[Metal prophet]

So, I have had these Earphones for a week or so now and I have just been putting selected albums on my iPhone in the Apple Lossless format. Realistically, I obviously can't put all my music on my iPhone, lossless. I also won't get all of it on there at 320 kbps AAC. Would going any lower than this degrade the sound too much to warrant me even having these earphones?
 
I have a 32G iPhone BTW and about 340 hours of music.
 
Basically I just need to know whether getting all my music on my iPhone will degrade the sound quality too much (because it will be in a crappy format) or if having an iPhone with about 30 lossless albums would be entirely better? Although what I want to listen to regularly changes between shutting the front door and the 10 minute walk to the train station so this isn't ideal.
 
Thanks for any assistance any of you might have with this one!

 

[Marcus_C]

For any protable device I use anything from 192kbps and up to about 340. Being a sony user I don't have the option of lossless but you'll probably find far more things that distract you from knowing which bit rate your files are at. Dodgy masterings and recordings come through fairly easily but not a well recorded 192 rip of a good album.

 

[Metal prophet]

Thanks Marcus_C. How do you decide whether to rip at 192, 340 or something inbetween?

 

[Marcus_C]

It completely depends when it was ripped, when it's 340 it's a lossless vinyl rip so I copy it to 340wma before transfer, 192 & some 128 that's left was ripped a long time ago and I can't be bothered to re-rip it. Stuff at 320 was ripped slightly more recently etc. 256 has crept in in some places, as has some vorbis files, alac, other wma, m4a etc. My music library, putting it bluntly, is a mess. Although mine doesn't all go on my mp3 player(s).

 

[Metal prophet]

OK I guess I'll just spend the rest of today ripping my favorite albums at 340 kbps and perhaps leaving some of my really old stuff as it is, as I rarely listen to it. It's a bit like choosing which limb to have removed, but at least you've helped me come to a decision! Thanks.

 

[goodvibes]

I found the Nero aac encoder at 400 cbr to be close to lossless. I prefer lossless but find 320 cbr pretty good. Don't really want less but of course, if it's your only access, music comes first. I was just comparing again on Tracy Chapman's 'she's got a ticket' the other day as I like to do every so often and this was reconfirmed, for me. I'm not a VBR fan.
 
If you're a Windows user, look into DBpoweramp or EAC for rips and if you use MAC, check out XLD. Much debate about Itunes rips but I'm not a fan. Doesn't hurt to try another ripper for yourself and see what you think. I'd rip to AIFF and convert for need.

 

[Metal prophet]

I believe my entire iTunes library is VBR at the moment, how much difference would it make to the sound quality if it were CBR? And doesn't VBR bring the bit rate down to an average meaning I'd get more music on my iPhone?

 

[keanex]

Any sort of decently high VBR should be optimal. With the amount of outside noise interference you're already ruining any chance of enjoying the music at an at home optimal quality. Unless you use your iPhone to listen to at home, I would recommend a VBR setting of V2 or V0. If you do not have lame installed and don't care to, your second best bet would be to choose 192kbps VBR, or 256kbps VBR. Most people can't ABX 320 from FLAC, let alone 192 from FLAC in optimal conditions. On the go with no amp and outside interference there's no chance.

 

[Berkovajazz]

I'm ripping cd and making downloaded .flac to .aiff. Loving this format i don't know why. Maybe it sounds more interesting and fun to me, maybe "placebo effect" With aiff you can make album art in iTunes, with .wav not.
Also mp3 in 320.
TripleFi are very good with Apple, you don't need to make the best ripped cd or something special, mp3/320 are very good to them and to lot of earphones. If you are often using UE10(or another good IEMs) on the street, 320Mp3 is the best format

 

[Metal prophet]

Not sure what to do now. Just give me a terabyte sized MP3 player, that will solve the problem.
 
I guess I don't really know enough about this stuff to make an informed decision. I just know what sounds good, and want my music to sound so, on the go