Ripping audio collection - What format fo you rip to?

CD's are WAV format so whatever ID tagging you can do when ripping a CD can be done on a WAV file.

If I were doing this, I'd use FLAC and Fubar2000.

I rip to MP3. If I ever need lossless I'll just dig the CD out and rip it again. FLAC is a lossless format that supports tags however, if you want to bother ripping then converting.

I rip everything to FLAC and MP3 @320. FLAC for home listening (via computer and stereo) and mp3's for Ipod use. Defiantly don't go to a lower bit rate than 320 MP3. Hard drive space is cheap why potentially compromise sound quality to save a little drive space. ( my 2 cents)

ALAC with full tagging works for me.

Lossless FLAC for me. Hard drive space is cheap and so is broadband bandwidth. I just stream everything from my home server when I'm on the road. I can access my library on my phone, in my car (it has a carpc integrated into the car), on my iPad or even through a web browser if need be. I don't even store local copies on any of the devices anymore.

FLAC all the way for me. It is the most widely supported lossless format. The only place it isn't so well supported is in Apple's walled garden. So if itunes is a big deal for you, then ALAC is probably a better choice. You can always do a big batch conversion of everything from one lossless format to another if you have the right tool (Foobar2000 is excellent).

Why not just rip them as WAV files and be done with it? FLAC files aren't that much smaller so it doesn't really save you all that much.

FLAC provides more features than WAV. You can store metadata and pictures for example.

My music directory, ripped to FLAC, is 156 GB. That's about 300 GB in WAV most likely. Not huge considering I have a 6TB unraid set up, but I also backup everything to a 3TB drive. My 3TB drive has only about 800 GB left, so sucking another 150 GB out of that is a lot. (The majority of my 6TB is recorded TV; I have about 2TB free.

I second FLAC. It can be converted to any format at a later date. I used dBpoweramp to convert my FLAC collection to ALAC for iTunes. I use Foobar2000 for everything else, but I couldn't get it to copy over the tags during the conversion. dBpoweramp did it without a fuss.

dBpoweramp does cost money but it has full functionality for 21 days.

Tim

FLAC is best if you are using higher end audio equipment. Otherwise, MP3 @ 320 might be the way to go.

and i will go in a different direction and say to use apple lossless. i just had to convert over 1000 cd's from flac to these. why? well sonically, there is no difference between flac and apple lossless formats. almost any music player on earth can handle apple lossless. but if you ever plan to use itunes, iphones, ipads, ipods, etc - anything with an apple logo on it (and who knows, if you don't now you might someday) it will make your life much, much easier if your music is in apple lossless/MP4.

The only apple device I'll ever use is iWon't.

I just convert FLAC to a relatively highly compressed iTunes format for my iPod. It works out to be less than a tenth of the size of my FLAC formateed songs. When it comes to listening to music in the car or over crappy earbuds or over tiny systems, that's perfectly OK. At work, I play my FLAC songs using Squeezeplayer and Squeeze server via a tube-based amp through great headphones. Then I need a lossless format.

Personally, I can't stand Apple, but the iPod is the only thing right now that's big enough to hold my entire music collection in its highly compressed format. Once someone comes out with something that will perform this function, I'll never buy an Apple product unless they take over the world, as they're trying to do.