High-quality MP3s not comparable to CD WAVs ??

I agree,MP3s don't even rival LPs and Cds but I'd have to say that they are better than "crap" like some say. Maybe if you try ripping directly from Cds rather than converting waves you'll have better results - thats what I do. You can download a free demo of the program to see if its anygood at

http://www.mp3-ripper.net/download.htm

Sailor and others

I have beating my head against a wall since Xmas, trying to get my Apple iPod to navigate wav files. Despite the claims that all the iPOd hardware and software "supports" WAV files, they lack the MP-3 codes which is what makes the iPod special and worth the premium price in the first place.

All I wanted to do was have 30 uncompressed CDs for running and working out, but it really doesnt work.

I am using exact audio copy and LAME as well, achieving only mediocre sound with MP-3.

If anyone has any suggestions for achieveing decent MP-3 quality or getting an iPod to navigate WAV files, I too would love to hear your ideas.

The answer to all these quality issues is to find a lossless compression method as Matt8268 correctly pointed out. I did not know Windows Media Player 9 includes this feature. Matt 8268, what type of encoding speeds are you getting?

CWlondon, I experienced exactly the same with IPOD, but I got the tags working...

As far as a lossless solution to this problem... The format you want is FLAC. http://flac.sourceforge.net. Hardware is starting to support this natively now, and software tools have been around for a while.

I'm going to start being the FLAC evangelist around here, there are so many advantages to using a computer-based interface to access your music, and with a lossless scheme and the right ripper/soundcard/dac you can do no wrong.

Captain:

It sounds like you have discerning ears and you're able to confirm what most audiophiles think of MP3 audio. Certainly using higher bit rate conversions up to 320 kbps will help improve the sound, but the file sizes really aren't that much smaller than a 16-bit/44.1 kHz .wav file when you consider what you've sacrificed in sound quality. Most people who listen to music really don't "listen" to their music, or the music they listen to isn't well recorded to begin with. I listen to MP3s as samplers, but I listen to CDs and LPs for the experience.

Perhaps the closest you'll ever get to .wav file quality with data compression is to consider Sony's ATRAC data "lossy" compression which is used for their Minidisc format. Some Minidiscs actually sound pretty close to the original CDs from which they were recorded--certainly much better than MP3s. ATRAC compression is Sony' proprietary technology, so I don't think you'll be able to get an ATRAC software encoder. That creates a problem in having to get a Minidisc recorder/player with digital I/O for transfers to and from your PC.

As for me, I am waiting for Apple to come out with the next generation iPod capable of storing .wav files for PC users. Only Mac users can access and archive .wav files on their iPods at the moment, and I am a PC user.