Well I've happily been pootling away with 128-320kbps MP3's from Window Media Player for a while now, but today I heard Tarja - My Winter Storm album in Ape lossless codec and loved the lossless quality, but WMP apart from lossless WMA can't support other encoders (yeah I know it can use codecs but that's not what I'm after)

After research it appears FLAC is the most common and favoured lossless format so I downloaded FLAC frontend didn't like it, I wanted to rip straight from CD.
So I got EAC couldn't get my head around stuff, didn't like it, eg GUI and customization was minimal or at least I couldn't find it.

Now Media Monkey looks real nice (from screenshots and description) but I wanted your opinions, is it worth it for all that added HDD space? Is there another CD->Flac importer which is nice easy customizable and what not, I have all my MP3's tagged up with album art and multiple artists/genres per track in WMP using the ; divider etc so would really appreciate something that supports that style of customization too

So yeah what's the audiophiles in here opinions and recommendations for me?

Oh yeah I have a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty XtremeGamer soundcard and 7.1 Sound System too, so multichannel stuff is all good.
Also I'd absolutely love the player to be able to convert music, and import to my Zen V-Plus MP3 player (even more amazing would be to convert the songs to a lesser quality format when importing like you can on WMP)

I know winamp plays FLAC files

BUT

There is nothing wrong with .mp3s encoded at 320 kbps. The whole .mp3 project was designed to allow compression of those wave lengths the average human ear can't here. You get rid of those, you save space, and you keep the great quality. Depending on what encoder you use/speakers/every other variable imaginable.

Yeah the difference between lossless and a good mp3 is pretty hard to tell, for me I'd keep the HDD space.

Winamp can also rip CD's to FLAC.

Although I'm not sure if you need winamp pro to be able to do that...

For ages I had Gorillaz  Demon Days at 64kbps in WMA I never even realised it sounded great was most shocking thing ever when I looked at my collection's Bitrates one day

I'd really like to compare some of my songs then I guess, then make a decision. Oh as for winamp I've never liked it really. Tried a few different versions just didn't gel with me


Well Tested With Daft Punk - Aerodynamic and it sounds exactly the same to me on all formats CD, WAV, FLAC, MP3 320 (Infact CD sounded quieter and less kick )

Has anyone got any classical tracks, with fluctation and dynamics, they could send me via WLM. Which is crashing and locking up all the fucking time now

My advice is if you can't tell the difference, don't bother.

quote:

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Originally posted by aNILEator
For ages I had Gorillaz  Demon Days at 64kbps in WMA I never even realised it sounded great was most shocking thing ever when I looked at my collection's Bitrates one day

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quote:

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Originally posted by aNILEator
For ages I had Gorillaz  Demon Days at 64kbps in WMA I never even realised it sounded great was most shocking thing ever when I looked at my collection's Bitrates one day

I'd really like to compare some of my songs then I guess, then make a decision. Oh as for winamp I've never liked it really. Tried a few different versions just didn't gel with me


Well Tested With Daft Punk - Aerodynamic and it sounds exactly the same to me on all formats CD, WAV, FLAC, MP3 320 (Infact CD sounded quieter and less kick )

Has anyone got any classical tracks, with fluctation and dynamics, they could send me via WLM. Which is crashing and locking up all the fucking time now

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I know VLC Media Player can play FLAC files, however it's GUI is pretty ugly.

Foobar2000

Will play MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC / Ogg FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, AU, SND, CDDA, WMA.

And it can be configured how you want it. (GUI wise)

Also has VERY good audio quality

anything above 192kbps mp3  is win

I have a few very nice AC3 and WAV files that I can send you that are in 5.1 surround that you can try...