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I've used the LAME Preset:Medium to encode all my MP3s. I'm a pseudo-audiophile and for the most part have been satisfied with the playback quality, although I must admit I haven't done any comparative listening tests. My MP3s average between 145-165 kbit/sec VBR (Since LAME adjusts the VBR with the Medium Preset settings to the content of the music, some songs are actually lower than a 145 average and some are even higher than 200 kbit/sec).
I have a couple of questions regarding growing my collection. (Background regarding my playback devices: my new car will have an iPod interface I am thinking of abandoning my Kenwood Music Keg and using an iPod. I use Winamp for playback on my PC).
It appears widely accepted that given the same file size AAC (MPEG-4) is superior to MP3 (MPEG-3). Now that Winamp and Ipod support AAC, is it wiser to start using AAC instead of the MP3 VBR format? Is there a decent encoder that will do like what LAME does and instead of encoding using VBR with a target bitrate, adjust the sampling based on the music content so some songs with lots of sound, especially in the higher range may end up with an average bitrate of 192 or higer while other songs with not many highs and/or lots of silence may end up with an average bitrate of 128 or lower?
My other curiosity is regarding acquiring new music. iTunes Music Store appears to use AAC 128. That may be close to the same quality I am already use to but I want the option for higher quality, more like AAC 160 or 192. I see that Buy.com offers many of their songs in WMA 256 which is basically MP3 256 VBR which should be superior to AAC 128. The only thing I hate is the copy protection and I don't want to have to use multiple media management programs (Windows Media Player for WMA and iTunes for AAC). I would guess Media Player has some sort of AAC plug-in support? Optimally, I'd like my Winamp to be able to manage both WMA and AAC protected files - but I doubt that is possible is it?
Would it be better just to get the songs in the WMA 256 format. Burn them to CD then RIP them off the CD and encode them into AAC 160. Since WMA 256 should be better quality than AAC 160, the final product should sound as virtually as good as if I had encoded into AAC 160 from a lossless source or at least better than an AAC 128 file from iTunes. More importantly, I then wouldn't have all that copy protection crap to deal with so I can easily use WinAmp. Of course if I get an iPod I guess I still need to use iTunes to upload the songs to my iPod. Drats.
What a mess. Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated. And please don't recommend OGG. I know it is superior to all of them but I want something that is more widely supported.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 8. February 2005 @ 09:15
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