Seeking Best Sound Quality

[The Empty Way]

I am backing up my CD collection to Atrac CDs for playback in my new car deck (CDX-S2210). I prefer the sound quality of the 256 bit rate versus the disc space savings of lower bit rates. I have begun this project by importing tracks from CDs (using SS3.2) directly to the 256 bit rate and then transferring them to Atrac CD at 256 bit rate. I have also tried importing tracks directly to the newer 320 bit rate, but of course currently, 256 bit rate is the max allowed when creating an Atrac CD and so tracks are converted to 256 bit rate when transferred. So I'm not sure there is much point in doing the 320 bit rate upon import.

OK... I have rambled on, this is really just a general question now at this point:

When importing tracks from a standard audio CD (harddrive space not an issue) and then transferring them to Atrac CD with a 256 target bit rate, will I have audibly better sound if I import to .wav first or is it no different importing to 256 bit rate first and then transferring?

I wouldn't mind if it takes longer for the conversion process upon transferring if importing to .wav first would truly give notably better audio quality.

I didn't list my specs only because this is hopefully just a general question from a relative noob. Not an actual support question.

[pata2001]

I would rip your CDs using EAC secure rip first instead of directly ripping using SS. This will avoid skips/pops/crackles due to bad rip (not due to bad encoding). Using EAC, you can rip to WAV, then have SS encode the WAV file. What you loose is gapless, not important since Sony AtracCD car decks cannot play AtracCD gaplessly anyway.

IMO, use MP3. AtracCD is a dead end format. The CD is not playable in any devices except AtracCD players, and you cannot copy back the tracks. MP3 Lame 3.97b1 --preset standard will give you good result. For listening in the car, I can even use the setting -V 5 in Lame without noticing any differences.

[The Empty Way]

I would rip your CDs using EAC secure rip first instead of directly ripping using SS. This will avoid skips/pops/crackles due to bad rip (not due to bad encoding). Using EAC, you can rip to WAV, then have SS encode the WAV file. What you loose is gapless, not important since Sony AtracCD car decks cannot play AtracCD gaplessly anyway.

IMO, use MP3. AtracCD is a dead end format. The CD is not playable in any devices except AtracCD players, and you cannot copy back the tracks. MP3 Lame 3.97b1 --preset standard will give you good result. For listening in the car, I can even use the setting -V 5 in Lame without noticing any differences.

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I appreciate the suggestion. Atrac may be obscure and potentially dead end indeed. The car deck was on sale at a good price and the Atrac CD capability seemed kind of neat since I had been using my HiMD with a cassette adapter a lot in my older, cassette playing deck. I thought it would be convenient to be able to copy or transfer the Atrac3plus files from my minidiscs and make Atrac CDs. BUT, in this whole process, I decided to make Atrac CDs from scratch using my original CDs. This lead me to my question that started this thread.

So, you answered my primary question initially by leading me to the conclusion that for overall best sound quality I should rip initially to .wav. From here though, your suggestion led me to experiment and instead of using the exact software you suggested, I used some slightly more user friendly, but nearly as highly recommended softwares: CDex & WinLAME. I must say... the results are astonishly fine and I wind up with 192kbps mp3s that sound every bit as good as Atrac3plus @ 256. And in some ways even better actually and I can fit a bit more sound onto a CD-R as well. I got a very rich sound and less distortion (less need to turn down the bass when cranking it up for example) with the resultant mp3s.

Ultimately, I am going to rip all my CDs to .wav using this CDex. This way I have the flexibility to compress to Atrac or mp3 or whatever may come our way with time. I must admit, that for my new car deck, the mp3 CDs may very well be the way to go for me and the Atrac3plus may just stay with my HiMD.

Thanks again for your honest reply. It saved me from ripping around 200 CD's straight to the Atrac format. I can burn the .wav's to DVDs and never have to backup my Audio CDs again!

OK... So I'm a little slow, but I catch on. And yes.. I tend to ramble on a bit when I am new to a forum... lol. Thanks for the toleration.