If you are new to digital music it can be confusing trying to determine what format and bit rate are best for you. Our job at Shift My Music is to make digital easy for you so the following table presents a quick guide along with our recommendations.
| Describe your audio usage |
Playback device |
Recommended format |
| Casual listener |
iPod or MP3 player (via headphones) |
MP3 at 192kbps |
| Casual listener |
Via my stereo or home theatre |
MP3 at 320 kbps |
| Audiophile - I demand the best! |
Multiple devices |
Dual format: MP3 at 192kbps plus a Lossless format of your choice |
If you want to know more about formats and bit-rates, please read on...
The format you choose will determine what devices you can play your music on, while the bitrate determines the size and quality of the digital music file.
MP3 (MPEG Layer III) is by far the most popular digital audio compression format because it creates smaller files by eliminating sounds that our human ears can't hear or easily pick up, MP3 is also universally playable on pretty much any device.
WMA (Windows Media Audio) is Microsoft's proprietary audio codec and plays in Windows Media Player and on many universal media players, but not on iPods. While AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is Apple's proprietary audio codec and plays on iPods, but not on Microsoft-based media centers. Both claim competitive sound quality at lower bit rates.
If you want to keep a perfect copy of your original CD then a 'lossless' format is for you. Lossless formats (such as WAV, FLAC and WMA Lossless) do not eliminate any part of the original recording, as such the file sizes are large compared to MP3. Many customers choose a dual format option and keep a lossless archive plus MP3 format to play on their portable devices.
If you have any questions or need help choosing the best format and bitrate please feel free to email info@shiftmymusic.co.nz
