What is the best music file format?

Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 17" 2.16 Dual Core.
There so many music file formats out there.. so I was just wondering which one is the best... I speak of sound quality, not file size.
 
Joined
Jan 29, 2008
Messages
703
Reaction score
9
Points
18
Location
Mendocino, CA
FLAC is a great format. It's a lossless compression audio codec, that seems to be on average 30-50% smaller than uncompressed audio. If you're looking for lossy codecs, Ogg Vorbis is great. Of course, Apple doesn't support either of these formats, so forget about putting them on iPods without an alternative firmware like Rockbox.
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
There could be a million different answers to this questions. My advice would be to try a representative sample of the available formats and make the call for yourself.
 
Joined
Feb 14, 2008
Messages
443
Reaction score
13
Points
18
Location
Chicago
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook(3,1): C2D 2.2ghz, 4g RAM, 10.7.5; iMac(12,1): 2.5ghz i5, 16gb RAM, 10.9.1; iPhone5S iOS7.04
Just to add to what kahlil88 said...as far as we know, Apple itself doesn't directly support FLAC, but there are programs that can work with FLAC files without conversion....Toast for one...I know I have a few freeware programs as well...
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Messages
9,065
Reaction score
331
Points
83
Location
Munich
Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM, SSD 24" Samsung Display, iPhone 4, iPad 2
For easy use with iTunes / iPod / iPhone and large sizes: Apple Lossless (compressed & lossless).
For easy use with iTunes / iPod / iPhone and small sizes: AAC at high bitrates (compressed & lossy)
For compatibility with everything (including Apple stuff) and large sizes: AIFF or WAV (uncompressed & lossless = huge)
For compatibility with everything (including Apple stuff) and small sizes: High bitrate MP3 (compressed & lossy)
Without Apple compatibility and large sizes: FLAC (compressed & lossless)
Without Apple compatibility and small sizes: Ogg (compressed & lossy)
 
Joined
Jun 22, 2008
Messages
3,343
Reaction score
213
Points
63
Location
Forest Hills, NYC
Your Mac's Specs
15-inch Early 2008; Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; Memory 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 10.7.5
There's a lot more to consider than what the best file format is:

What hardware is this music being played on/through etc ?

Is this for iTunes playback, or is this for portable usage, such as on your iPod/or other Mp3 player ?

Will you be using an DAC and/or amplifier in the signal chain ?

Are there headphones involved, and if so.. what kind of headphones, and will they be amped, or not amped ?

Because if you're simply playing music back on something like an iMac or a MBP, and you're using some cheap-o speakers connected with a simple line out jack and chord.. then to be honest, it really doesn't matter if you use Mp3, Ogg, or AAC.

If you already have a boat load of files in one particular format, then don't bother changing to something else just for the sake of changing.... Believe me, it's a total waste of time. At that point, no particular format is superior, so long as you're not encoding to anything less than say.. 192kbps. Sure, you can go lower than that, and you likely won't be able to tell the difference on sub par equipment, but the point is that you will one day have better hardware, and at that point, those files will come in handy.


Doug
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top