What is best way to sync my iphone?

I note that there are two methods of syncing my iphone and to preserve its data. What are the advantages of syncing through iCloud (wireless sync) as opposed to using usb connection to iTunes? Can I do both, or will that create a problem? If I sync with iTunes, can I control exactly what goes into the iphone?

iTunes: Syncing media content to iOS devices and iPod - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1351 - detailed example: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18860187
iOS: Syncing with iTunes - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1386 -  You can sync everything or selected playlists.  "WIth iTunes 10, when automatically syncing, you can also manually drag items to the iDevice. These will show up in Manually Added Songs at the bottom of the Music tab after Playlists, Artists Genre, Albums." - https://discussions.apple.com/message/18919754
I don't know all the details but, for example, unless you have iTunes Match then music you rip from CD will not be in the Cloud.
I suspect transfer via USB would be faster than wireless.
While iCloud is a convenience I would not trust it as a master repository for files.  For that you definitely want everything on your computer too.

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