OK.
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I just bought an Audio CD. Plus I already had bought at 192 Kbps WMA from URGE service.

1) I am using Lame 3.97. Is 3.98 Alpha 11 Better [with below presets]?

2) "-b 320 -m s -h -q 0" this is the one I use. By these settings:
What frequencies get cut off by default [discarded] its only the ones >Greater than 20KHZ and < Less than 20Hz. Right?

3) Or Do I need to Manually set the low pass, high pass?

4) Does the Music from URGE sound better or my mp3 320 Kbps?

5) Is that the max possible Quality with mp3 -- with the setting I have?

6) What's the BEST I Mean Ultimate in terms of sound quality at 320 KBPS, what's the best encoder for that?

Thankx.

TheMostConcernedAPhile

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Off Topic:
1)What Total Harmonic Distortion have to do with Music quality? Is <10% good ?

Your settings are overboard. Please see the wiki for reccomended LAME settings.

also

lol.

I already read the switches.html & faq + also the recommended settings.
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I would appreciate if anyone cleary answers all of my questions.

1) At your settings there is not likely to be any audible difference between the two versions.

2) You would do better with just -b 320. Specifically the -m s switch degrades quality except under very rare circumstances.

3) Leave the low pass and high pass alone. They default to values that were selected very carefully to give the maximum quality.

4) A 192 Kbps WMA should never sound better than the 320 Kbps MP3, but whether you can tell the difference or not depends on a lot of variables. You would need to test this for yourself.

5) -b 320 is almost certainly the best quality you can get from an MP3.

The distortion rating would be under worst case conditions and in ordinary circumstances would be MUCH better than that. 10% distortion is terrible.

Some people rate one or another encoder better for specific cases, but any recent version of LAME is likely to be better all around than any other choice.

1 - 3.97 is the recommended version for good reason

3 - If you're using "-b 320" there's no need to manually set anything

4 - Extremely highly unlikely that it does

5 - "-b 320" (I don't know what the other stuff you have there is for) is the highest


It's reasonable to say that the latest versions of all current-generation codecs (LAME, WMA, AAC, OGG) are transparent at 320kbps. You're extremely unlikely to be able to detect any difference among them at that bitrate

1 More offtopic ?n:

Does CD playback directly give better quality or Line out...

It's the cd, isn't it? But how much difference can it make?
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If an equipment has USB Dac, does that mean it's High end[hi quality equipment]?

The CD will always have better quality than any mp3 at any bitrate. The only problem is the perception of the quality. Most of these quality questions can only be answered by one person, yourself. I suggest you conduct a blind ABX test using a ripped lossless file and a mp3 at the bitrate of your choice. More than likely, you will find that 320kbps is just overkill.