@JC
Very well explained, kudos to you!
In addition to what he said, in defense of mp3s, EAC & LAME in it's current state is one of the most secure ways of ripping music. That's because EAC (Exact Audio Copy) has what it calls Secure mode, which actively searches for errors and corrects them while ripping. Meaning even your most scratched cds have a chance at a new life. iTunes seems to have a similar feature, but EAC has yielded much better recovery rates for me. And the current LAME version (3.97beta1) is excellent, as it encodes much faster and has a lower filesize at the same settings as my previously posted version (see above).
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=28124
And most importantly, LAME is the BEST mp3 encoder quality-wise out there, as proven by countless ABX blind tests (it's a test to see if people recognize which is the Original CD and which is the encoded one). In comparison to AAC, LAME mp3s are much more dynamic in their choice of portables (eg. those that don't support AAC), has a more intelligent VBR encoding capability (meaning better compression at no extra cost of quality), and more flexibility. Though admittedly, it is a bit harder to setup than a simple iTunes rip, it is definitely worth it in the end. Another thing: After ripping an encoding with EAC+LAME, I recommend using mp3gain (works with AACs too) to equalize volume AND remove clipping (makes music distort when EQ settings are too high, this applies to ALL file formats AAC, MP3, OGG, WAV ), and finally, using TAG & RENAME (which also works with AACs) for easily obtaining album art by batches thgough Amazon (much easier than dragging them one-by-one in iTunes), and adding ALL the tags you need (such as Lyrics, Comments, etc). Good luck in you pursuits! May the audio gods bless you! 😀
