Suggestions for cd ripper...mp3 or wav?

[Robin Laing]

Tim wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-10-02 at 22:32 +0100, James Wilkinson wrote:
> 
>>In my experience, there are some sorts of sounds that MP3 doesn't
>>handle well
> 
> 
> And in mine, there's *many* sounds it doesn't handle well, particularly
> some encoders (well, all of the ones that I tried).  For instance, the
> ride and crash cymbals in 16-beat rock rhythms typical of many Beatles
> songs, they go mush mush mush, sounding rather like a radio going out of
> tune, instead of producing the proper sound.  I can also notice other
> strange little squeaks and abnormal noises being added to music.
> 
> I'd tried encoding at some very high rates, and it hasn't helped.  Many
> MP3s encoded by other people had similar effects, even if not as
> pronounced as the ones I'd tried encoding (some of which were from
> excellent sounding uncompressed digital originals).
> 
> To my mind, MP3s are about as bad as compact audio cassettes.
> 

I have cassettes that sound better than many mp3's.  These are even the 
ones that were snacked on by a player in the past.

FWIW, I found this link that does a really good comparison of formats.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1561918,00.asp

There are curves that show the frequency losses that affect the quality.

-- 
Robin Laing