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You can use many compressed formats for good or even transparent quality. What formats and how is a long story and I am not going to write it here. I will only describe what I have decided to do.

I have nearly 20000 music files in my collection; some are old, some recently ripped. The old ones are in high quality VBR MP3 format. Recently I started to rip to Monkey's Audio format. But now I think it uses too much hard drive space in everyday use (including backups). Files are also too big for using with Media Server (I have a 4 Mbit connection to my office and seeking large APE files is not working very well).

Now I have decided to do next: I rip to Monkey's Audio, scan cover art images and tag the files. Then I convert the APE files to Ogg Vorbis format and leave only the OGG files in the library. I archive the APE files to CDR or DVDR disks for later use.

I use the newest v.1.1.0 Vorbis encoder. I have replaced the older encoder (oggenc.exe) in the MC plugins folder with it.

I have this setting in MC encoding options (Encoding Type & Quality, Encoder: Ogg Vorbis, Quality: Custom -> Advanced):

-q9 --advanced-encode-option impulse_noisetune=-15

The setting makes quite big variable bitrate files, averaging about 270-370 kbps (depending on the source material). For me the files are transparent. I really can't here any difference with the original CD. (I have an audiophile soundcard and I play my music through a high quality separate amp and speakers). Those files have also enough quality for transcoding to 192 kbps MP3 for car and portable use.

Vorbis encoder from www.rarewares.org.
Oggenc2.3 using libVorbis 1.1.0 with IMPULSE_TRIGGER_PROFILE Option 2004-09-24, ICL 7.1 compiles:

Pentium 3 / AMD (270Kb)   Pentium 4 only (260Kb)

Technical information about encoding formats and quality: http://hydrogenaudio.org/forums


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To be honest, I dont care about harddisk space, because it is already becoming so cheap. What I care much more about is my time re-ripping lossy fromats at a later time into lossless!

Therefore I continue to use APE and I am very, very happy with this format. It is easy, fast and you do get quite acceptable compression WITHOUT ANY LOSS OF DATA!!

I know, we humans are not supposed to hear certain low and high frequences. However, just compare a lossy file (even at a high bitrate and using an excellent encoder (lame) and compare that to a lossless APE compressed file on a good hifi system. Try it out with demaning music (not just a soft piano peace or slow jazz) and you will be amazed about the difference !!

Therefore my advise: Dont move to lossy formats just because of the higher diskspace this takes up. You might regret doing so at some later stage!

BB

I know, we humans are not supposed to hear certain low and high frequences. However, just compare a lossy file (even at a high bitrate and using an excellent encoder (lame) and compare that to a lossless APE compressed file on a good hifi system. Try it out with demaning music (not just a soft piano peace or slow jazz) and you will be amazed about the difference !!

This is a can-of-worms topic, but just as a data point, I've done a blind comparison between 160 Kbps WMA and uncompressed WAV, and I couldn't tell the difference. Chalk this up to my tin ear, if you like, because my sound system should be plenty good enough to show the faults in the compression.

I basically agree with you that disk space is so cheap that ripping to APE is a compelling choice. But even "cheap" disk space adds up when you need hundreds of gig, which many would, given the size of thier collections. I've been very tempted to move to APE for a long time, but it would easily fill my 60 gig hard drive, and the minimal-or-no gain in sound quality isn't enough, to me, to justify an extra $200 for another drive.

A GB of storage costs less than $1 now and you can use it to store about 3 CD's in APE format, so the cost of storing a CD in APE format is around 25 cents and dropping.

Why would you not spend 25 cents to rip a CD that cost more than $10?  If you could afford the CD's over time, it seems that you could afford the drive(s) over time.

what is a very good format to use to save on space but yet keep quality?

This really depends on the genres of music you listen to.

If its very instrumental like classic or has lots of strings, i think you might have to use a lossless format like APE.

If the music you listen to is electronic based then you get very well get away with mp3s or vorbis.