AAC or LAME MP3 for iPod?

[Paul_B]

I did a search of the forums and can't find an explanation for which format to use with my iPod Touch.

I rip all my CDs to FLAC and tag appropriately. The FLAC files are used with my Squeezebox and played over my Hi-Fi. However, I also want a sub-set of my music collection available to my iPod where space is the major concern and I am happy to loose some music quality.

Question I am asking myself is should I transcode my collection to MP3 using lame or would it be better as AAC? Currently I use LAME VBR at 160bps average. The level of quality is more than adequate for my iPod.

I don't really know anything about AAC but as it is a newer codec would I achieve the same level of quality as above, with LAME VBR MP3, but a small file size?

Paul

[LtData]

Re: AAC or LAME MP3 for iPod?

Most people say that AAC will give you the same quality as an mp3 file at a slightly smaller bitrate or a better quality file at the same bitrate.

[Spoon]

Re: AAC or LAME MP3 for iPod?

At 160 Kbps mp3 and aac will be very similar.

[Paul_B]

Re: AAC or LAME MP3 for iPod?

Spoon,

That is what I found. Used DBPoweramp to convert FLAC to MP3 (VBR 160bps, DBPoweramp Default) and then AAC (VBR 150 bps, DBPoweramp Default). The AAC file came out slightly larger than the MP3 file. I guess this may not be fair as the AAC is possible better quality than the MP3. But I am not convinced that I should re-encode all my MP3's to AAC to gain any significant saving in filesize.

Paul