The MP3 head unit i have just ordered will support multiple bit rates between 8 kbps and 320 kbps.

What rate would people reccommend considering size v's sound quality. When does the sound start to suffer for in car listening? And how many albums can you get on 1 CD at the rate you reccomend.

Also whats the best (free or cheapest) coversion software

 

I've made a couple of compilation MP3 cds at 192kbs variable bit rate and I still notice artifacts - this is with an Alpine HU btw. At this rate I got 7 albums on a cd.

Rich

[Edited by WagonRich - 5/21/2003 12:32:12 PM]

 

After many years of f'ing around with VBR v's CBR and different types of Stereo I have settled for 192Kbps, CBR, joint stereo. I get between 6-10 albums per CD but I use 700MB (80 minute) CDs.

Very good results can be got from the LAME encoder at 256Kbps. I use the CDEX ripper/encoder under windows (which supplies/uses LAME).

Vindaloo.

 

what are artifacts?

 

General wierdness in sound, in the same way that you get compression artefacts on JPEG pictures.

I use LAME (and I now wouldn't use anything else) with EAC (exact audio copy) to do the ripping.

Lame 3.93 has presets built in for VBR (variable bitrate) which people with better ears than me have worked out.

Use --alt-preset standard for VBR centred around 192kbps, and --alt-preset extreme for around 224 or higher. The difference is audiable on home setup, and on a good car setup when still, but I can't honestly hear a difference between standard and extreme when driving.

Still, I only wanna rip once and am not so bothered about size, so I use the "extreme" preset.

EAC gives you the option to pass command line args to LAME, or any encoder.

Cheers,
nick.

 

Just to agree with Chiark - I also use EAC & Lame.

Rich