File types:

[Cogs]

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

[photoweborama]

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.

[Kap'n]

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.

[Wilko]

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

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

[bobad]

flac for the very best audio quality.

[Skip]

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 :)

[boobtube21]

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.

[fatdog]

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.

[Banjowarrior]

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.

[Direstraits]

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.