what is the best audio format for posterity ?

Question

my audio collection has travelled from LP to cassettes to digital now . if i want to preserve a copy which can always be converted to something contemporary what should it be - wma, aac , wav , mp3 . because in the future ( say five years later ) the audio converters available now might not be there anymore . what format can i store it in and forget it for 5 years ?

i am speaking of format not storage device .

Answer 1

To preserve quality a 'lossless' format is what you need such as WAV or AAC. MP3 and WMA are compressed data thus much smaller files.
If you want to save in MP3 format, then you could use higher than normal bit-rate, see:
http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk/mp3.htm for more info on bit-rates. If you have the storage space though, use a lossless format to preserve the recordings at the highest possible quality.
Hope this helps

Answer 2

You'll need a good burner and some good CD-Rs, so that you know your discs will last a long time.

I recommend a Plextor Premium drive and Taiyo Yuden CD-Rs or DVD±Rs.

Anyway, use a good CD ripper such as CDex or Exact Audio Copy (along with the LAME MP3 encoder) to rip your CDs to MP3s. I recommend using the latest stable LAME version (3.97) with the -V2 setting to make VBR MP3s around 192kbps.

Then burn the MP3s to CDs (but not at too high speed... 16x should be good).

Then store the CDs in cases in a cool, dark, dry place such as a closet to keep them safe and free of dust.

Answer 3

I read an article written by a guy who knows alot about those formats. His conclusion was that AAC is the best. Unfortunately i lost link to that article...

Answer 4

mini disc is more stable and tough