For sound quality WAV & FLAC are your best options. Downside is, they take a lot of space on your harddrive. I think most people use 320kbps MP3 files, they take a little space, and sound great. Some can hear the diffrence between those formats, most people can't. It also depends on how good the soundsystem is your playing on, if you can hear any difference.

Note that FLAC is NOT supported in Scratchlive.

It also isnt supported in itunes. I will keep using WAV then because that is the format i have used so far. I can tell the difference between a wav and 320 mp3 myself. So when ripping cds i always rip as WAV

WAV is a good way to go. Upside is that it is uncompressed so there are no artifacts created by the compression into an MP3, downside is that it is uncompressed, so the files are huge.

If you want to hear the difference between an MP3 and a WAV, and you have a DAW software like protools, import the songs into protools in both formats (must be the same file, one compressed and one uncompressed), line them up perfectly, hit the polarity switch on one of the tracks so that they cancel each other out, and listen to the distortion/clicks and pops from the MP3 file. It's kind of like looking at something under a microscope; at first it makes no difference to you because you can't see it, but there are some really nasty germs and microbes and shit when you look up close.

Like I mentioned in another thread, ALAC works well in Scratch Live and gives you:

1) same quality as the source (lossless compression)
2) ability to store tag data in files
3) significant space savings compared to WAV or AIFF

How does ALAC save space compared to a wav when it is also uncompressed?

Because ALAC uses "lossless" compression. Meaning the file sizes are smaller, generally around 60-65% of the original WAV or AIFF, but the audio is bit-for-bit identical to the original.

So would you suggest using Apple Lossless? I'm having a small issue with disk space right now (as my serato library is starting to hit 150 Gb). Is there any downsides for using it?

Only One.......You have to convert/tag it yourself, as NO Stores sell tracks in ALAC. ;)

Also, I find that when converting FLAC to ALAC, the file sizes seem to be a little bit bigger...which is strange because the compression rates are smaller.

Example:

DJ Teebee - "Future War" [.WAV] size - 52.89MB - Original Size
DJ Teebee - "Future War" [FLAC] size - 36.87MB - 31% Compressed
DJ Teebee - "Future War" [ALAC] size - 37.18MB - 30% Compressed

This has always puzzled me....can anyone explain to me why this is? It's the same for every track I convert from FLAC to ALAC. Just so you know, I use dBpoweramp for all my conversions.

sounds like a bunch of media.merchantcircle.com to me....

I tag everything anyway so I get it just the way I like.. Been using Apple Lossless for about two weeks now. No problems whatsoever.

have we ever had an explanation as to why we dont have flac support?

Ive been waiting for it for an age!