To convert audiophile and collectible/rare collection to digital, it has been most frustrating to find a digital audio compression format that doesn't destroy the sonic characteristics of the original recordings/pressings. After ALOT of research as well as discussion with other audiophile enthusiasts and re-mastering pro's come up with this set of standards.
For quality audiophile CD's (such as Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs -MFSL- Gold releases, or the whole slew of Japanese Gold Format Re-masters etc.) use this Open ware program - Exact Audio Copy. It will rip with EXACT DUPLICATION QUALITY to either MS-WAV, or Monkeys Audio - .APE losses format(s). Even though this is an open source program, it comes HIGHLY recommended for this purpose.
Rip the CD to .wav first, archive the files to DVD and THEN convert the ,WAV digital source to one of the following 'Loss-less' formats (below chart). use FLAC , which along with SHORTEN, and OptimFROG have the highest sonic qualities DURING PLAYBACK (without re-conversion to MS-WAV).
_________________________________________________________________
COMMON 'LOSS-LESS' DIGITAL AUDIO COMPRESSION FORMATS
Apple Loss less ALAC - Apple's own Loss less (ALAC, iTunes, iPod) [.m4a]
Free Lossless Audio Codec FLAC - Popular Open Source Lossless [.flac .fla]
Monkeys Audio APE - Great all-round performer [.ape]
OptimFROG High-performance lossless [.ofr, .ofs]
Real Audio Loss less Real Audio Loss less [.ra, .rm, .ram, .rmvb]
Shorten Popular with file traders [.shn]
The True Audio Open source [.tta]
Wavpack WV - Unique loss less [.wv] AND lossy hybrid [.wvc] modes
________________________________________________________________
COMMON 'LOSS-EY' DIGITAL AUDIO COMPRESSION FORMATS
.mp3 Lame, Fraunhofer IIS .etc [.m2a .mp1 .mp2 .mp3 .mpga .mpa .mpx .mpg]
.mp3 Helix 100x 'lightning fast' encoding speed (2 GHz Dual Core CPU), 4x faster than Lame [.mp3]
.m4a & mp4 Newest mpeg standard (AAC LC, AAC HE, AAC HE v2, SBR, 3GPP, iTunes, iPod) [.m4a, .mp4, .m4b]
Musepack Highest quality lossy codec above 128Kbps [.mpc, .mp+, .mpp]
Ogg Vorbis Open source, high quality using the auToV encoder [.ogg]
Real Audio Helix Real Audio [.ra, .rm, .ram, .rmvb]
Windows Media Audio (WMA) Microsoft's v10 Pro, standard, lossless & voice [.wma, .asf, .wmv]
Wavpack WVC lossy mode [.wvc]
________________________________________________________________
Frankly, without a "golden ear" AND audiophile-pro quality headphones such as.....
Ultrasone iCans (highly recommended):
iCans
or>
Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO (highest studio-pro standards):
beyerdynamic: Home
....you generally can't hear much of difference in the sound 'quality' between the various loss-less format competitors. What WILL be different is the "staging" or "presence" qualities of the playback. These terms refer to the 3-D effect of instruments "standing out" in various "locations" during playback.
SIDENOTE: This is the reason for the argument of (Analog) OVER Digital (CD's-DVD's) for playing back recorded music. Most of us pro-types, as well as the audiophile equipment freaks agree that the sonic staging quality of correctly recorded and mastered vinyl can not be touched, but then it is all subjective to the quality of the pressing, playback equipment and the listeners ears , is it not?
For the regular listeners playing a CD in the car or home/surround/computer systems, any of the loss less formats above are fine.
You can playback .APE files through WINAMP Player by going to:
Monkey's Audio - a fast and powerful lossless audio compressor
Download the STANDALONE & plugin for Winamp there (the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)
You can playback SHORTEN [.shn] files through WINAMP Player by going to:
etree.org | shnamp main
Download the 'ShnAmp' plugin for Winamp there (the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)
SHORTEN STANDALONE at:
etree.org | shorten
You CAN download the .FLAC playback plug for WINAMP at:
Plug-ins for Winamp Media Player - Customize Winamp Media Player
.FLAC STANDALONE at:
FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec
Download the STANDALONE & OptimFROG [.ofr, .ofs] playback plug for WINAMP at:
OptimFROG Lossless Audio Compression
(the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)
Download the STANDALONE & Wavpack [.wv .wvc] playback plug for WINAMP at:
WavPack downloads
(the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)
NOTE: Use FLAC with the least amount of compression, but the files are only slightly smaller then the original .wav file. This is to archive for the bootleg traders I swap with etc.
The other REALLY good format is SHORTEN, which most of the old bootleg tape traders use because it has an even BETTER (sonically accurate) compression formula. and it is more accurate when un-compressed back to the original MS-WAV format. You can hardly tell the difference!.
Monkey Audio's .APE is great also and you can get a really large compression (i.e. smaller size of file) which make it good for transfer over the .net etc. BUT, if you have the (audiophile) playback equipment to warrant it, go with FLAC , SHORTEN, Wavpack, OptimFROG, and for MAC - iPod users, Apple Lossless is good also.
Hear is a site with all the conversion, ripping and playback software & codecs the you will ever need..........
dBpoweramp: CD Ripper & Audio Converter. Secure ripping to mp3, FLAC, m4a, Apple Lossless & WMA
dBpoweramp Codec Central
The last Freeware Version of DbPowerAmp:
FreewareWiki - freeware & free info / DbPowerAmp
http ://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page11.html#dBpowerAmp
AWSoftware - Exact Audio Copy is for the highest quality ripping of CD's (open source to!):
Introduction � Exact Audio Copy
Have fun!
