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Audio format of choice for streaming.


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What kind of format you are using to stream music on your home (FLAC, MP3, AAC, etc..) And at what bitrate?

Listening to music is the best pastime. DELL Inspiron 17 Windows 7 w/ Jriver 18 External HDD 1.5GB Seagate Audioengine D2 • Turntable ONKYO Dynamic Four 800 → ONKYO A-9000R + UWF-1 → JBL Studio 530 + JBL Sub 550P • SONY BDP S5100 → SONY KDL-46W905A • iPod Classic 160GB → FIIO E11→ Sennheiser HD650

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I would suggest the vast majority of people will use either a lossless compression format - FLAC or Apple Lossless (often refered to as ALAC) if using iTunes - or an uncompressed format - AIFF or WAV.

 

All of these should theoretically produce the same sound quality as all store the music in a way that allows it to be reconstructed fully by the playback software. Some people feel that FLAC/ALAC produce a lower sound quality to WAV/AIFF though this is a subjective view and you should experiment with both (the cost of experimenting is zero + your time).

 

Very few people will use MP3 or AAC which use lossy compression methods and reduce the quality by getting rid of information that theoretically you cannot hear/percieve. Given the relatively cheep availability of high capacity hard drives, using MP3 or AAC for home audio is a bad compromise.

 

Eloise

Eloise

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...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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What kind of format you are using to stream music on your home (FLAC, MP3, AAC, etc..) And at what bitrate?

 

Depends on device and what the file is. If it's ripped I like FLAC and AIFF and if it's a download it is usually FLAC. Obviously the bitrate is dependant on what the file is (ie. hires or cd quality) and in general the higher the better. If I am listening to a lesser streamer then it is usually FLAC because of it's nearly universal adoption within streamer hardware but if I am listening to a Linn streamer then I listen to AIFF when I can.

David

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I would add to what David said above as well. Most often the type of file you are going to use to stream (assuming you want it to stay bit perfect and don't want your wav's to play as mp3's) are going to be dependent not only on the hardware you are using to stream to, but also the software that is pulling the music from your HDD, NAS, or what have you. For instance, your streaming device may or may not support say ALAC. These would either need to be transcoded by the software (not ideal) or you would need to convert them to another format if you prefer that that they play in their native state. Some software supports only certain codecs. Some hardware supports certain codecs. Some software and hardware support certain codecs in certain situations and not in others. Some examples of this would be DTS wavs, multichannel Flac, or even uncompressed flac. Basically you need to figure out the lowest common denominator between your software and hardware and encode accordingly. It seems flac seems to share the widest support. Again it boils down to both the software and hardware you use.

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