M4A...AAC file format. Should I use it or MP3?

[Will Robinson]

Title says it all.
I've got a library of aproximately 17 gig's of mostly MP3's, some AAC (M4A's) from the iTunes store.

If I understand it correctly the AAC format is more readily compressed, possibly better 'sounding' but not playable by some players and not convertable into MP3 format.
Is that correct and should I just stick with MP3.

[STRESSTEST]

Since compatibility is one of your concerns, stick to MP3's It plays an almost everything now consumer level and sticking with a bit higher bitrates provides plenty of clarity

[MD-2389]

I agree with Bill. However, there are ways to convert AAC songs to mp3. That is, if you don't mind spending a dollar or two at Radio Shack for a single cable to run your audio output to your line-in jack and recording the audio output in your recording program of choice. Yes, you loose audio quality that way, but its a sure-fire way of doing it. There are also programs out there that remove DRM from AAC files, but they're in a legal grey area at the moment. I believe Nero Wave Editor can do it though.

[DCrazy]

If you have a portable player other than an iPod, check to see if it supports either FLAC or OGG. Otherwise, stick with MP3.

[Stryker]

OGG is a nice format, high-quality and smaller than MP3 (I think).

[Kyouryuu]

I like the OGG Vorbis format a lot as well. When I ripped my CDs, I converted all of them to OGG.

An OGG recording of the same song as an MP3 is generally larger. However, the difference is that OGG maintains a very high level of quality with a lower bitrate. So, a 192 kbps MP3 can be serviced by a 128 kbps OGG. I find OGG generally sounds "crisper" than MP3.

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is also supposed to be pretty good.