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[windrockwater]

I am doing some comparisons for the best possible audio for an iPod. So, regardless of how big the file size gets, can anyone tell me the absolute BEST settings for media center to transcode FLAC files to Mp3?

[pcstockton]

320 or V0

[pcstockton]

....and I think ALAC would be the best you could load your iPod with.

[glynor]

If you're crazy: ALAC
If you're less crazy: V0 or 320 CBR

If you're a realist: V2 will do it

[windrockwater]

Thanks for the tips.  I think I fall right below crazy to crazy.  Okay, so I found the recent posts showing how to use an external encoder (qaac) to transcode to ALAC.  I took the Ipod into my car to try on my new Alpine head unit and voila...much better sound than the VBR-Extreme setting that I was using before. I know this is a frequent conversation (quality vs compression).  But to me, in a car surrounded by 4 speakers, its a very noticeable difference.

Now I am trying:
--tvbr 123 -s %IN -o %OUT

To see how that compares.

I have 160gb Ipod on the way to replace my 4gb Nano. With that amount of space, I may do some math and see how much I can fit at ALAC settings. Or the slightly less crazy...

[sunfire7]

I think you are confusing ALAC and AAC.  The command line you posted is for qtaacenc, an encoder using Quicktime's AAC encoder.

ALAC = Lossless
AAC = Lossy

Maybe you are falling in a placebo effect, to avoid this do doble blind test.  Is your source a lossless file? if not, then is pointless to transcode it if you want maximun quality.

[windrockwater]

Thanks for the tips.  I have a entirely FLAC lossless MC library. I am experimenting with different ways to get very high quality playlists onto my Ipod.  Starting from the best quality possible (transcode from FLAC to ALAC???) and then working my way done to find a sweet spot.

I really do notice the differences typically between uncompressed files and compressed. So i am trying to figure out the best ways to get playlists on my ipod ranging from lossless to 'nearly' lossless.

Doesn't using the below encoder setting essentially start me off with Lossless playback on my iPod (FLAC ---> ALAC using qaac)??
-A -s %IN -o %OUT

Would this be the next step down from lossless (using mp3 encoder)?
-V 0 --vbr-new ?
or
-b 320 ?

Any suggestions? Thanks, this is kinda complex for a newb....For now I am leaning heavily on quality and am not worrying about file size...

[sunfire7]

ok I think now I understand you, you already tried alac and the command line you posted was the next below thing you are trying.

Would this be the next step down from lossless (using mp3 encoder)?
-V 0 --vbr-new ?
or
-b 320 ?

Next step is 320 cbr, but the difference in quality from v0 is very very little

Any suggestions? Thanks, this is kinda complex for a newb....For now I am leaning heavily on quality and am not worrying about file size...

If this is the case then stay with ALAC 

[glynor]

If you are still trying to do ALAC... I don't know the details, but it shouldn't be very hard to get the external encoder set up to transcode to ALAC.

Look for posts from AlexB.  I know he's posted detailed instructions before.