Is it worth converting all mp3s to AAC?

for a test i converted on of my albums from mp3 to aac and when i played it on my ipod, everything sounded fine. with a lil ole 10 gig ipod, space counts and i was running out of room. now granted, an audiophile with a high end system or high end set of phones my notice a difference, there is no difference in my $20 headphones or my 10 year old explorer with the factory stereo!

Don't worry about other people' opinions. Just try it for your-self and find out. All that matters is if it sounds good to you or not. I converted all my mp3s greater than 128 kb/s to AAC on my ipod, and I did not hear any difference.

Conoverting from 192 kb/s mp3 to 128 kb/s AAC will make the file smaller.

If you convert directly from MP3 to AAC, yes there will be a quality loss (though not noticeable, IMO). It's like making a copy of a copy of a copy. You copy it enough times, the file degrades. However, if you re-rip your CDs directly to AAC, you will not notice any difference as you are encoding from the original source.

Also, Adam is right that you won't free up any space if you rip at the same bit rate. I originaly had my CD collection in as 160 MP3s. I re-riped them as 128 AAC and was able to gain 10 MB of space per album. With an extensive music collection, and an old 10GB iPod that savings was significant (I now own a 30GB iPod, so space is less of an issue for me).

Since you currently are at 192, switching to 128 AAC will definitely free up space for you. If space is important, then switching may be right for you. Otherwise it comes down to personal preference and if you want to invest the time in re-riping your collections.

You may also want to check some of the other threads on her for the AAC v MP3 debate to get an idea of some of the other opinions about the formats.

Good luck.

Chris

I converted the latest Dave Matthews CD, Some Devil, to AAC (actually re-ripped it) and noticed a significant improvement in lower-mids and bass frequencies in both my headphones and through my home system. I actually noticed Sub response as opposed to nothing with MP3 format with a 160 bitrate. To each his own, but I'm starting to be a believer.

Particularly notice a difference in live recordings

Exactly!

So many people don't realise this.

yeah, i am not saying i did it and expected quality to get better or even stay the same. I assumed there would be a slight drop in the quality. i didn't do all of them, just a few to try it out. Again, with cheap headphones, and a cheap car stereo, I don't THINK the difference is that noticable.

I have changed my entire MP3 to AAC and saved like 1GB of space and really haven?t notice a drastic change on the sound quality, its the same to me !

Musicroom :D

What do the numbers mean? Size?

*sigh*

You can't gain quality from nothing. Its like getting more water when your pour water into an empty glass.

Sounds like this one could use a *sticky* maybe or someone (like Adam maybe) could start a real thread about AAC vs MP3 issues.

But so far it makes sense, too bad the majority of people are still (and probably always will be) stuck in the mindset of "Oh... so this 128 Kbps rate will allow me to put even more music on this tiny little thing? Cool... that works for me."

Tony Robbins (yes, that one) has a philosophy that states everything we do in our lives is done for one of two reasons: we either do something to avoid pain, or we do something to gain pleasure. Note that these are mutually exclusive things. In other words, you can do something to avoid pain and you're not doing it just because you don't want pleasure. It breaks down to this: People will do more to avoid pain (they'll encode at a lower bitrate sacrificing quality because they don't want to run out of space) than they will to gain pleasure (higher bitrates and better quality music).

It's a nutty idea but when you think about it Tony is just making sense. It's not magic, ya know...

br0adband

Well hell man, I'll get started on an AAC vs MP3 FAQ for this place and if we butt heads enough we can put together a nice piece of work. I'll put together a draft of info that might become a *sticky* and make us BILLIONS!!!!

:D

br0adband