Digital Audio format for mp3 player

[dtess17]

Ok so i know i'm like 3 years behind the times, but i just got an iPod.
I was wondering what everyone thought is the best format to convert all my music too.
I've been using WMA lossless, but that is not supported.

i know there is the apple lossless format but i've been told it takes up a huge amount of space. So i am left with AAC encoding at different bit rates as high as 320 ( default is 128)
There is also AIFF encoding which i have never heard of. Or finally Mp3 with quality settings up to 320 default being 160

I'm looking to get the best quality i can without taking up a ton of room
any advice or suggestions is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[oVerCaffeinated]

I would probably use OGG at quality setting 6 or 7. Since the iPod doesn't support that I would just use LAME MP3 at --alt-preset standard. I'd rip it using EAC.

 

[dtess17]

I looked into Lame and EAC, i have already ripped my whole collection to WMA lossless. So now i need to convert to a format iPod will accecpt.

I wanted to stay away from 3rd party programs and just use one of the formats iTunes provides ( AAC AIFF, MP3, Apple Lossless ect.). My girlfriend will also be using this so i want to make this as simple as possible,

As of the moment i thinking that going at AAC @ 256kbps might be a good choice. Sound Quality sounded pretty good, and it did not take up too much space.


I have basically ruled out lossless format it takes up over double the space compaired to any of the other formats at the highest quality settings.