Greetings all

I am new to this forum and so far I am very impressed at the level of knowleadge about music technologies most people have here. I have a very simple question and that is I am planning to build a library of my CD's on my PC. How good is the MP3 encoder that comes with WMP10? what would have better sound quality WMA at 192 Kbps or MP3 (using codec from WMP) at 192 or 256?

thanks all!

WMP10 comes with the FhG Professional codec. It is a pretty good encoder. Without listening to the music you are trying to encode I can't say for sure but I'd guess mp3. WMA tends to do better than mp3 at low bitrates but as you move up mp3 is much more popular for most people around here.

this is not easy to answer. It depends on the mode you choose and if you are using wma pro or just the regular wma10. wma pro is better, but there is no portable player support and Microsoft does not intend to release a codec for portable player either. It also depends if you are using cbr or vbr. I'd say if you are using wma10 vbr 2 pass it will beat the mp3 encoder that comes with WMP (assuming that it is NOT LAME).

Anyway, since you are quality concerned and are willing to choose 192 or more, I'd suggest you to use LAME 3.96.1 --preset standard. The average bitrate will be around 200 and you'll have extremely close CD quality (you probably won't be able to tell the difference between the mp3 file and the original file). Also, LAME 3.96.1 --preset standard will most likely sound better than anything WMP10 can create for you at a similar bitrate.

Therefore, I'd suggest you to download EAC http://www.eac.de (this is a little freeware tool for ripping your CD's and will get you the best results), combined with LAME 3.96.1 (http://www.webhostxpress.net/~mitiok/lame-3.96.1.zip) in EAC just type --preset standard in this screen

don't forget to unpack the downloaded LAME 3.96.1 package though and make sure that the path points to that folder....