MP3 conversion 320cbr to v0/v2 Options

[lostguru]

pretty much the title...

if I have 320 cbr MP3 files (I'm going to assume all from lossless sources), would converting directly from 320 cbr to v0 or v2 result in lower quality than if I have converted directly from lossless to v0 or v2?

This post has been edited by lostguru: Aug 15 2012, 17:11

[goa pride]

i converted all mp3 dj set from 320 to vbr V0.5
Do you recommend V0 with Y switch enable istead of V0.5?

[Dynamic]

i converted all mp3 dj set from 320 to vbr V0.5
Do you recommend V0 with Y switch enable istead of V0.5?

Are you now talking about
1) converting from lossless source (original CD or FLAC etc) direct to MP3 or
2) from one MP3 setting (320 CBR) to another (-V 0.5 or -V 0 -Y)?

lostguru has been talking about (1), which is the best approach, the rest of this thread had been about (2) which is known as lossy-to-lossy transcoding.

Your answer will help us to advise you.

If it's (2), I'd suggest that -V 0 -Y would be better if those are the only two options as it provides a fraction more headroom above the level normally required for transparency in the frequency range where it's most likely transcoding issues will become audible. I really doubt that sfb21 (the frequency range above 16 kHz will reveal transcoding artifacts).

If it's (1), I'd imagine both settings would be essentially indistinguishable, already having a good deal of safety margin beyond the threshold of transparency, which is probably nearer to -V3 or -V2, and again, in real music, whether -Y is used or not, is unlikely to make an audible difference.

For case (2), -V3 or -V2 might be a little risky, because the inaccuracy of two encoding steps is being combined, and they're aimed at pretty much being just enough to ensure transparency (problem samples aside), with little margin of safety when encoding from the original, lossless source. Having said that, for a number of uses I've happily done just that sort of thing and not noticed a problem, but if you're DJing, you don't want to be taking chances.