mp3 bitrates

[madnanny1]

i am using 196kbps to load music on my sony nwz826/828 mpe players. what do you use and why? madnanny1

[Deleted]

For many situations 196 is fine for me. A lot of my stuff is at 320 and some lossless. I don't get hung up about it to be honest.

It depends what headphones and what you want to do. I'm not always at home for short periods, so I need to take lots of music with me so I tend not to use lossless on the player.

It's aimed at the portable market really so there have to be compromises.

For critical stuff and good headphones on the move - 320 minimum for me, but if I just want to go shopping with buds in my ears, I don't really care.

At home - CD's. (Or mp3 when I'm wandering around)

These kinds of questions often start up heated debates over quality v file size, but I feel that it's all kinds of applications for all kinds of uses.

I once went into a hi fi shop to ask about an mp3 player (Years ago) and the dealer turned his nose up, telling me how crass it was and that it wasn't hi fi. It put me off Hi Fi types for years afterwards. I thought that they were a bunch of cretins, full of their 'quality' crap.

Since then, I will use anything that works and even listen to DAB and transistor radios!!!! Horses for courses.

I also use 128 on podcasts because there's no choice, but then it's only speech. It doesn't concern me a great deal.

However, if you used something like 128 with an amp and a K701 headphone, then you may regret the low bit rate because the headphone can painfully point out the deficiencies of mp3.

Ian

[toad]

I only use 320 these says. But 192 and above is fine if you're on the move though. I just tend to use my portable stuff when I'm sitting on a comfy chair rather than on the bus etc LOL

EDIT: Forgot to mention. Use a decent ripper. I use EAC and you can easily tell the difference between stuff ripped on EAC and an inbuilt ripper even if both are ripped at 320.

[Deleted]

Ian,

Do you use EAC on its highest level of checking?

If you do, how long does it take to do the rip?

I may well compare, although if I'm honest, I don't worry too much about mp3 stuff.

Ian C

[toad]

Hi Ian,

I use it on low or the next level up. TBH if it is a clean CD it doesn't often need more than low. It takes 20 mins or so on my CD drive but only 5 or so on the DVD writer. If the CD has errors it can takes ages. 2 or 3 hours in not unheard of. I tend to use the CD drive as I trust it more. No reason why, it's just with the DVD drive whirring away at 7 or 8 times speed I feel it can't be as good as the CD drive plodding along at between 1.5 and 3x

Ian

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2010 17:01:02 GMT toad said:

Hi Ian,

It takes 20 mins or so on my CD drive but only 5 or so on the DVD writer. If the CD has errors it can takes ages. 2 or 3 hours in not unheard of. I
Ian

Thanks. I thought it was just me!!

Ian

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2010 17:01:02 GMT toad said:

Hi Ian,

I use it on low or the next level up. TBH if it is a clean CD it doesn't often need more than low. It takes 20 mins or so on my CD drive but only 5 or so on the DVD writer. If the CD has errors it can takes ages. 2 or 3 hours in not unheard of. I tend to use the CD drive as I trust it more. No reason why, it's just with the DVD drive whirring away at 7 or 8 times speed I feel it can't be as good as the CD drive plodding along at between 1.5 and 3x

Ian

Ian and Ian
The rip speed is very dependent on the actual writer. My LG BR writer in secure mode of EAC ,also plods along at 1.5 to 3 times, although with less than perfect CDs the speed can drop way below 1 X .
Alex

[Spirit]

If I'm ripping for my collection, I'll do it EAC->wavpack.

If converting to mp3 for others, -v0 out of Foobar2k (~224kbit).

[FauDrei]

When I need mp3s, I use LAME 3.98.2 with -V2 --vbr-new options. Quite good mp3s around 190 kbps.

But, my lossy iPod collection is encoded with Nero AAC Codec. Beats mp3s on almost any SQ/compression level combination.

[FauDrei]

...as for EAC settings:

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : <offset correction of your CD reader>
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : <external ASPI interface or Native Win32 interface>
Gap handling : Not detected, thus appended to previous track

[Will]

My car has a SDcard slot, so I have about 4Gb of mp3's @ 196.

There is point in going for mega SQ or higher bit rates (for me) when you are doing 70mph (+/-10%) ;D, as you won't hear the third violinist from the right grinding his teeth, like you would at home. Still plays nice music, and help pass the time.

[trungkien978]

ACC 192 kbps vbr or MP3/ACC 320 kbps
luckily i don't have sharp ears to listen lossless (save a lot of memory in my HDD)