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None of the formats below is worthwhile if they don't work. Quicktime is generally guaranteed to play on machines on your campus. With this in mind, QT "movies" are improving daily and, with the help of software like Media Cleaner Pro, can be high quality files that require little memory. The file types below are for the sake of discussion and include most of the more common Internet sound formats.
Examples: approx 15 seconds
The track that best balances sound and size is the 30K Quicktime movie using Quallcom's Pure Voice compression . For longer stuff, though, you can't beat MP3. The track below was a whopping 40 MB in .wav format (about 30MB in quicktime at the same quality), but is very small in MP3 format. Remember, copying entire tracks is illegal and the one below is strctly for demonstration purposes. If the file won't play, go to http://www.mp3.com/software/players.html and download a player. Mac users click on the mac link at the top of the page.
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MPEG, Layer 3. A new format that can compress long CD-Quality files
to small file sizes. Some machines require a plug in, though Quick
Time 4 will support them.
Quicktime from Apple. Ubiquitous plug-in, industry standard. New
advances are allowing smaller files with better sound. Virtual streaming
(can play while downloading). Nicest interface.
RealMedia. True streaming technology (a single point in the broadcast
can be chosen and the previous material will not load) saves time.
Requires plug-in which is widely available.
.wav files. The PC workhorse. By far the largest uncompressed files.
Play on PC and Mac, no streaming (entire file must download before
playing). Good for drill exercises, but little else.