3 replies to this topic

[pseudoUFO]

I was wondering if anyone has compared the 2 in terms of sound quality?
I have used both recording methods when i rip a CD and I can't tell the difference between them.. It is my understanding that the lossless codec, that Windows Media 9 untilizes, is just that. It's supposed to give a mirror image of the audio being extracted from the CD itself (mathematically 'lossless' recording all the way up to 1075kbps), but I'm a little skeptical of this claim. Reason being, the size for each track when I rip to hard drive using Alcohol 120%, is substantially larger. I'm guessing this would mean more information being extracted vs. the "somewhat" smaller files that the lossless codec writes.

Comments, anyone??

Edited by pseudoUFO, 02 May 2004 - 10:10 PM.

[gunner007]

CloneCD's Rip is a bit for bit copy of the data as it was on the CD. Same for Alcohol.

If your talking WMP9 Lossless that you do through WMP, it's pretty much like zip for music.

It basically rips a bit by bit copy and compresses it down much like a zip file. File sizes are large, but are usually smaller by 5-10 MB or so. Really no difference. If you are ripping a straight wav file from alcohol, that's a bit for bit copy. They quality of a WAV and a lossless codec will be too similar.

You gain a few MB here, but the CPU load to decode the WMP9 Lossless is higher than playing back a normal WAV file.

If you're archiving, there's plenty of better lossless codecs out there that let you compress it to a certain type, and then go back to the original wav file you started out with.

Hope that answers your question. Kind of went off topic.

[IGL]

if you want lossless quality with reasonable small filesizes, try 'monkeys audio codec'

[pseudoUFO]

Thanks for the replies!

I should have clarified my question more.. So, please allow me to rephrase:

*If I were to rip a CD to hard drive utilizing the 2 formats listed below..

1. CloneCD Image File

2. Windows Media 9 Lossless .WMA file


And If I were to burn 2 CD's using both files. Which CD would give the best fidelity and sound quality? The CloneCD, or the .WMA with lossless?

My guess is the difference between the 2 CD's would be negligible at best.


Thanks for your patience with me regarding this rather silly question.

Edited by pseudoUFO, 04 May 2004 - 01:40 PM.