ATRAC3plus or Mp3

[gman_g]

Hello,

I just bought the NW-HD5 (being shipped) and I was wondering if it was better to convert my songs to ATRAC3Plus or MP3. From what I read and what I've heard ATRAC3Plus has a sonic advantage over MP3.

I'm trying to maximize the amount of songs I can put on the 20 gigs without losing sound quality. I was thinking to use ATAC3plus 64kbps.

I'm open to your suggestions.

Thanks!

[Ryzir]

Atrac3+ sounds a lot better to me, especially at lower bitrates.

[pata2001]

Yeah, Atrac3/3+ sounds better at lower bitrates vs MP3 at the same low bitrates. However, you have 20GB of space, and at higher bitrates, you probably won't notice the difference. I would just go with MP3, using Lame 3.97b1 (the new recommended version at hydrogenaudio) --preset fast standard. The result will be pretty much trasparent compared to the original CD. Why MP3? Because you then can play the MP3s with any software and any players, if you buy other DAPs. With Atrac, you're locked to Sony players. I would pick atrac only if you need gapless.

[Dimitri]

I would do what he^ said, though you may want to do a blind test of lame vbr vs. Hi-SP to make sure one doesn't sound better to you. I do think Sony's hardware mp3 decoders aren't quite on par. Personally, I thought mp3's sounded slightly better on the wife's ipod than on my vaio pocket, though they do still sound good. If gapless is important, then Atrac it is. If not, and both sound good to your ears, stick with mp3 for compatibility purposes.

[Dinko]

You might also go for atrac because of battery life. Sony likes atrac because its energy efficient, and from personal experience, I've found that to be true. ATRAC3 or ATRAC3plus typically allows me to play music on a Sony device for a lot longer than using mp3 files.

[Dimitri]

For like bitrates, I found ATRAC to be more energy efficient. Comparing use of my lame vbr files (~200kbps) versus ATRAC Hi-SP (256kbps) there was not much of a difference on my Vaio, perhaps because of the additional hard drive usage on the larger Hi-SP files? Your HD5 has double the battery life than my Vaio so maybe this isn't much of an issue for you.

[Fadetoblack]

it depends very much upon your lifestyle. I myself keep my music on computer as mp3 so i have the option of burning discs, but keep them as atrac3+ on the unit to maximise battery life and fit more songs in.

[imagine_]

Of course, remember that these comparisons are assuming that you have the original CD media. If you convert from MP3 to atrac3, you will be losing sound quality no matter what.