Mp3 vs WAV file

[Havalilsi]

I was just using Audicity to extract some audio files but when I am to save the file it asks whether I want to save it as a Mp3 or WAVi file. I tried both and noticed the WAV file is more than twice as big as the Mp3. What are the pros and cons of these different files and which would be better for burning to a cd.

[TooLFooL]

wav files are huge cause they are a perfect copy of the original. if you're gonna burn them & delete them, wav will give the best results by far.
mp3 are compressed files, and the lower the bitrate (320k, 192k, 128k, etc.), the crappier they sound. for me, 192k is the worst i go. that's when they really start to suck!

[jimmalenko]

WAV files are generally 1536kbps, whereas MP3 can be 128, 192, 224, 256, 320 kbps etc etc.

Filesize = running time x bitrate


Hence WAVs are bigger files because they normally use a bigger bitrate.

I believe that in order to burn MP3 to an audio CD your burning app will convert to WAV on the fly anyway (if you have an MP3-capable audio player then you just burn as data AFAIK) so from that sense it's probably better IMO to convert to WAV.

[celtic_druid]

To be correct wav is just a container. A PCM wav will be lossless and large. You can for instance have an mp3 wav which will only be slightly larger than the equiv mp3.

For an audio CD, definatly go PCM wav.

[Stormin Norman]

Especially if its music and you want to play it in your car, not all car cd players support .mp3