File types:

What is your favorite file format for audio files & why?

MP3. I don't know exactly why. I just heard that it retains more of the original recording. I could be wrong.... I used WMA for my Sansa player, just to squash more songs in the thing.

For the car, I use MP3, but on my computer I usually end up using .WAV or some other lossless format.

If it matters, I don't have itunes, rhapsody or any other download software. I prefer hard copies.

mp3 for most of my stuff. It's easy and small.

AIFF or .wav for hi-res stuff (i'm a Mac user--Logic).

flac for the very best audio quality.

flac on Grateful Dead Archives :) Otherwise I have a hard drive full of mp3's that I was able to load onto the iPhone with that format :)

Vinyl of course :) after that, I guess I don't have much of a preference, as long as it sounds good. I changed the mp3 size in my iTunes to the largest possible, not sure if it made much of a difference in sound quality or not.

mp3 for me... because everything plays them without issue.

The more exotic formats tend to be less 'portable'... especially for my mother who doesn't know what a codecs is. :comp26:

Depends on so many things... If you're talking mobile listening mp3 or aac it's much of a muchness, it would only be an issue if I was having trouble with storage space, then you start to look at compression efficiency.
For listening on the hifi I go with FLAC. If space is not an issue you go with wav, as FLAC's are just converted back to wavs for playback.

I mix down from Cubase at 96kHz /24bit sample rate to a .wav at CD quality (44.1kHz/16bit) and can detect a very slight deterioration through near field monitors. If I convert this to an MP3 at 258kb/s there is a noticeable fall off in definition & some lower frequencies turn to mud or get "lost". I've had to re-mix tracks destined to end up as MP3s to compensate for this. So- in answer to the original question- I'd save as .wav files unless there was an overriding reason not to.