Am I correct that the only "lossless" i.e. perfect CD quality, download format is WAV?

If not, please briefly explain how to get the highest quality (for archive and final playback over high-end home audio system).

Thanks

So are you saying any format at 320 bitrate, or should I stick to one or more specific file formats as the source download?

Does this mean there is very little WAV available to download?

Do you have suggestions about clients and/or sites and/or searches where I will find a good inventory of very high quality music files to download?

Thanks again!

Sorry, but no.

It depends on what kind of wav it is. It depends on the frequency (in Hz), if it's 16 bit or 8 bit, and if it's mono or stereo. So the "lossless" kind of wav would be of 48KHz, stereo, 16 bit, or a 320 Kbps mp3.

Ivan
"In the dark we make a brighter light"

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128 bit mp3 is about 1 minut per 1 meg, and the higher bit rate the bigger the file, I preferd 192 bit and higher myself, I using 192 in my living room, and it's good for general listning, but if you using head set you will hear the diffrents. You can just take a mp3 file at 128 and the the same song in 254 and listen to them while you switching between them. You will hear a big diffrents, the 256 is much clearer.
And remeber have fun!!!

Ok here is a dumb question.... what program using .ape format. Is it mac format? Is it new? Which company did intruduce it? Is the quality as good as .wav?

There is a product out there called the Ape Jukebox and it has it's own format said to be more lossless than MP3... here is the home page Ape Jukebox

As I said, it depends on what kind of wav it is, as it can be compressed as well as mp3s, althogh they usually aren't.

Ivan
"In the dark we make a brighter light"

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Thanks, Bobo. I will go and check it out.

Standard audio CD has always been 44.1Khz. 48Khz is higher quality, and used on DVDs (it's most certainly not older or a dinosaur).


Lossless formats include:
WAV, FLAC (.FLA), ape. There are a few others, but none I know of are too popular.

Anyhow, why do you want lossless files? Files need to be smaller to share them, smaller is basically always more useful for storage or transfer.... The higher quality formats are really indistinguishable from the originals at a bitrate far lower than lossless. That is why they are shared.

[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]And to think, this discussion got here because of the simple concept of what is "lossless"!!

...well since I started this thread, I will respond...:

The reason one would "want lossless files?" is because one wants to preserve/archive/collect/listen to music WITHOUT LOSS. Why is that a strange idea? For a short time longer, we are fortunate to live in a SHARING community, before the laws are changed. Since this is bound to change, and technology is unquestionably going to change, now it the time to "share" content...and in the highest quality possible. Why would one want to waste their time sharing thousands of songs in a format (MP3) that will (or is already) obsolete, just so they can play it on their portable player...or save some hard disk space? For me, I would rather share/own/archive content in a format that will be worth saving...LOSSLESS. I do not understand why one would spent one's time on anything else?

Yes, one can get carried away...some of the SHN format groups seem a bit neurotic, but their goal is valid: LOSSLESS i.e. as good as original…again, why would one want less than that? Hard drive and CD-r is soo cheap!! What’s the issues? Quality is all that matters. Once you have that, you can copy to high compression formats to play on portable players, etc. However, the opposite is NOT true... if you start with "lossy" copy, you can never go back!!!

Are we talking about the cost of storage (CD-R= pennies, HD = $1.00/Gig) I assure you, this is nothing compared to what the studios have in store for all of us...PAY PER /VIEW/LISTEN.

Enough said. Anyone interested in sharing lossless (APE, SHN, WAV, Etc, or at least meaningful lossy, e.g. 320 MP3), please contact me...vze26nxy@verizon.net.

Thanks