low?
.cda highest?
.m4a
mp3
wav? Lowest?

Thanks for any info.