Hi. I know this is will probably be a stupid question, and I'm sorry to have asked.

I have some audiobooks encoded in 32 WMA.
I would like to convert them to MP3.

I don't really know much about the compression, (using SoundTaxi)
but I'm not sure what bitrate I should be using.

I understand that converting from one bitrate to another will invariably lead to loss of quality
but will 64 be that much better than 32.

I've been doing tests (with a different file). and 64 is a lot better (for those bass sounds) [32 kbps @ 44.8k]
however, changing the sampling frequency to 11k the bass sounds with 32kbps were a lot better.

What should I use to encode the files with? [32/64/128]
In this case, would 64kbps be just a waste of space?

thanks.

I think 32kbps mp3 is worse then wma even if it is encoded from source, so theoretically it is better to use higher bitrate.
You also forget about 112k, 96k, 48k, and most important - vbr mode (wich have better results then cbr on low bitrates).


This is practical question, you need to encode your audio content and compare it yourself on your audio system.


My bet the answer is 'not waste'.

Personally, I will not do any CBR encodes, it is better try to use latest LAME vbr mode with -V9.999, -V9.5, -V8, -V7, -V6, etc.

Thanks for the reply, I didn't forget them, the program that I am using doesn't have that as a setting. =P
nor VBR.

thanks anyway,

I realize that on my mp3 player (with $5 headphones) 32k mp3 audiobooks are hard to follow (sounds distorted), whereas on my PC it sounds fine, and quite good.