The lower the bitrate, the lower the quality. There's a BIG difference between 128kbps and 320kbps, but it all is relative. My ears are very sensitive and I can detect the "warbling" from compression in mp3s compressed at 192 kbps. In headphones, I think you would be even more sensitive to low quality because you'd be blocking out all other noise and concentrating solely on the music.
I suggest you simply rip a song at a variety of bitrates and just decide which is sufficient for *your* ears.
It's also going to depend on the type of headphones or speakers you play your music through. Different types of music are going to take the compression a little rougher than other types, and some headphones aren't going to accurately reproduce all the sound that is stored within the mp3.
I tend to rip all of my CDs at 192kbps, and while I can still hear the compression on some tracks, for the most part, I don't notice it so much. I used to rip at 128 and then 160, but some of my music just wasn't taking it well, hence the current 192
It depends on the algorithm too. LAME's algorithm is the best by far. I usually use its "--alt-preset extreme" option which results in files usually between 200-250 kbps, which is plenty for my ears with very nice Grado headphones.
<strong>It depends on the algorithm too. LAME's algorithm is the best by far. I usually use its "--alt-preset extreme" option which results in files usually between 200-250 kbps, which is plenty for my ears with very nice Grado headphones.</strong><hr></blockquote>
The instructions for that are pretty straight-forward. You just stick the script in either ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts or /Library/iTunes/Scripts. Then you can launch iTunes and select "Encode with LAME..." from the menubar. Most people use "--alt-preset standard" ... that results in ~160-190 kbps average VBR mp3s...
Comments
I suggest you simply rip a song at a variety of bitrates and just decide which is sufficient for *your* ears.
I tend to rip all of my CDs at 192kbps, and while I can still hear the compression on some tracks, for the most part, I don't notice it so much. I used to rip at 128 and then 160, but some of my music just wasn't taking it well, hence the current 192
<strong>It depends on the algorithm too. LAME's algorithm is the best by far. I usually use its "--alt-preset extreme" option which results in files usually between 200-250 kbps, which is plenty for my ears with very nice Grado headphones.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Cool. Where can I download LAME?
You can download the source here:
<a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/lame/lame-3.92.tar.gz"; target="_blank">http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/lame/lame-3.92.tar.gz</a>;
If you have installed Dev Tools, all you have to do is unpack it, and:
[code]./configure
make
sudo make install</pre><hr></blockquote>
Then you will need to get the iTunes-LAME AppleScript here:
<a href="http://www.blacktree.com/scripts/iTunes-LAME.1.0.2.sit.bin"; target="_blank">http://www.blacktree.com/scripts/iTunes-LAME.1.0.2.sit.bin</a>;
The instructions for that are pretty straight-forward. You just stick the script in either ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts or /Library/iTunes/Scripts. Then you can launch iTunes and select "Encode with LAME..." from the menubar. Most people use "--alt-preset standard" ... that results in ~160-190 kbps average VBR mp3s...