Best audio format for CD importing/burning?

karavite

karavite

Registered
This is kind of a dumb question I have simply avoided for years and I'm a little embarrassed about asking it (and I swear I did many searches here), but I am doing 100% legal copying of my CDs by creating new CDs with specific songs/artists for listening in the car and/or at home and I am wondering just what format will give me the same exact recording quality/format as the original?

I'm assuming I have it right by having iTunes set up to import using the WAV encoder, 48 kHz, 16 bit stereo (though I guess any 20 bit / HDCDs will not be in the original format, but I digress). Is this right? I guess I am asking because I notice that when I load a CD and view its files, the Mac sees them as AIFF and the same occurs when I burn a disk - the files in the CD I burned show up as AIFFs too. Would it make any difference for me to set iTunes to import using the AIFF encoder? Or just what is the highest quality/best setting to import CDs into iTunes (disk spacer is not a problem)?

Thanks in advanced.
 
AIFF and WAV are fairly simmilar in regards to the file size/quality ratio, but i think AIFF allows meta data to be stored as well, whereas WAV will rely on itunes storing track data in its own database. If you want perfect recordings, why not encode to very high bitrate AAC (im not sure how high, i've been thinking about something simmilar myself. maybe something like 256kbit?) and then either, burn to audio cds (if the aac is high enough bitrate that it doesnt lose quality, you wont have a sub-standard audio-cd burn) or, do the same with MP3, and get a MP3-CD deck for your car.
 
For perfect quality, go with WAV or AIFF. Those are both lossless formats, meaning that the audio isn't compressed as with MP3 or AAC.

The audio files on a CD are in Audio CD format and cannot be copied off of the CD, but Mac OS X makes this a moot point for users and makes it quite simple by performing an "on-the-fly" conversion to AIFF. If you remember back in the days of system 7, 8 and 9, if you put a CD in your drive and viewed the contents, you couldn't just copy a track off of the CD. Now, with Mac OS X, the audio CDs show up as AIFF files -- they are NOT AIFF files on the CD, but if you copy one off the CD, then the conversion is performed -- and it's a lossless conversion.

If you're looking for perfect quality, go with AIFF, or even WAV. If you'd like to store the files on your hard drive and are looking to save space, go with AAC. I encode my files with AAC 192kbps, which makes for a great sounding file.
 
Thanks to both of you! ElDiabloConCaca has what I was looking for with "lossless" formats. My intention was to play these CDs on my home and car stereo - not play the music from my computer. I hate to sound like an audiophile snob (I'm really not one), but I spent a lot of time working on the side to buy an absurdly expensive home stereo system (though still not to the price level of a true audiophile snob) and I mainly want to use that system to play these CDs (my assorted collection disks/play lists). I would like to use the computer to "serve" my music via my stereo, but the quality just isn't there compared to my new system. I have AB'ed my Mac playing CDs via my stereo vs the same music on my new CD player (Rotel 1077) and it is no comparison. Even my old Marantz CD-63SE CD player sounds better than the Mac playing an audio CD. Many people don't realize how much difference there is between CD players and audio quality, but once you have heard it, it is hard to go back. The DAs seem to play a big part, but wiring, components, power supplies and everything in a CD player all contribute to sound quality.
 
CD's use PCM 44.1kHz 16-bit Digital Audio.
In Windows and BeOS I'd recommend using WAV, but on a Mac, I'd recommend AIFF.
Make sure you use 44.1kHz, as opposed to 48kHz, 48kHz is used for Digital DAT Audio Tape, while 44.1kHz is used on CDs.
 
Thanks Salvo - just curious, what would happen if I used 48kHz vs. 44.1? I will try your advice (makes sense and I forgot that CDs are 44.1!), but I have made many disks by using import as WAV, 48 kHz, 16 bit and I have listened to disks made from these tracks vs the original CDs and my ears cannot tell a difference (or if they do, I'm not sure if I am imagining it or not - it is enough to question ones sanity). What about what ElDiabloConCaca said about these being lossless formats?
 
Converting from CD to 48kHz would require resampling, which may leave artifacts, like pops and cracks.
Converting back to 44.1kHz may cover up these artifacts, but the CD won't be bit-perfect.
I don't care too much about resampling and Loss, unless I'm backing-up a very Hi-Fi CD, like Aphex Twin, any Artifacts I introduce will not be noticable. I just Burn CDs from MP3's/AAC's. If I wanted Bit-perfect I'd use 441.kHz/16-bit/AIFF's.
For Rock and Popular Electronica, you won't notice the difference.
 
CD's are already 44.1 Khz, so you won't gain anything by going up to 48. You might as well leave it at 44.1.
 
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