Should I get over my prejudice/ignorance/snobbery for WAV and change to mp3?

[Jack Bastard]

Dunno, it used to be terrible when they had the flash site (it was an emergency place to shop and nothing more) but once you've got your watchlist setup on the new HTML5 site I think it's the best of the shops I use. I spend more money elsewhere but their new interface is very good.

[nubz69]

I was going to do a whole write up on some of the topics discussed here but it looks like there are plenty already. Here are some useful tests for you guys.

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2010/04/...en-wav-vs-mp3/
http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/...-test-128-320/

One thing I always have a problem with is when people say they don't hear a difference but then they don't list the equipment they are listening on. Of course you are going to have trouble hearing a difference on a pair of book shelf speakers powered by a cheap home theater receiver. Go take a listen on a nice SET amplifier with a decent DAC in a properly acoustically damped room and see if you still can't hear a difference. You don't need all that to hear a difference but it makes differences much more apparent.

[UncleFunky]

Consider using other stores!

I refuse to support those who charge more for lossless formats.

Any suggestions for these other sites?

I grit my teeth every time I pay for mp3s.

And wav pricing on Beatport is insane - the vinyl releases are often cheaper.

[Nick V]

If you are paying full price for tracks on beatport, you're doing it wrong. There is almost always an active discount code usually 20% off, sometimes higher. You can find them on the web if you look. Some of them can only be used every once every some amount of time. Also most of the $2.49 go down to $1.99 after 2 weeks or so or can be found elsewhere for cheaper.

As far as finding tracks - yeah beatport blows but if you keep adding labels and artists you buy it almost gets usable. I mostly go there searching for tracks or artists I have found out about somewhere else.