Download an MP3 or buy the Cd and then rip?

I don't understand why you would bother using MP3, when you have such a high end set.
Go for some lossless format and keep some quality in your music.

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aleg

Hi Aleg

Yes, my current ripped cds are all hi quality lossless.

My question is, when buying new music should I always buy an album cd and rip rather than download the album mp3 from iTunes Store if I want the best quality? As far as I know, there are no high quality options on the iTunes Store, am I correct?

Many thanks, Ian

Some high-end folks will kill me... but mp3 with 320k sounds really really good, better than some flacs i ripped from my CDs!

Imho mp3's from 320k sound fine indeed. Everything less though is enough for me to buy the original CD and rip it.

I'd have a pretty hard time keeping a 320k mp3 apart from the original CD. (tried it once when I still had a CD5x)

regards,
Alco

quote:

Originally posted by ianmacd:
Hi Aleg

Yes, my current ripped cds are all hi quality lossless.

My question is, when buying new music should I always buy an album cd and rip rather than download the album mp3 from iTunes Store if I want the best quality? As far as I know, there are no high quality options on the iTunes Store, am I correct?

Many thanks, Ian

Assuming the same price, I would get the CD. You can create a 320k mp3 file from this but you can't do the reverse. Also if you keep the CD in a save place you are relatively unlikely to loose it.

I would mot like to claim that I can hear any difference between a 320k mp3 and a lossless 16/48 flac file.

I wanted to download some music from www.songs.sky.com but they would not tell me whether the music was 320k or 192k bps before I made a purchase. The CD version is no longer available.

I rip to 320k MP3. But that is simply because they only get used over ipod/headphones for a few minutes each day. On a proper system I can easily tell the difference between wav and 320k MP3. And that is from an ipod.

Best possible quality will ususally come from the CD rip, provided it is done competently to a lossless format. Exceptions will be that uncompressed (or losslessly compressed) higher bit-depth/sampling-rate downloads from specialised sites like the Naim Label and HDTracks will (theoretically) be better-than-CD quality.

The iTunes store does not offer full CD quality.

Thanks for the advice, it's helped me to decide that where possible I will buy the CD and rip from that,

Kind regards Ian

I find most CDs that aren't brand new releases are available far cheaper than the rip off prices iTunes charges - and I'm talking about in shops as well as online. I'm a reluctant user of iTunes as the Ipod touch is a nice device but I hate the whole rip off closed standards philosophy of Apple - they are even charging for a straight software update for my Ipod. Only downside of buying the CD and ripping is storing the things.

quote:

Originally posted by T38.45:
Some high-end folks will kill me... but mp3 with 320k sounds really really good, better than some flacs i ripped from my CDs!

Odd because I just went to FLAC on my portable despite wanting the extra space of 320. I do think 320 is generally good enough for portables and can hear FLAC also but in this instance, it made the combo much more enjoyable. I think that you're one of those that should just stick to .wav or AIFF and avoid picking your poison. Regardless, there are very few places that 320 downloads are available. I-tunes stops at 256 so ripping is the only option other then some high end downloads from distributors like Naim.

In the UK 7Digital do plenty of 320kbps downloads.

That said, I still prefer to buy cds and do the rip myself.