2. pc-audio
  3. 1300587877

J River and choosing encoder.

about to embark on a 1200++?? ripping session. expecting to spend a month on this so want to get it right the first time. not sure what encoder to use for ripping cd's. have tried APE and WAV so far and could not tell a difference sonically. however, the APE file is almost half the size?. from what little i understand regarding this topic, the lossless file types are suppose to sound/be the same somehow?. is there something i'm "not getting" here?.

uncompressed file size is not a real concern. would be happy to use extra space if there is some type of plus to it. storage is dirt cheap. am more concerned about the long term storage and functionality aspects of lossless vs uncompressed. also a bit confused about encoding in general. is one lossless type "better" then another?. is uncompressed FLAC "better" then WAV?. what's with all the choices?? or is that more then this computer illiterate old fart needs to know =)

current set-up and gear doesn't play into this for me. doubt i'll have the same equipment 5-10 years from now, but know i'll have the same music long after that. don't want equipment optimized files for today that could lead to a dead end down the road..

cheers
Lev.
levy03

Showing 1 response by rakuennow

rakuennow
81 posts
 
Here's what you're not getting. .WAV is a wrapper file for PCM, or uncompressed digital. All other formats are compressed, but a lossless compression scheme will preserve all detail once they are decoded. Therefore, all lossless formats will sound the same.

The difference is in their encoding/decoding time, the system resources they use, the amount of support they have between various products, how much compression (i.e. the file size), their longetivity in use (e.g. are they open source? are they proprietary? will they be compatible with future file systems?), etc...

Taking all these factors into account, it would be easy to see why .FLAC is so popular. But it isn't even close to the only option. If you want universal compatibility, then .WAV is obvious. .FLAC is a close second, but isn't the best in terms of compression or encoding time. .FLAC is also open source, which allows commercial products to use it without an expensive license, increasing compatibility.
More to discover