Hi to all.....

first of all please excuse my poor english, as i am from Greece.

I recently downloaded EAC to use with LAME 3.90.3 (on this forum is recommended).

My goal is to gain as good as possible quality from a cd when it's converted to MP3. The file size doesn't matter...

So in EAC i choose SECURE ripping and in the command line of the COMPRESSION OPTIONS i choose the default %s %d -alt-preset extreme (highest quality according to EAC "load" window).

Is this the BEST way to convert my cd's to MP3's???

Thank you all in advance

If file size is no concern, use a lossless compressor like flac or ape (doesn't really matter which, they're all lossless anyway).

If you want to use a lossy compressor but don't specifically need mp3, you should use mpc with the --xtreme or --insane quality preset.

If mp3 is required, lame --preset insane will offer you the highest possible quality from the mp3 format.

You should really do some research on this forum, as this has been asked/aswered many times already. Read the FAQ on how to properly set up EAC. On MP3 quality, I am not sure you will get a NOTICEABLE quality using extreme over using standard. You know, JUST KNOWING that something is supposed to be better does not make it really better. Alt preset standard was highly tuned to deliver transparent quality to the average human on 99% of the music you are likely to listen to. And the remaining 1% is not likely going to be made transparent by using extreme, as it is probably the kind of music that is known to give MP3 a hard time.

But don't take my word for it. Read more (before engaging in big encoding enterprises). Evaluate your needs. Do you really need/want MP3? I know I do, for example, because hardware compatibility is a must for me. But it you are going to be listening to your music on your computer you might want to look into other codecs that deliver better quality at smaller bitrates.

Also, MPC and lossless both transcode nicely to MP3 for portable use.

First of all i would like to thank you for your quick and detailed replies....

I would like to say that i need the mp3 format because my car's cd receiver accepts only mp3's and my dvd player (connected to my loved marantz and jm lab speakers) accept only mp3's as well.

So mp3 is my format (compatibility reasons).

I would also like to say that i did a BIG research in this forum before posting but after an hour of reading my eyes was like @#$%^!!!!

So some say that VBR is better that CBR and the opposite.

So if i let EAC manage the ripping and LAME with -alt-preset extreme manage the compressing i will have a perfect MP3 right???

Thanks for your time

P.S. What %s%d means in EAC>?

U should check out whether your audio equipment supports VBR or not.



I think u won't find anyone in this forum who will state that x kbps CBR
is better x kbps VBR (with LAME at least...)



It should probably be transparent (i.e. sound like a perfect copy of
the original) to your ears, unless u r guruboolez or something .
As nebob stated, to achieve absolute mp3 quality u should use
the --alt-preset insane switch, but do u really need it?



%s = source file
%d = destination file

Thank you!!!!!

Both of my mp3 players (car cd and dvd) supports VBR, i tested it and they are ok!!

So i guess i won't hear the diferrence between VBR extreme and CBR insane... so i'll use the VBR extreme to fit "one more audio cd" in to my data cd.

Thank you for your help... i'll start right now the RIPPING-ENCODING process!!!!

Another thing you could consider (that is only in case storage space really does not matter) is to either rip everything lossless (ie, flac, monkeys, etc) and then transcde whatever you need to play on your other platforms to mp3 before burning to mp3.

Or just rip with EAC to lossless and mp3 simultaniously straight away. (you'll need a batch file, or MAR (multiple applications runner, you'll have to do a search on that one).

In that case you can be absolutely sure you'll never have to re-rip anything again incase hardware support and file formats change in the future. Since you'll always have a lossles copy, you will always be able to safely transcode.

In that case you could also set for slightly smaller mp3 (ie. alt preset standard) sizes, since you'll know for sure that you'll have the lossless version in case that ever isn't enough. Another small advantage of that would be that you could fit more mp3's on each cd.

But as I said, all of this only makes sence in case storage space really isn't an issue.