So as a Radiohead fan I will be certainly downloading their new album on Saturday. For those of you more computer-savy then I am, is it worth the extra 3 dollars or so for the WAV type of DL over the normal MP3 format? I assume both can work on iPods/any MP3 player?

Thanks for any answers in advance. I just don't want to spend the extra 3-4 dollars if the quality is negligible (if it's anything but "no difference that the human ear can hear" I would rather buy the WAV as I'm quite picky with the quality of my music) or end up having to buy the MP3 if the WAV for whatever reason doesn't work with iPods

I don't know if .wav works with iPods or not, but if I were you, I'd just buy the mp3....It's my experience that you can hear a slight difference, but it is slight. And, .wav files are HUGE. It sounds like you're taking a chance if .wav will not work with an iPod. Go with the largest bit rate an iPod can handle....maybe 192? I honestly don't know what iPod formats are.

I typically start out with wav files in music production and burn to CD audio, but when I encode to mp3, yes, I can hear a difference, but it's small, and you have to really listen for it.

$3 extra for the whole album? Then yes, it's worth it.

WAV is a completely uncompressed file format, therefore you get every wavelength (and every nuance).

MP3 removes the majority of the parts that we don't really hear or can't differentiate easily when it does the compression. And the more compressed it is, the more it takes out. So a 320 kbps MP3 will sound... Almost exactly like a CD. 192 kbps will sound pretty good on most sound systems. 128 kbps will sound fine on most portable systems, but the difference is clear on home theatre systems. Any lower than that and you should definitely not be paying a whiff for it.

I'd tell you get the wav and convert it to FLAC, but you have a smelly iPod and Apple refuses to support what is the de facto lossless codec (and they could implement royalty-free)

That said, wav is supported by Apple's crap line of PMPs. It being lossless means you can convert it into any format you wish as well without any loss of quality.

If you find that an IPod will play it, go for it. But you need to make sure, or you will only be able to play it on your puter.

When you're ready to get off your high throne of "I Hate Apple" then you can help :laugh:

I should have mentioned that I have 7 dollars in my bank account right now, so to whoever mocked me about the 3 dollars extra, it is a big deal because I hate borrowing a penny from anyone I know. It's just a thing I have but the less I have to borrow the better

I figured the Mp3 wouldn't be all that bad. I assume any Cd I've ever exported to iTunes would give me the same quality I'm gonna get with the MP3 DL so I'll go with that one. Thanks y'all

EDIT: Meh, honestly, I'll just get the MP3 format. I don't have the time to be messing around with this kind of stuff. I don't want to hear "But it'll take only a second" or anything. I just don't want to. Thanks for the input though.

This.

You can listen to it as a .wav on your puter, then encode it to whatever format the iPod will handle.

That's why you convert them to http://flac.sourceforge.net/.

As much as I love music, if it were me, I wouldn't DL somebody else's .WAV. MP3 is good enough for me. That being said, when I produce my own music I always begin with .WAV.

YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY !

MP3 it is! Thanks every one, this can be closed now so people don't start bashing iPods, which is something I was worried about

Closed by request

Greetz,

Milt