Today I finally updated the popular misconceptions section of my site. (It was empty before)

So any quick proof-reading / comments / suggestions are very much appreciated.

Regards,
/Konstantin

Well done! But this: "Alt-preset ABR 160 kbps produce about the same quality as CBR 192 kbps." Proof? For LAME CBR or other encoders? Which CBR settings?

Yes, this paragraf was difficult one, because I couldn't find good links (like Dibrom's joint stereo explanation, for instance). Could you throw in some links perhaps?

> ABR 160 kbps vs. CBR 192 kbps

I was refering to Lame alt-presets, but I cannot prove it myself. it is already at the edge of transparency for me. yeah, no golden ears at all...
I remember reading the statement (on this forum I think ??? , cannot find it now) that these are more or less equivalent in quality. And it makes sense to me, as I look at the ABR bit-rate disitribution.
Please correct me if it's wrong.

I modified that paragraph a little bit.
/kdo

You might want to add a note to the 'wma 64 kbps is cd-quality' section something to the effect of:

CDs are, by definition, CD quality.
If wma 64kbps is also CD quality
and the wma is taken from a CD
then what is 96kbps, 128kbps, or 160kbps?
They can't be *more* than CD quality,
because they came from the CD
so for them to be better than their source
would be like magic.
So either they are pointless
or Microsoft is wrong.

Cheers, Paul
http://audio.ciara.us/compare.htm

Yeah, such sophistish jokes are good to make fun ,
but speaking siriously, 'cd-quality' should be understood as 'transparency' in what m$ claims.

I agree with you, but I can imagine that most novice users don't - if it says CD quality then that's what it is, so clearly wma must be best ???

Either way MS is lying, because it's not 'transparent' at 64kbps as you point out. As is often the case with MS, pick your lie!

Cheers, Paul
http://audio.ciara.us/compare.htm

I've given up trying to re-educate people into better ways of encoding,I used to try my best,pointing to the software,helping with setting up etc,but now I tend to just point them here and hope they have the 'savvy' to read and learn,unfortunately some just dont want to know,they see everyone doing the same thing with the same poor encoders and think its 'the done thing'