MP3 Bitrate

[Event]

Can you really tell the difference between 192kbps MP3s and 320kbps MP3s? I was wondering if I should rip my cds into 320kbps, or just 192kbps... (for my own personal listening pleasure, of course, I don't want to juggle CDs...)

 

[Timmotheus]

If space is not a problem, rip them at 320. If you need to conserve space, rip them at 192. 128 is just bad. You can tell the difference at even moderately high volumes, so it's probably worth making the files double the size.

 

[CDailey]

I'm an audiophile and I can tell the difference between 192 and 320. Like Timmotheus said, if space is not an issue, rip them at 320kbps. If space is an issue, then 192kbps will be just fine.

You should rip them all in 128kbps AAC though. It's amazing how good a 48kbps AAC song sounds.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I would say if you're playing them through cheap speakers, then rip them at 192kbps.

 

[Shannon]

Why don't you rip in 192-320 VBR?

However, if you have GBs of harddrive space to burn, rip to lossless FLAC. That way if you ever lose or damage the original album, you can easily decode the FLAC to retrieve the WAV file and then reburn the album without losing quality. FLAC is kinda like a zip archive. FLAC is the zip and the WAV is inside. You just 'unzip' the FLAC and you have your original WAV back.

 

[emad]

do a 192-320 vbr and if it's at all possible, do an OGG compression at 192-256vbr or 192-320vbr. You'll get better audio quality that way. If you do a constant bit rate at 320kbps, you'd be best off ripping as FLAC.

In terms of noticeable difference between 192 and 320, you'll only see it if you have a very high end sound system. 192 is enough for most people though - unless you have a top of the line sound system which would be capable of clearly reproducing the audio in such a way that the quality loss from compression can be heard

 

[Event]

oh, wow. Right over my head...

 

[donbenni]

Basically, rip cds to 192 if you've not got a lot of space. 320 will sound better, so if you have the space, go for it.

 

[toyomatt84]

VBR is choice, if you ask me. Many freeware programs out there can rip in a nice VBR setup, as well as, your single rates. You should search for a good way to make a nice VBR, that way, you don't have to make a choice on quality, it's already as much as you'd like.

 

[Shannon]

oh, wow. Right over my head...

VBR (Variable Bit Rate) means you aren't constricted to the one constant bit rate (eg: 192kbps). With VBR, the bitrate constantly changes throughout the song, depending on the the volume. A lower bit rate would be used in quiet spots throughout the track as you won't be able to hear the quality loss. Conversly, a higher bit rate would be used in the louder spots.

A setting of VBR 192-320 (where 192 is the minimum bit rate to be used in quiet spots and 320 is the maximum to be used in louder spots) is probably ludacris, but the filesizes are smaller and offers virtually the same quality as CBR (Constant Bit Rate) 320.

However, if you have harddrive space to burn you can rip to a lossless codec (where no quality is lost what-so-ever) such as FLAC. MP3 is not the only choice for ripping music.