On Sat, 2008-01-12 at 05:44 -0800, Michael A. Peters wrote: > Dean S. Messing wrote: > > I am thinking about buying a 160 GB iPod for my daughter for her > > approaching golden birthday (she's turning 18). > > > > I know _zero_ about iPods (or any other external device toys). > I've had excellent luck with gtkpod - but with brand new models, it > sometimes takes some time. > With respect to AAC - my experience is that Apple's AAC encoder is > better than faac (linux encoder) but it's been awhile. > > I myself just use lame to encode to mp3 - I use preset-standard and the > quality is fine, but if she has an excellent musical ear, she may want a > higher bitrate. I prefer to use mp3 because mp3 works with everything > out there. > > As far as how it compares with AAC - that's something audiophiles argue > about all the time. > I can't tell the difference between a 192VBR lame encoded MP3 and a > 192VBR quicktime (iTunes) encoded AAC. But I don't have a good musical > ear, let alone a trained good ear. ---- I might be inclined to agree with you except the default is to generally use 128 bits to encode mp3/aac and at that bit rate, aac is clearly better. In fact, I think it takes 192 bit rate for mp3 to get the quality of 128 bit rate aac at which point, the size equation is definitely slanted to aac. Craig
