mpeg-4 Vs mp3

[gryph0n]

Let me add my 2 annas hyeah:

What is the best format available for Audio which is better than MP3?

There are variable understandings for 'best'. It would be clearer to be explicit about what you are looking for (More compression? More 'quality'? More Compatibility?).

To me, the 'best' would be the audio format which offers good sound quality, and also good compatibility with software and hardware players. In this respect, MP3 is the best. No other codec has the compatibility of MP3 (Except, maybe WAV).

In terms of bit rate requirement, AAC is (way) superior to MP3. But WAV is superior to either:lol:

AAC (and even Ogg Vorbis) is clearly superior to MP3 at low bitrates (64kbps and lower). At higher, sane bitrates for music (256 kbps and higher), the superiority vanishes. IMO, at this point, it's simply better to use the format which has better compatibility, ie MP3.

Yes. Use Exact Audio Copy. One of the best free software for ripping.
...
Use default setting of compression (8, IIRC).

I second EAC. One of the best rippers around on Windows, and free to boot too.

IIRC, the options passed by EAC to FLAC encoder use the default compression (Level 5). If you want to save a bit more space, go to encoder options for FLAC, and add option "--best" to the FLAC encoder to use the highest compression (If option "-5" or "--compression-level-5" is around, be sure to edit that out).