For quality audiophile CD's (such as Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs -MFSL- Gold releases, or the whole slew of Japanese Gold Format Re-masters etc.) use this Open ware program - Exact Audio Copy. It will rip with EXACT DUPLICATION QUALITY to either MS-WAV, or Monkeys Audio - .APE losses format(s). Even though this is an open source program, it comes HIGHLY recommended for this purpose.
Rip the CD to .wav first, archive the files to DVD and THEN convert the ,WAV digital source to one of the following 'Loss-less' formats (below chart). use FLAC , which along with SHORTEN, and OptimFROG have the highest sonic qualities DURING PLAYBACK (without re-conversion to MS-WAV).
_________________________________________________________________
COMMON 'LOSS-LESS' DIGITAL AUDIO COMPRESSION FORMATS
Apple Loss less ALAC - Apple's own Loss less (ALAC, iTunes, iPod) [.m4a]
Free Lossless Audio Codec FLAC - Popular Open Source Lossless [.flac .fla]
Monkeys Audio APE - Great all-round performer [.ape]
OptimFROG High-performance lossless [.ofr, .ofs]
Real Audio Loss less Real Audio Loss less [.ra, .rm, .ram, .rmvb]
Shorten Popular with file traders [.shn]
The True Audio Open source [.tta]
Wavpack WV - Unique loss less [.wv] AND lossy hybrid [.wvc] modes
________________________________________________________________
COMMON 'LOSS-EY' DIGITAL AUDIO COMPRESSION FORMATS
.mp3 Lame, Fraunhofer IIS .etc [.m2a .mp1 .mp2 .mp3 .mpga .mpa .mpx .mpg]
.mp3 Helix 100x 'lightning fast' encoding speed (2 GHz Dual Core CPU), 4x faster than Lame [.mp3]
.m4a & mp4 Newest mpeg standard (AAC LC, AAC HE, AAC HE v2, SBR, 3GPP, iTunes, iPod) [.m4a, .mp4, .m4b]
Musepack Highest quality lossy codec above 128Kbps [.mpc, .mp+, .mpp]
Ogg Vorbis Open source, high quality using the auToV encoder [.ogg]
Real Audio Helix Real Audio [.ra, .rm, .ram, .rmvb]
Windows Media Audio (WMA) Microsoft's v10 Pro, standard, lossless & voice [.wma, .asf, .wmv]
Wavpack WVC lossy mode [.wvc]
________________________________________________________________
Frankly, without a "golden ear" AND audiophile-pro quality headphones such as.....
Ultrasone iCans (highly recommended):
iCans
or>
Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO (highest studio-pro standards):
beyerdynamic: Home
....you generally can't hear much of difference in the sound 'quality' between the various loss-less format competitors. What WILL be different is the "staging" or "presence" qualities of the playback. These terms refer to the 3-D effect of instruments "standing out" in various "locations" during playback.
SIDENOTE: This is the reason for the argument of (Analog) OVER Digital (CD's-DVD's) for playing back recorded music. Most of us pro-types, as well as the audiophile equipment freaks agree that the sonic staging quality of correctly recorded and mastered vinyl can not be touched, but then it is all subjective to the quality of the pressing, playback equipment and the listeners ears , is it not?
For the regular listeners playing a CD in the car or home/surround/computer systems, any of the loss less formats above are fine.
You can playback .APE files through WINAMP Player by going to:
Monkey's Audio - a fast and powerful lossless audio compressor
Download the STANDALONE & plugin for Winamp there (the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)
You can playback SHORTEN [.shn] files through WINAMP Player by going to:
etree.org | shnamp main
Download the 'ShnAmp' plugin for Winamp there (the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)
SHORTEN STANDALONE at:
etree.org | shorten
You CAN download the .FLAC playback plug for WINAMP at:
Plug-ins for Winamp Media Player - Customize Winamp Media Player
.FLAC STANDALONE at:
FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec
Download the STANDALONE & OptimFROG [.ofr, .ofs] playback plug for WINAMP at:
OptimFROG Lossless Audio Compression
(the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)
Download the STANDALONE & Wavpack [.wv .wvc] playback plug for WINAMP at:
WavPack downloads
(the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)
NOTE: Use FLAC with the least amount of compression, but the files are only slightly smaller then the original .wav file. This is to archive for the bootleg traders I swap with etc.
The other REALLY good format is SHORTEN, which most of the old bootleg tape traders use because it has an even BETTER (sonically accurate) compression formula. and it is more accurate when un-compressed back to the original MS-WAV format. You can hardly tell the difference!.
Monkey Audio's .APE is great also and you can get a really large compression (i.e. smaller size of file) which make it good for transfer over the .net etc. BUT, if you have the (audiophile) playback equipment to warrant it, go with FLAC , SHORTEN, Wavpack, OptimFROG, and for MAC - iPod users, Apple Lossless is good also.
Hear is a site with all the conversion, ripping and playback software & codecs the you will ever need..........
dBpoweramp: CD Ripper & Audio Converter. Secure ripping to mp3, FLAC, m4a, Apple Lossless & WMA
dBpoweramp Codec Central
The last Freeware Version of DbPowerAmp:
FreewareWiki - freeware & free info / DbPowerAmp
http ://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page11.html#dBpowerAmp
AWSoftware - Exact Audio Copy is for the highest quality ripping of CD's (open source to!):
Introduction � Exact Audio Copy
Have fun!