What are Your recommendations about transcoding 192 kbps mp3? The purpose is listening on Sony Ericsson phone which supports only LC AAC and MP3. Which is better AAC or MP3? I know that transcoding of 192 kbps mp3 is not recommended but a large part of my collection is in 192 mp3 and the memory of my phone does not allow me to copy the music as is.
Thanks in advance,
Alkslay

Personally, I would use Foobar2000 and transcode several of my favorite Mp3's to different bitrates in AAC. Also do the same for the mp3 format. Then load them on my phone and listen to them. That will tell me, "what is the best for me".

cheers,
herefornow

You didn't mention the actual amount of memory your phone's equipped with, hence I simply guess it's one of those <=512 MB thingies. To squeeze a satisfying amount of music onto it I'd suggest transcoding the 192 kbit/s MP3s to Nero AAC in VBR mode, average around 96 kbit/s (-q 0.34 in the command line).

I'm the owner of an SE mobile phone with AAC playback capabilities too, which features a lousy 512 MB of flash memory. To get the best out of the limited space it's usually packed full with 64 kbit/s LC-AAC, downloaded lossy material is transcoded according to its bitrate. Well over 192 kbit/s is transcoded to 80 kbit/s, the 128 kbit/s to 192 kbit/s range becomes 96 kbit/s instead. I've made good experiences with this course of action so far. Of course, the results are far from being transparent, but still very enjoyable for casual listening, e.g. while doing sports outside or waiting for the train at station.

To Junon - I appreciate Your opinion. I think the same, but I am interested if someone has an experience of comparison of transcoded audio (from 192 mp3).
I mean is it worth to code already lossy audio into AAC (even if it is much better encoder than mp3) and to make some quite different lossy changes to the file, or is it better to code it with Lame, but with the changes of the same type (within the same psychoacoustic model). The question is to choose the lesser of two evils.

if 192kbps mp3 is not an option on your phone, then what mp3/aac bitrates are you considering using instead? why can't you use your current 192kbps files? is it too high a bitrate, or is it like an itunes problem where it has to be "imported" to be used, and drag and drop won't work?

i understand your question but i think as previously mentioned just make a few "test" files at different mp3/aac bitrates and listen on your phone and judge for yourself.

Thank You all for Your answers and suggestions. I've needed low bitrate AAC files for my phone had not too much memory available. But now I have purchased an MP3-player with 2 Gb so it is no longer a problem for me. Thank You once again.