WMA, WMA Pro, or WMA Lossless?

[Hellhog]

I need helping figuring out what format I should rip my music to. I've done some research online for the differences between WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless, MP3, and WAV but I want others' opinions. Before hand I had all my CDs ripped using WMA (192kbps). This was so that I could add them to my Zune (8GB). I do have some MP3s from both Amazon (256kbps) and Zune Marketplace (320kpbs) however I only buy MP3s online if I only want one song from an album or the album is digital only (like my Mass Effect 2 or Red Dead Redemption soundtracks). (I hate digital distribution with a passion by the way). I rescently was having issues with my computer and formatted my HDD doing a clean re-install of my OS (Vista 32bit). I backed up my MP3s (since they are DRM-free one time purchase only) but left my CD rips to be wiped away.

Now I need to go through and rip about 45 CDs again but I'm not sure which format to rip to. I think I want to archive my music now to backup so that I'll never have to rip my CDs again or for easy transport for when I get additional/new PC's. I only use two different softwares for my music. Windows Media Player (for pre-rip editing, ripping, checking bit rates & DRM, and rating) and Zune Software (for post-rip editing, combining multi-disc albums into one, and listening to the music). I listen to my music on my Xbox 360 as well through media streaming from either Media Player or Zune Software. If I understand it right, barely any hardware out supports all 3 formats of WMA but all Xbox 360s and Zunes do support it (which for me is good since I like generally use Microsoft products).

The trouble though is in which format I should rip to. I want top quality music but I don't want to have to rip each CD twice (1 for archiving and 1 for my Zune). I only have 8GB free space on my Zune and I often use about 0.5GB for Podcasts. Before hand I had everything ripped to WMA (192kbps) and that took roughly 4GBs of space. That being said, if I rip everything to WMA Lossless (470-940kbps) I will definetly not have the room for all my music on my Zune until I upgrade to a larger size which won't be happening anytime soon. I don't want to rip to WAV since it takes too much memory and isn't really hardware supported or MP3 (320kbps) since it also takes a lot of memory compared to WMA/WMA Pro.

So for those that have used these three different formats, what are your experiences with each? Can you tell any noticable differences between the three WMA formats? What are your prefereces? What is your recomendation for myself [rip to WMA (192kbps), WMA Pro (192kbps), or WMA Lossless. Or should I just take the time to archive WMA Lossless and rip one of the two 192kbps formats for my Zune]? Thank you for all and any help, sorry for the long post, I ramble.

[Zman2k2]

While not exactly the same situation, I just spent the better part of a week re-ripping my CD collection to Apple's Lossless file system. I got a new iPhone with a much larger memory, and wanted to get my audio in the best possible sound. I have 1100 songs on my iPhone now, and have 5Gigs of space left from the initial 32.

As for quality of sound, I've never used the lowest quality. I just never liked the sound of it. I found it muddy and lacking in detail. I've used Apple Plus before, which is 256kbps, and it was okay for sound detail, but obviously, like you said, takes up more space.

Personally, in your position, I would rip with WMApro, the 320kbps option. It's a decent compromise between sound quality, and file size. If space weren't a concern, then I would say WMA Lossless, but WMApro should do you just fine.

[Hellhog]

Thanks for the help. I guess if anything I'll use WMA Pro. The highest bit rate I can rip to for both WMA or WMA Pro is 192kbps. So, either way it is the same amount of memory. Supposedly WMA Pro can support an unlimited amount of channels and has better compression algorithms than WMA. However, it is the least supported of all the formats. I can't even rip to WMA Pro in Zune Software, only WMA, WMA (variable bit), WMA Lossless, or MP3.

To be honest, I never did notice a differnce between my WMA (192kbps), MP3 (256kbps), MP3 (320kbps), or even some of the really low quality bit rates like game rips of old Xbox/PS2 soundtracks that average as much as 160-192kbps MP3s.

If anyone has actually had experience with the different WMA formats please let me know your thoughts.

[Chevypower]

Well I like AIFF, so I put that first. My entire CD collection is in AIFF 16 Bit stereo 44.1 Khz on my iTunes (uncompressed, CD quality). All the artwork is attached, you can't do that on WAV. 2nd I would put WAV (same audio quality as AIFF), then Lossless formats.

[Djnx]

Hellhog:

You can find what format and bitrate suits you the best on your own. Just perform an ABX test.

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

Even with high quality headphones or speakers, Wma Pro 10 is transparent at 128 kbps. Even then, the most practical thing to do would be to rip all your cds in any lossless format and archive them, then convert those to your favorite format and bitrate and when a better format or version comes up, you just convert the lossless files again without having to rip the cds all over again.

Also, if you listen to music with your xbox which is quite noisy and use your zune mostly outside home or in areas with a decent amount of noise floor you might even want to try 96 kbps.

[Versatil]

Why don't you use AAC (m4a) 192 - 320 kbps?
It's Xbox 360 compatible and must be with your Zune too.

In my opinion, it's the best lossy codec out there.