Best compression format for PC Jukebox

EAC isn't particulary difficult to use, and it does ensure bit-perfect copies of readable CDs.

No reason to use different computers for storage if you don't want to. AAC files and other formats have different extensions, they will just appear twice in whatever jukebox software you use. But, most software like that will let you filter by file type, so that isn't even a big issue.

I've ripped all my CDs in .wav format, but that format doesn't support any sort of standardized tagging. Kind of annoying, but there are iTunes applescripts to restore artist/album data from the directory structure if you rip consistently to Drive:\..\artist\album\song.wav, which you can do with EAC. Ripping as .wav files also means no compression. I gather using apple's lossless AAC, you can get 2:1 compression with no data compromise. Haven't messed with that (or iTunes as a ripper).

Good luck.

Edesilva,

So EAC for CD ripping...got that.

Any suggestions for storage and playback besides iTunes?

Thanks,

MC

I'm currently encoding all of my CDs in flac format (free lossless audio codec), which usually produces files about 35% to 60% of the size of the originals for my music (your mileage may vary, but 2:1 is a safe average). Same tag support as Ogg Vorbis or MP3. A number of players will suppport flac, including winamp (if you download and install the flac codecs... can't remember the links but Google should help), foobar (natively), and the one I'm using for its organazational capabilities, wxmusik.

I hear foobar is the one for Windows boxes, but haven't tried it. Didn't like Audiostation (messed up large libraries). MusicMatch is annoying, but it seems to work. Since my mac got attached to my main stereo, haven't messed with audio and the Windows side in a bit. Keep meaning to pull down and install foobar, if merely to have something that will allow me to recover artist/album data from the directory structure.

Ben, what is wxmusik like?

Apple Lossless is not the same as AAC. Apple Lossless really is identical on playback and compresses files to somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 original size. AAC is an excellent variable bitrate compression algorithm that can compress files down to 10% (or less) of original size.

When choosing a format for our 1,500 CD's, this made Apple Lossless a pretty easy choice for us. My wife's 20GB iPod can hold 40-50 full albums at a time, which is just fine for her.