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MP3 vs WMA?

F

FrugalGuy

Senior member
I'm finally getting an mp3 player after doing much research and waiting. I noticed that the player can also play wma files. I was wondering which format would be better for me to convert my cd's into...MP3 or WMA? Thanx for the help.
 
interesting. how come you guys say mp3? I haven't actually listened to a wma so I don't have an opinion of my own, but from what I heard, they have similar sound quality and take up half the space. What is the reason you guys vote mp3? Something I haven't heard?
 
Originally posted by: WarSong
interesting. how come you guys say mp3? I haven't actually listened to a wma so I don't have an opinion of my own, but from what I heard, they have similar sound quality and take up half the space. What is the reason you guys vote mp3? Something I haven't heard?
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that's only true for 96kbits or less. And you want your mp3s to be 128kbits AT MINIMUM! Some people don't even settle for anything less than 192kbits+
 
Originally posted by: WarSong
interesting. how come you guys say mp3? I haven't actually listened to a wma so I don't have an opinion of my own, but from what I heard, they have similar sound quality and take up half the space. What is the reason you guys vote mp3? Something I haven't heard?
Click to expand...

3 simple letters
D-R-M
 
Originally posted by: WarSong
interesting. how come you guys say mp3? I haven't actually listened to a wma so I don't have an opinion of my own, but from what I heard, they have similar sound quality and take up half the space. What is the reason you guys vote mp3? Something I haven't heard?
Click to expand...

they have an irrational hate of anything microsoft.
 
Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
Originally posted by: WarSong
interesting. how come you guys say mp3? I haven't actually listened to a wma so I don't have an opinion of my own, but from what I heard, they have similar sound quality and take up half the space. What is the reason you guys vote mp3? Something I haven't heard?
Click to expand...

3 simple letters
D-R-M
Click to expand...

you dont have to turn on DRM if you dont want to.
 
Originally posted by: Ameesh
Originally posted by: WarSong
interesting. how come you guys say mp3? I haven't actually listened to a wma so I don't have an opinion of my own, but from what I heard, they have similar sound quality and take up half the space. What is the reason you guys vote mp3? Something I haven't heard?
Click to expand...
they have an irrational hate of anything microsoft.
Click to expand...
yea you're right

If microsoft didnt make wma I would use it. Seriously.
 
Originally posted by: Ameesh
Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
Originally posted by: WarSong
interesting. how come you guys say mp3? I haven't actually listened to a wma so I don't have an opinion of my own, but from what I heard, they have similar sound quality and take up half the space. What is the reason you guys vote mp3? Something I haven't heard?
Click to expand...

3 simple letters
D-R-M
Click to expand...

you dont have to turn on DRM if you dont want to.
Click to expand...

You can't use WMP Series 9 without agreeing to MS' terms about DRM... That being said, I love the WMP9 toolbar 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Ameesh
Originally posted by: WarSong
interesting. how come you guys say mp3? I haven't actually listened to a wma so I don't have an opinion of my own, but from what I heard, they have similar sound quality and take up half the space. What is the reason you guys vote mp3? Something I haven't heard?
Click to expand...

they have an irrational hate of anything microsoft.
Click to expand...

you have an irrational hate of anything not microsoft
 
its not just the compression its the ripping of the digital music stream off the CD that adds a lot of undesireable noises.
 
I'm with Ameesh on this one, I like the idea of Microsoft NOT taking over every market😛

And with that, I say mp3🙂
 
WMA is a standard that is owned by MS. It has DRM technology built-in which could screw you over. It does produce similar sounding files at lower bitrates than MP3.
MP3 is a more open standard, but still not completely open. Its more of a "cat-out-of-the-bag" situation here than anything else. Got so widespread that enforcement of the patents became unfeasible (sp?).
Ogg Vorbis is the completely open standard and is just starting to get into portables. It is also superior to MP3 for filesize/sound quality.

I personally use MP3 just because it is so widespread. You have great tools for it like Exact Audio Copy or CDex for ripping, LAME (used to be "--r3mix" is now "--alt-preset-standard") for encoding, and Tag and Rename for ID3 tag management.
 
At 160kbps, I like WMA better. This is going by ear, WMA sounds closer to the source than mp3.

I also think 160kbps WMA is better than 256 mp3. And I am definitely not willing to sacrifice the HD space I would need for higher bitrate mp3's.
 
Originally posted by: DeRusto
I'm with Ameesh on this one, I like the idea of Microsoft NOT taking over every market😛

And with that, I say mp3🙂
Click to expand...

How can you be with Ameesh and not like the idea of MS taking over the market? You do know that he works for MS right? 🙂
 
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