I am aware they are both compressed and lower quality.
Currently my entire audio collection is on disc and last year ripped the entire collection to lossless FLAC files.
I do have some duplicate mp3s as when you buy a CD on Amazon they rip them for you so you can listen to your tunes while the disc ships.

My new vehicle is capable of playing WMA and MP3 from both CD and USB. Looking to put some of the collection on a flash drive for the vehicle. Should I go with WMA or MP3 and what is the best converter to use from FLAC to whichever file type you all suggest.

I need to figure out if my system will support a USB hardrive for larger storage.

Have you thought about getting a FLAC-compatible player (something like a FiiO, etc.) that connects via USB? That would save you the effort of conversion and give you better sound quality.

Honestly, I'd go mp3 since they are so common and easy to work with. I use a free converter called ALL2MP3. It will convert just about anything.

Unless you have a very good, upgraded sound system in your vehicle (not to mention a very quiet ride), I'm skeptical you'd hear a difference between FLAC and a compressed file type. Have you experienced a difference?

I still have my iPod plugged into the USB port in my truck for listening to music and podcasts.

^^^^ right (joel9507) ^^^^
Getting another player would eliminate having multiple formats to deal with.

WMA(although outdated) is considered a little better than MP3 but FLAC would be ideal.
FiiO

I would go with MP3 (but the codec used to create them can make a difference). I say MP3 just because it is more ubiquitous. You can play them in more devices after conversion.

I use Fre:ac to convert audio files but there are a ton of programs out there that will do the job. Fre:ac uses the LAME encoder which I think does a good job.

I'd say stick with mp3 even though the wma probably can sound better.

But hold off on those 24" rims and stick a nice full size radio that will do flac files in there! I am happy that my new car plays flac out of the box.

MP3 has a fairly well recognized tag format - easier for more systems to ID artist/track/album and especially album art. wma is hit or miss.

Flac Squisher is free & easy.
Use VBR or at least 192kbps. I start to hear differences in CD vs MP3 at <192kbps. It's slight, but flash memory is cheap.

If your car has a SD/microSD slot, use it vs USB stick (or SD-USB adaptor) - it will be faster to parse files/folders. I put ~100GB on a USB (quality, fast USB3.0) and a fast mSD car (exact same data/songs/folder structure). The USB stick took almost 2x as long to get read into the system & takes a lot longer to browse.
This is in a 2015 GMC Sierra.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
^^^^ right (joel9507) ^^^^
Getting another player would eliminate having multiple formats to deal with.

WMA(although outdated) is considered a little better than MP3 but FLAC would be ideal.
FiiO

Not interested in another player and flesheatingvirus is right not likely to hear a difference in the Sienna, doubt I would be able to tell a difference in the Highlander that has the the JBL upgrade.

quote:

Originally posted by DonDraper:
I'd say stick with mp3 even though the wma probably can sound better.

But hold off on those 24" rims and stick a nice full size radio that will do flac files in there! I am happy that my new car plays flac out of the box.

No 24s for this guy. The Sienna has a pretty nice fullscreen nav setup with built in apps so I am quite happy with it.
What vehicle do you have sound like a pretty sweet setup if it will play FLAC out of the box?

I have an SDHC slot but it is occupied by the navigation card.

quote:

Not interested in another player and flesheatingvirus is right not likely to hear a difference in the Sienna, doubt I would be able to tell a difference in the Highlander that has the the JBL upgrade.

Not so much for the difference in sound (there is) but more not to deal with having to convert files and just have one format to deal with since you already ripped everything else to FLAC.

I just use a FLAC player on my phone (Android, n7player).