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I have alot of FLAC files, to many. Taking loads of space up on my hard drives. I want to convert them I think into something reasonable with volume normalization as well. No ReplayGain just complete leveling. I read this http://ixbtlabs.com/articles/oggvslame/ and it claims mp3 ABR is superior to CBR or VBR during his analysis. While old it should still old sway even over newer codecs.

Your thoughts on using either mp3 lame 2-pass ABR or aac nero 2-pass abr?

What's wrong with good old MP3? I mean, I dunno about other people, but I can't hear the difference between a properly-encoded 192kbps MP3 and anything else. Lower than 192, sure. But above that, it's just like... I can't hear it, why should I waste space or use a codec that all my players (especially my iPhone) don't support?

That's just me, though. Maybe you're one of those crazy dudes who can hear the difference between 320kbps MP3 and FLAC.

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I have such a poor ear for this shit. Even crap quality sounds good to me most of the time

M4A is AAC. There are settings involved with that format to adjust the quality/compression, so if you have suggestions for him on what settings work well, I think he'd appreciate it. Without that, it's just saying "AAC is pretty good."

I've always used MP3 LAME at 320 on anything I myself rip. Never had any issues with quality.

This depends entirely on what king of equipment you use to listen to your music. You can't hear a difference through bose headphones, because bose is overpriced crap. You want to hear the difference? Drop the money on a nice amp and some good studio monitors. You don't want to hear the difference, get a warmer amp and speakers. Bitrates below 192 are pretty obvious to most people, and anything above that is difficult to discern without listening side by side.

If lossy codecs bother you, don't use them and buy more storage space. That link seems pretty thoughtful, and it seems to indicate Lame kicks ogg in the pants. I have no evidence to suggest otherwise.

I use a set of late-70s early-80s Pioneer studio headphones. Not the best, but definitely better than most of what I've sampled in the past (iPod earbuds to Bose crap to Skull Candy products).

Pioneer isn't bad, they certainly weren't 20-30 years ago either. The only brand I've seen that's actually any good at best buy was ultimate ears. AKG makes nice cans, I have a pair of theirs and they're awesome. Then there's Grado, Beyerdynamic (a pair of which I almost bought over my AKG's) some Sony's, Sennheiser's, Sure. Basically you get what you pay for. Unless you buy Bose, then you get something hilariously bad.

from my personal experiances of using cheap in ear canal phones i'd say sennheiser were probably the ones i found best. i currently am using some akg's, comparable to the sennheiser cx300s but i find them not particularly good. i got a pair of sennheiser cx300s about 4 years ago and they were amazing (for their price), but since then they have changed the design and they have become more shitty and not as durable. i go through a pair of phones about once a year so i am reluctant to part my hard earned cash for a good pair (which would be $300+ here in australia) so i stick to the entry level ones. i would love a good pair of ultimate ears.

OGG is the best sounding with Apple's M4A. 320k of each cannot compare to a MP3 320. Unfortunately, the MP3 wins because it's most popular. M4A's only popular because of the iPod. WMA is pure sh*t... cannot even compare to a MP3.

Vorbis or MP3 are good choices IMO. MP3 takes advantage of the fact that you can't hear certain changes in pitch and such and that's what it loses. Some persons - as mentioned above - that are audiophiles will hear differences, but 320k is decent. You could try encoding to like 192k for a few files and see if it fits your needs.

For myself I rip my music to 192 or 256. I only go 320 VBR if it's something I like, and CBR if it's something I REALLY like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_audio_formats

Can also check that to see if it will help your decision.

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