What is the minimum bitrate you encode / listen to MP3s [merged]
04-07-02, 11:10 AM
#1
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What bitrate do you encode your MP3s/OGG at and what with?
What bitrate do you encode your mp3s at and what with?
I used to use AudioActive at 192kHz (with the Radium True Stereo tweak) but I've sinced move to LAME at 256kHz ( -b 256 -m s -h -q 0 --athonly )... I can really tell the difference when I burn these to CD to play in the car or a stereo.
You guys?
I used to use AudioActive at 192kHz (with the Radium True Stereo tweak) but I've sinced move to LAME at 256kHz ( -b 256 -m s -h -q 0 --athonly )... I can really tell the difference when I burn these to CD to play in the car or a stereo.
You guys?
04-07-02, 02:32 PM
#2
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Bitrate information was shared on these threads: One pattern in the "answers" in these and other threads seems to be that it depends where you intend to play the music e.g. for a car player perhaps high bitrates are not so critical....
04-07-02, 03:55 PM
#4
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I personally can't tell that great of a difference when it gets to 128 or 160, so I don't encode higher than that because I'd rather have more mp3s then less.
04-09-02, 09:47 PM
#5
DVD Talk Godfather
Thread Starter
Originally posted by Alyoshka
I personally can't tell that great of a difference when it gets to 128 or 160, so I don't encode higher than that because I'd rather have more mp3s then less.
I personally can't tell that great of a difference when it gets to 128 or 160, so I don't encode higher than that because I'd rather have more mp3s then less.
I don't think I have golden ears, I just think it's a matter of listening to stuff that MP3 has a hard problem encoding (anything with a lot of cymbals or fuzz like Foo Fighter's 'Exhausted' or anything by Yo La Tengo).
I do get angry if something is 128kbps but I live with it. It's just MP3s.
11-26-02, 05:03 PM
#6
DVD Talk God
What is the minimum rate you listen to MP3s at?
First I apologize for ending a sentence with a preposition. At what minimum rate do you listen to MP3s? Is 128 to choppy for you? Do you go lower? Do you mess with 320?
What about you????
What about you????
11-26-02, 06:47 PM
#9
DVD Talk Legend
I rip everything at 192.
I have tons of 128 stuff, which I'd like to eventually replace with higher bitrates. Hopefully to 192, but 160 is acceptable.
I don't like anything above 192 as the file sizes become too large and I don't find that the quality changes much. I know it does, but on my setup I can't tell.
I purposely avoided tracks at 112 or below, with the exception of a live dnb mix set, which was encoded at 96. It's a 2-hour track though, so it was probably done that way to save space.
I have tons of 128 stuff, which I'd like to eventually replace with higher bitrates. Hopefully to 192, but 160 is acceptable.
I don't like anything above 192 as the file sizes become too large and I don't find that the quality changes much. I know it does, but on my setup I can't tell.
I purposely avoided tracks at 112 or below, with the exception of a live dnb mix set, which was encoded at 96. It's a 2-hour track though, so it was probably done that way to save space.
Last edited by shizawn; 11-26-02 at 06:51 PM.
11-26-02, 07:28 PM
#10
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
128-256 is typical for me. For my music server, which I'm in the process of populating (478 CDs ripped so far!) I'm encoding everything at 256.
11-26-02, 09:16 PM
#12
DVD Talk Gold Edition
My minimum is 128, but right now it's out of necessity due as I was running kind of low on storage space. Most of my MP3s had been encoded at 192, and even downconverted, it doesn't sound too bad. The lesser important MP3s I encoded at 96 in MP3Pro...
11-26-02, 09:22 PM
#13
DVD Talk God
128. Can you really tell the difference for anything higher than that? 
11-26-02, 09:42 PM
#14
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If I rip I do it at 192. Most everything else is at 128 though. Some say you can really tell a difference. I don't know if I can or not, but to be honest, it doesn't bother me one bit. I'm happy with 128.
11-27-02, 06:36 AM
#17
DVD Talk Godfather
Thread Starter
256. I'm not kidding. If it's less than that 9 times out of 10 I won't even bother.
And for those of you who rip at 128 and can't tell a difference, burn a CD with the 128 and the WAV file and put it in a car stereo, and turn up the volume.
You can tell a difference between 256 and 320 on a good enough stereo.
And for those of you who rip at 128 and can't tell a difference, burn a CD with the 128 and the WAV file and put it in a car stereo, and turn up the volume.
You can tell a difference between 256 and 320 on a good enough stereo.
11-27-02, 02:47 PM
#20
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1,411Kbps.
Oh, wait...
that's straight full bitrate PCM isn't it?
Actually, I personally don't do mp3's.
I've played around with it, and only the blade encoder at 192 and above was the one that was the closest to being transparent to me. The lame encoder seemed to throw away frequencies at 15k and above - very bad.
Now it's just not worth it to me.
Joel
Oh, wait...
that's straight full bitrate PCM isn't it?
Actually, I personally don't do mp3's.
I've played around with it, and only the blade encoder at 192 and above was the one that was the closest to being transparent to me. The lame encoder seemed to throw away frequencies at 15k and above - very bad.
Now it's just not worth it to me.
Joel
11-27-02, 04:36 PM
#21
DVD Talk Hero
128 is probably the minumum of acceptability. I'd say that 192 is probably the best compromise between size/quality.
But it really seems to depend on the quality of the rip. I've heard 192s that sounded worse than 128s. And I mean the overall sound quality, not the blips and skips that frequently pop up.
But it really seems to depend on the quality of the rip. I've heard 192s that sounded worse than 128s. And I mean the overall sound quality, not the blips and skips that frequently pop up.
11-27-02, 07:16 PM
#23
DVD Talk Hero
I usually stick to 128 or 19whatever it is. Seriously, I did a "taste-test" with varying bitrates on my system (which is what I'm going to listen to them on) and could not distinguish between 128 and anything higher, so why bother? I tried this with a couple of friends, and they couldn't either.
Now that I've accumulated a few 120GB drives, I'm going to go back and rip all of my CDs as WAV files. Pure, pristine quality, and will never have to worry about such concerns again. As for mp3s from the Net, I'll stick to a minimum of 128.
Now that I've accumulated a few 120GB drives, I'm going to go back and rip all of my CDs as WAV files. Pure, pristine quality, and will never have to worry about such concerns again. As for mp3s from the Net, I'll stick to a minimum of 128.
11-28-02, 10:12 AM
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I've found that given a properly encoded mp3 at 192, it's pretty much impossible to tell the difference between that and a CD without a direct back-to-back comparison. So, that's what I rip at.
I find as low as 128 acceptable for 90% of the listening I do with mp3s. Most of the time, I'm listening to music on the computer (mediocre speakers) or in the car (convertible with Bose system). I very rarely listen to them as a "listening experience", so quality isn't nearly as important as having tens of thousands of songs on a hard drive and being able to send those anywhere in the house or quickly transfer them to a medium I can carry in the car.
I find as low as 128 acceptable for 90% of the listening I do with mp3s. Most of the time, I'm listening to music on the computer (mediocre speakers) or in the car (convertible with Bose system). I very rarely listen to them as a "listening experience", so quality isn't nearly as important as having tens of thousands of songs on a hard drive and being able to send those anywhere in the house or quickly transfer them to a medium I can carry in the car.