I read about all the different formats and speeds people seem to be using and wonder if there is a good reason not to use 64 kbps wma files instead of 128 kbps mp3 if they both sound acceptable and the literature claims the clip can hold about twice the number of the wma as the mp3 of these types. I am preparing to rip music to put on clip and am confused what to use and do not wish to do all the work only to find later I should have done differently. I am a casual listener of mostly pop, country, some light classical, and no rock or jazz, and use the supplied ear buds. On some sample songs I cannot hear any difference in 64 wma to 320 mp3 that make my types of music sound undesirable at one or the other and I am seeking to get as many songs on clip as possible. I have read most all the posts concerning this and am trying to decide but as soon as I am convinced one way I see posts that seem to indicate the other way.
Is there any final general conclusion on this? How can so wide a range still be acceptable? Right now i am considering 64kbps wma as opposed to 128 kbps mp3. But hoestly both do seem to sound the same. I am ripping with WMP11. Would like some opinions and reasons.
I read about all the different formats and speeds people seem to be using and wonder if there is a good reason not to use 64 kbps wma files instead of 128 kbps mp3 if they both sound acceptable and the literature claims the clip can hold about twice the number of the wma as the mp3 of these types. I am preparing to rip music to put on clip and am confused what to use and do not wish to do all the work only to find later I should have done differently. I am a casual listener of mostly pop, country, some light classical, and no rock or jazz, and use the supplied ear buds. On some sample songs I cannot hear any difference in 64 wma to 320 mp3 that make my types of music sound undesirable at one or the other and I am seeking to get as many songs on clip as possible. I have read most all the posts concerning this and am trying to decide but as soon as I am convinced one way I see posts that seem to indicate the other way.
Is there any final general conclusion on this? How can so wide a range still be acceptable? Right now i am considering 64kbps wma as opposed to 128 kbps mp3. But hoestly both do seem to sound the same. I am ripping with WMP11. Would like some opinions and reasons.
If you’re using the supplied earbuds, and you’re a casual listener, then you’re right, you don’t need the 320kbps. If the 64 wma’s and 128 mp3’s sound the same to you, the next question is, what size Clip do you have?
The new firmware update, avaialble as of right now, supports 4,000 songs. Now for me, 4,000 songs is about 20GB, but at 128 or 64, I’m not sure how much that would be, but certainly a whole heck of a lot less. Another thing to consider is that wma’s eat a little more battery power for the Clip to play, compared to mp3.
I commend you on planning ahead a little better than I did last year…I ended up re-ripping a ton of CD’s after learning more…so kudos to you.
@bbrev7 wrote:
Another thing just occurred to me. Should I re-rip the 320 kbps files or should I convert them using CDex151??
Generally, you’re better off re-ripping, because you lose quality when you convert a “lossy” file to “lossy” file. However, if you’re ok with the sound of 64kbps wma and 128 mp3, you might not hear the difference. It’s up to you, but if you’ve only done a few CD’s so far, you might as well re-rip.
As far as your different clips…do you just plan to listen to music with them? Or do you see yourself getting into podcasts or audiobooks at any point?
Basically only listen to music from my own Cds. I find a song that is 128 mp3 to be 7.5 MB while the same file as wma is 1.52 MB. Seems to me if they sound about the same i could get a lot more wma files on there in wma. Battery thing might be a consideration though. Havent found mine to leak power with no use but I found one that read 92% yeaterday read 100% this morning after just sitting. Thought this was strange. Im not sure the CDex that I saw in a post actually does this conversion, but I am downloading some others. I have 120 songs that are 320 mb3 and i think i will try converting a few to wma 64 and comparing on the Clip.
Basically only listen to music from my own Cds. I find a song that is 128 mp3 to be 7.5 MB while the same file as wma is 1.52 MB. Seems to me if they sound about the same i could get a lot more wma files on there in wma. Battery thing might be a consideration though. Havent found mine to leak power with no use but I found one that read 92% yeaterday read 100% this morning after just sitting. Thought this was strange. Im not sure the CDex that I saw in a post actually does this conversion, but I am downloading some others. I have 120 songs that are 320 mb3 and i think i will try converting a few to wma 64 and comparing on the Clip.
I was going to say, if you got into podcasts, the one gig just for them.At one point my 2GB Clip was about 2/3 wma, 1/3 mp3, and with that file mix I was getting around 11 hours of playtime out of a battery. Just mp3, you would do better, but again, fewer songs. Next question…would you normally play album by album, or shuffle through all the songs? I might suggest shuffle for your 8GB model , you’d have the biggest variety to choose from, so less chance of repeats. Then maybe your smallerClips, have just your most favorite CD’s on. Again though , experiment with what you like…I’ve heard of people with lots of Clips that had one band one one clip, another band on one Clip, etc. Enjoy!
