Comments

Erik_Nygaard wrote on 3/18/2005, 7:29 AM
Short answer: Wav if you're concerned about quality.
WMA and mp3 are compressed formats wich means you will lose more or less information based on compression ratio etc.
Chienworks wrote on 3/18/2005, 7:30 AM
Always use WAV whenever possible. The other formats are compressed. Every time you use a compressed file you can lose quality.

Of course, a 256Kbps MP3 file will sound vastly better than an 5KHz 8 bit WAV file. Generally when talking about WAV we assume that at least CD quality 44.1KHz 16 bit files are being used.

Conversion is bad. If the only version of the file you have is low quality, use that version. Converting it to a better quality format will not increase the quality, and may simply distort it even more. Always start with the highest quality original file possible.