What encoder do you prefer quality wise?

i tried ogg (latest) and kept getting all this nasty echo and distortion on high quality settings at playback...... no sir, didn't like it

I love Ogg Vorbis, with high quality and variable bitrate it easily out classes any 320 kbps MP3. Of course source material depending.

well, i would love it too if it actually worked without sounding like crap.....

maybe it is just me but i have tried it on three different systems with the same results... maybe I have a shitty encoder.......... i was using some stupid tool i got off gracenote's website.

IMHO, 320 kbps is very rich indeed. I see no point in going better, other than pure analog recordings made in recording studio's on master tape (that is the ONLY way to get all the signal)

I like Xing's MP3 and Lame's encoders best.

just use wave

what for? the source material for most recordings is pure digital now-a-days and wav files are HUGE....

besides... those usb hd devices like iPod and that Arch-whatever (20GB and 60GB) mp3 players don't support OGG.. winamp does with a plug in.

being open source, it may end up being the preferred encoding for cunsumers... we'll see.. right now, I am not going to invest TONS of time re-ripping everything... OGG engode iw VERY slow compared to Xing's MP3 encoder.. and that nonsense about 320 kbps encoding is rediculous.. maybe necrosis has dog-hearing

im with manny here.
mp3 is much too widely used for ogg vorbis to push it out with the glitches it apparently has. (i myself havent been able to get decent sound with ogg)
ogg vorbis needs to be next to perfect to push out mp3 from its rock solid position. a little better isn't good enough to do it.
simple as that.

I have just started using Ogg like a week ago; I'm certainly not going to convert/transcode all my current MP3's to Ogg. For here on out I will use it because it allows me to have close to WAV quality without the size. I've noticed some of the free encoders out there don't give you the option of variable bitrates. When I find one that does Ogg justice I will post it here, so far I've only found the freebies to only go to 350kbps.

I don't have dog hearing. It isn't as easy to tell the difference with my Klipsch, but when I put on the Senn's I can tell.

Ogg is slower though you are right about that; I don't mind.

i didnt mean you were supposed to convert your current mp3s to ogg. i was talking about ogg replacing mp3s as the standard audio compression format in general.

Ogg is more lucrative for those audiophiles out there who always demand something better (quality wise). I'm a stickler for quality, and would much rather have higher quality music than to just worry about space. People mostly are generally happy with what is good enough. I like having great audio quality without the space required. Ogg files encoded at full quality are usually larger than MP3's. However, that is what my 100 Gig is for. :wink: You are correct in assuming it will be very hard for Ogg to replace MP3's as the standard. It actually may stay a niche encoder forever, it's open source though and always will be availabe. I use Lame for my MP3's. The big issue it seems reading what has been said here is the quality of encoding software out there for Ogg. All the free packages out there don't offer the quality you can get from those you purchase. Of course since Ogg is open source this does seem a huge mistake; goes against the whole point of being open source too. I still favor Ogg over MP3 though and will continue to use it. I have 2 different MP3's player.

1. CD/MP3 Player (For Work)

2. Creative Nomad

I will have to continue to use MP3's for these; converting them will not be an issue since the quality of my Ogg files. The point right now is PR for Ogg to get it out there to the public. MP3's are way more popular than WMA; WMA is still out there and many players support it. Maybe what I should of asked "do you prefer Ogg or WMA"?

P.S. Winamp 2.80 (Full) & 3. does not require plugins for Ogg.

Xing Encoder is the absolute BEST MP3 encoder... and lightning fast... It comes bundled as an internal encoder with AudioCatalyst (which is a licensed AudioGrabber interface using Xing's Encoder/Decoder i.e. codec)

I am talking the best speed/compression/quality for MP3's

In fact, it is an industry standard as most all mp3 external devices on the market use Xing Codecs

BTW.. that is a really nice computer spec ya got there dude

I've always wanted to try AudioCatalyst but haven't yet. Most of the software I've seen uses Lame or (the German one) which I cannot remember or spell for that matter.

Thanks for the comment though, it's alright for a P4. :wink:

Here is a link to a nice little "free" encoder.

http://www.cd-rw.org/software/audio_softwa...rop_encoder.cfm

I've tried it out:

Ripped Machine Head's "Desire to Fire" WAV PCM 48K

Encoded w/ Oggdrop @ 499.9K (High as it can go).

Results = Outstanding!!

I dont mean to be a noob here, but could someone explain what Ogg Vorbis is?? Thanks.

http://www.vorbis.com/

thnx, i guess i could have found that out on my own

You decide!

I have ripped a song from a standard CD: 16 bit stereo PCM Wav. 48KHz

Here is the link to the control file. (You'll need Winrar)

Control Wav

The following links are for the encoded versions of this same file. All files are at 128 kbps.

Encoders/Codecs used.

[list]

[list]

[list]

Control MP3

Control OGG

Control WMA