[skyking376]

XBMC can read numerous formats. I only learned in the last month that .mp3 was a compressed format (total noob). So the first question is YES there is obviously a difference but unless I am a sound engineer or work for some fancy record label....does it really matter?

I believe the benefit to .mp3's was the size of the files? Is this correct?
What are the benefits to a noob like me to have "ORIGINAL UNCOMPRESSED SUPER DUPER XYZ...blah blah blah" music files?

I just want to make sure I am understanding things correctly because I think there might be this whole other world I am not aware of in regards to digital music formats. Also before I attempt to put music from disc to digital...I need to know what format to choose.

Thank you

[wes paich]

in these days of multi terabyte hdd's, there's not much reason to use a lossy compression like mp3. flac is lossless and will save all the metadata. you may not notice the difference, but since you haven't ripped your collection yet, i suggest flac or something similar (lossless). it does sound better.

[teeedubb]

I notice a big difference between mp3 and flac on my sound system and its definitely not the placebo effect. Treble is crisper, has more body and bass is not so muffled. I guess it all depends on what you're going to be listening to the music on - you probably won't notice the difference on portable or mobile phone/tablet speakers but you will with decent equipment. I rip it all to flac and convert it to aac for mobile devices.

[skyking376]

I only heard of ".flac" when I found out that .mp3 was a compressed format, until then never knew of the file type!

Sounds like .flac is the way to go then. For my setup (speakers and such) it probably wouldn't matter with just .mp3's but if I am going to do it, do it right the first time and never do it again, right?

.flac....here I come

thanks for the input