As well all know, the PS3 has different compression codecs for importing your CDs to your hard drive.

The list includes: WAV, MP3, AAC, ATRAC, WMA.

My question is, if I want the best sound quality which is the codec should use?

I have a HUGE hard drive with 250GB of space. So disc space is of no concern at the moment. I just want it to sound as good as CD.

Any advice?

I had the same question when I bought mine, so I loaded the same song in each format. My ears could not tell the difference from one to the other.

I put all my music in MP3 because that's (probably) the format it will need to be in for custom game soundtracks.

I recommend MP3 at 256 mbps just because it is a more universal format. If/when you want to transfer your music FROM your PS3 to another device, this will limit the headaches.

I too started a thread on this a long time ago.

I had the same question when I bought mine, so I loaded the same song in each format. My ears could not tell the difference from one to the other.

I put all my music in MP3 because that's (probably) the format it will need to be in for custom game soundtracks.

That's a great point. I want to use it ingame, so I guess MP3 is what I'll be using.

192Kbps should be good, I guess...

I recommend MP3 at 256 mbps just because it is a more universal format. If/when you want to transfer your music FROM your PS3 to another device, this will limit the headaches.

I too started a thread on this a long time ago.


Thanks. I'll mess around with 192 and 256 to see if there's any significant difference.

Well, the best would be WAV, as that's what the CD is encoded with, so you won't lose anything at all like you will with MP3. It all depends on how carefully you listen, and how good your equipment is.

I also chose MP3 because it's universal. I chose the highest possible bitrate, though.

Get the LAME encoder and use the -standard or -extreme presets. I've been using LAME for many years. With the -extreme switch, I can't tell the difference between the CD and mp3 file in even the most controlled listening environment. For my smallish 1gb portable player, I can squish down to an average bitrate of 120kbps and still have acceptable quality.