128kbps is supposedly "cd quality", but I was wondering if anyone uses higher or lower settings or notices any differences. Higher kbps rates result in larger file sizes so I was wondering what the optimal sound/file size rate is for players with less capacity.
geek_girl
Favorite Answer
I'm generally using 192 right now. I'd totally switch to something that's a variable bitrate, but boring Windows Media won't yet do that and I'm too lazy to figure out all the other programs out there that will do a better job of ripping CDs at this point. I'd recommend finding one of those if you have the time, though -- there's really no sense in wasting a bunch of file space for what's not really all that much sound sometimes.
What you want to use is whatever sounds good to you. If you hear a bunch of encoding artifacts, then you might want to go higher. I'd try a couple of songs at a couple of different bitrates, see which one(s) you like, and go with the smallest file size you find acceptable.
CD quality, from what I've heard, is actually about an order of magnitude higher than 128k. Most people just can't tell the difference beyond 128, 192, 256, or 320k. . . depending on the set of ears involved.
Scatwoman
I use 192 kbps