What is the best format to rip my CD's?

[anonymouschris]

I want to rip my collection of CD's, but am not sure what format I should use. I am sure there is a better alternative than MP3's by now. any opinions?

 

[OS]

I'm doing the same thing right now actually. Just finished ripping my natalie merchant CD. Too much of a PITA to keep juggling my CDs. Figured I'd encode everything since I got a new HD.

I'm using VBR MP3s right now, using 128 kbps as base and 256 kbps as peak. Using LAME as the encoder. The encoder used seems to make a really big difference, I can't tell the difference between a ripped WAV and a 128 kbps CBR LAME MP3 on my onkyo/jbl receiver/speaker combo. I bet the Live I'm using is the limiting factor here.

If anyone else has other suggestions, I wanna hear them also.

 

[yakko]

Go with MP3 VBR. Play around with the settings until you find what you like. Lame is the best encoder I have found for MP3.

 

[pulse8]

r3mix.net

 

[S0me1X]

Lame 256kbit or VBR, for VBR use something like this:

lame -b 112 -m j -h -V 1 -B 320 --lowpass 19.5 --athtype 3 --nspsytune

or

lame -b 96 -m j -h -V 2 -B 256 --lowpass 19.5 --athtype 3 --nspsytune (smaller, most people say no difference in sound, but I use the first one because the difference in the avg kbit is only around 15 kbps. Btw, I listen to only classical music.)

 

[ThisIsMatt]

I'll second...err...quadruple....the lame VBR suggestions. I usually do mine 160-320kbps range.

 

[PliotronX]

If this is for archival use, I'll add another vote for LAME. It's the best MP3 encoder on the net, period. It's actually not an MP3 encoder (that's what the acronym LAME stands for, "Lame Ain't an Mp3 Encoder), because the developers have basically rebuilt the dang thing. There are many brilliant people working on LAME, and it gets significantly better with every release.

However, I really like the way MPC sounds, so I suggest you have a trial of LAME vs. MPC. If you have a portable MP3 player for example, you'll want to stick with LAME. If you want the absolute best sound quality out of your files for their bitrates, you'll want to play with MPC. If you don't have the ears and/or equipment to hear >18KHz sound, MPC at 160Kbps cannot be beaten. If you can hear >18KHz, the other sound profiles which result in 190Kbps and 220Kbps for MPC will suit you best.