ipod music formats question

[97tbird]

well, i got that used i-pod mini (4gb) for $65, and it came with almost all i need: the itrip fm transmitter, car charger, wall charger, apple ear buds, USB cabel, and software (itunes 4.7, will get 6.0 soon)

we've been testing/using the i-trip around our area and town, and it works pretty well with FM radio. I might try a cassette adapter anyway, though, to see how different it is.

Regarding the quality of music put on i pod, the owners manual says this:
"...Audio File Formats Supported by iPod mini:
• AAC (M4A, M4B, M4P) (up to 320 kbps)
• Apple Lossless (a high-quality compressed format, available using iTunes 4.5 or later)
• MP3 (up to 320 kbps)
• MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR)
• WAV
• AA (Audible spoken word)
• AIFF
• ALAC (using iTunes 4.5 or later)
A song encoded using Apple Lossless format has the same quality as the same song
encoded using AIFF or WAV format, but takes up about half the amount of space on
iPod mini. The same song encoded in AAC or MP3 format takes up even less space.
When you import music from a CD using iTunes, it is converted to AAC format by default..."

However, i'm wondering if i should change the import format on itunes.
Which format from the above list will give the highest quality from ipod playback?
(I'm not concerned about space much; we will have enough space because we'll only put about 200-300 songs on it; the guy who sold it to me had about 1,100 songs on it, adn I think he only used AAC-default setting, on which you can also select bewteen 128 kb and 192 kb)

Pls note I'm talking about itunes 4.7
Itunes 6.0 may have more options, i don't know.

Sorry about the long post, and thanks in advance.

 

[97tbird]

bumpy

 

[Matt_S]

AIFF or WAV will give the best sound quality, but they take up a LOT of room. The Apple Lossless format should be very close to that given you're converting from a source that's also stored in a lossless format (AIFF, WAV or CD). In other words, if you have a bunch of MP3s on your hard drive, don't bother converting them to anything else. You won't gain anything. You may in fact lose more sound quality. The compression algorythm for MP3 tends to muddle the high and low end, making bass guitars and cymbals hard to distinguish. It's kind of a crappy format, actually, but it's popular because it's small and easy to store and transmit. If you're ripping straight from CD or converting from WAV or AIFF, use the Apple Lossless format.

 

[97tbird]

Matt, Thanks for the reply.

I only have a very limited amount of MP3 files on the pc, (about 20-30) and those were created to "test" burning mp3 cds for the alpine stero that i got. ( i didn't know that ipod auto searches for any mp3 files in your pc and loads them as soon as you connect the ipod to the PC! that's how those few mp3 files ended up on the ipod...now I know how to set i tunes so that it won't do that)

I want to delete those 128 kbps mp3 files from the ipod and start over and load straight from CDs as soon as I get itunes 6.0 today.

That means I'll be ripping straight from audio CDs we have to itunes, and then transfer them to the ipod...so I guess I'll be using apple lossless, then.

 

[ScottB]

If it were me, I'd set to rip using AAC/192.
Unless you want to burn those songs later to MP3 CDs, you'll get better quality (ok, that can be debated like anything else) using AAC over MP3.
If you want your iTunes library to be used with other devices, there aren't many that use AAC (yet) so consider that too.

I work in the music industry, and while you can get into Ogg and other formats, the easiest way for someone who's not all that into the whole thing to get good results is with AAC or MP3-VBR files.

Scott

 

[97tbird]

that's what I did. thanks for the tip.
i ripped the first album using apple lossless, but saw the file-size: a lot bigger than I thought, and went to AAC 192 kbps for the rest, ripped 316 songs onto the mini. sounded great in the car, just using the griffin i-trip!