I know this has been done to death, and as long as I've been around here I should know the outcome of this post. Still, i need some sound advice on sound. One could say, I need some sound sound advice.
Right now I am ripping my CD collection to WMA9 320kbps. Firstly, please no remarks about "use lossless" or "placebo above 192kbps" etc. Im doing this mainly because I am trying to get the closest to lossless by way of using a lossy compression, and I dont have the harddrive space to rip my whole collection to WAV. This is mainly for the sake of portable use and what not. Ill still keep my CD's, and given the way HDD prices drop considerably every year, I'll be able to afford more space in the future. So I may in the distant future, rip everything to WAV. For now though, I want to conserve space but get the highest quality sound I can get. Which brings up my next question.
I've read a lot about Vorbis and its sound quality. I've also read a lot about WMA9 and its sound quality. From my own ears, it sounds as if they are both nearly identical. I would almost go as far to say that the differences, which Im sure exist, are out of human hearing range. My question is merely a question of opinion. I know there's already one pro to Vorbis, that being it is open source, but are there others. What are your opinions.
I'll say right now, I think the only thing keeping me from using Vorbis is that the OGG format is not widely supported in the portable player arena. So, are there other things I should know about?