Best lossy and lossless formats

[MayDay94]

here's what i have and use:
-ipod (old mini and plan to get a new nano or touch)
-xbox360 hooked up to h/k receiver and infinity speakers
-itunes
-wmp 11
-adobe photoshop essentials 4/premiere 3
-bunch of cd's (250+)

I'd like to rip my music to one format that works everywhere, but it doesn't look like that will happen. i'd prefer a lossless format, particularly for my stereo. however, streaming music from pc to xbox, the xbox doesn't seem to be able to handle any lossless formats like wma lossless, wav or apple lossless. it does support regular aac, wma and mp3. xbox did just release a new update last night with new codecs (divx) so i'll try again tonight and see if any difference in lossless decoding compatibility.

with that being said, i'd like to rip all my music to the best lossy format. i've read a lot about aac vs mp3 and while aac appears better (i still need to do some sound tests of my own), most comparisons are at lower bitrates. if i choose a lossy format, i will do max bitrate of 320.

1) so, is there a difference between aac@320 and mp3@320? if not, i would probably rip mp3 since more widely accepted. if there is an audible difference, i'd probably lean towards aac.

the only real downside to aac is i can't use it in my adobe applications for slideshows and homemade dvd's. it only accepts mp3, mwa and wav. however, aac works fine on xbox, ipod and pc (itunes).

2) can wmp11 play aac files? by default it won't, but is there a codec i can download for it? since ms plays aac on xbox with a special download, i figured they would have the same for wmp11.

 

[uncle_ben]

ACC is nothing to write home about, it is default iTunes settings and that is the source of its popularity. FLAC is better. I use VBR mp3 because it is widely supported and you can hardly tell the difference

 

[jaguarskx]

I currently use Ogg Vorbis, but I will be switching to FLAC very soon.

 

[MayDay94]

i would like to try FLAC as well but the xbox and ipods don't support it. i was able to wirelessly stream wma lossless last night from my pc to xbox360. i previously had trouble playing wma lossless off my thumbdrive so perhaps the new xbox update last night improved audio support as well as video. i'll try apple lossless tonight and see if that now works.

 

[Pogotron]

OGG delivers great sound quality with very considerable compression. Far better than MP3. MP3 is rubbish, it's like the RapidShare of audio formats in that it sucks but every single person uses it.

 

[danmarhk]

I know that FLAC and WMA are far better choices than MP3.
However, nowadays MP3 players are of very large capacity.
We don't need a very high compression ratio in most cases.
With low compression ratio, the difference in sound quality of the formats is not easy to tell, or unnoticeable in my case.
Therefore, I simply use MP3 and WMA (CBR) only, for the most compatibility.

 

[jaguarskx]

Therefore, I simply use MP3 and WMA (CBR) only, for the most compatibility.

I wish I could be as indifferent as you, but the audiophile side of me demands a flash player that supports FLAC. Therefore, there's only a small handful of DAPs that I am looking at.