[Osadu]

Pardon me for asking a question that may have been asked numerous times in the past.  But, what is the best format to rip CDs into using dbpoweramp?  WAV, FLAC, AIFF.....?  Thanks for your opinions.

[alinto]

I personally rip everything in wav. I have compared wav files to flac and found that the wav file sound slightly better - more relaxed and involving. With the price of hard drives so cheap, you don't have to worry about space. The only down side to wav is it inability to store metadata.

[jai1611]

Another vote for WAV. I get around the metadata issue by using a fairly organised folder structure while ripping.

Another plus for WAV is the better compatibility with a wide range of devices. I occasionally end up listening off a USB drive in my HT setup. The blu ray player can read WAV files but not FLAC

[newzooreview]

Another vote for WAV. I get around the metadata issue by using a fairly organised folder structure while ripping.

Another plus for WAV is the better compatibility with a wide range of devices. I occasionally end up listening off a USB drive in my HT setup. The blu ray player can read WAV files but not FLAC

AIFF is far better. If you go through the trouble of ripping a CD collection, you want the full metadata preserved in each file. It is infinitely more flexible for use in multiple devices since most devices will allow search and organization of the files using their metadata. And the work involved is significantly less than hand-crafting a folder structure. iTunes will automatically build you a perfectly organized folder structure if you want that; no work involved.

Just rip the CDs to AIFF (assuming you use something like XLD which will pull in the metadata and artwork) then add them to iTunes to create the organized folder structure. You can have  AIFF files in a big mess and iTunes will sort them out for you.

If you ever need WAV or FLAC you can have XLD convert that whole set of organized AIFF folders into another format. It's easy to losslessly convert to WAV and strip out the metadata. Going the other direction is not easy at all.

In my comparisons, FLAC does not sound as good. FLAC places a burden on the system to decode the file and this affects sound quality. The full data are buried in the FLAC file--it is losslessly compressed--but the uncompressing introduces an additional step in playback. Considering how inexpensive hard drive storage is, FLAC offers no advantage over AIFF.

[srb]

AIFF

AIFF and WAV are both uncompressed linear PCM, only differing in the file header.  Although AIFF doesn't have quite as broad compatibility as WAV (Foobar2000 and Windows Media Player for example) it's worth it for the metadata capability, particularly if you don't care about the few programs that don't read it (as I don't).

Steve

[HsvHeelFan]

My music library was ripped to FLAC using JRiver Media Center version 16.  I've been very happy with it.  I did test listens to FLAC vs WAV and I thought FLAC sounded slightly  (and only very slightly) better.

My recommendation would be to take some tracks that you know really well, rip them in the various formats and play them back.

I've got around 5 "reference" tracks that I always use.

As always, let YOUR ears decide, no one else.

HsvHeelFan

[turnovertherecord]

dbpoweramp

Wav file

[Mike Nomad]

If we are talking about resolution that does not exceed 16/48...

Definitely AIFF, for reasons already stated.

Having compared the audio quality of AIFF to WAV to FLAC at different times, across different platforms, using different applications, it got boring. There is no inherent difference, based on the file type. What there is, is a difference in how well a given hardware/software configuration does playback.

If we are talking about Hi-Rez (24-bit at any sampling rate)...

My experience has been AIFF consistently performs like cr@p. Tried to get to the bottom of it, but, the time was better spent on other things. In this case, for uncompressed, WAV is indeed the way to go. Having compared Hi-Rez WAV to FLAC, It has been the same experience as the AIFF / WAV / FLAC comparison.

For the record, currently using Macs w/ OS X 10.8.5, and Decibel software for playback.

[rbbert]

It's easy to tag and store FLAC, especially compared to WAV.  If you like, JRiver will convert your FLAC to WAV in your server's RAM and then play the files from RAM.  In this way (if it matters) you can have the convenience of FLAC with whatever sonic advantages there might be from both WAV and memory play.

[fridays]

Use XLD to rip to WAV all to playlists, the sound on my system is much better than other formats,