What is your music compression rate?

[Dingo Jellybean]

For those of you who don't know, it's the rate of compression of your music. The standard is 128kbps.

Most of my music on my <a href="http://www.geocities.com/dingojellybean2/playlist.html">playlist</a> are at 56kbps. Takes up 30-40% of the original space with little sound quality loss from 128kbps.

Since iTunes has a very enhanced media player(it primarily uses Quicktime Pro), the sound quality doesn't sound too noticable at 56kbps from 128kbps. So yeah.

[krissy]

the sound quality doesn't sound too noticable at 56kbps from 128kbps.

in a totally unprofessional opinion, i think you should go to an ear doctor, get those babies checked.

192+ or vrb

[Dingo Jellybean]

in a totally unprofessional opinion, i think you should go to an ear doctor, get those babies checked.

192+ or vrb

Have you compared the sound quality from 56kbps to 128kbps? Little difference, unless you plug them into giant speakers. Plus, my files are in 56kbps AAC, not MP3s. Most of my music files are AAC or protected AACs.

And I think you mean VBR.

[eestlinc]

I prefer to listen to music on CD over mp3 because of the sound quality.

Well, I prefer listening to it live over recorded at all, but you know...

[krissy]

anything under 64 is stretching it
and yea i did oops

[Mirage]

I encode my albums with the LAME MP3 encoder at VBR quality 0, with a minimum bitrate of 32kbps, and a maximum of 224 kbps.
Most of my downloaded music is somewhere between 160 and 256 kbps. I don't play my music through "regular" PC desktop speakers though, so it's not pointless. Also, I have loads of hard disk space and a fast internet connection, so why not utilize it?

[Montoya]

128kbps, Although I always change it between 128 and 192.

[Doomgaze]

High quality VBR. And yeah, my computer's audio out is routed through my stereo.

[NM]

Minimum I use us 160, bost of my MP3's are at 192 which is equal to CD quality. Even at 128 the quality is awful so I don't know how you can put up with 56.

[jrgen]

56 is extremely bad.
If I rip CDs I always use 196 or 256.

[Skogs]

128 is good enough. Even when I play my mp3s through my PA speakers, (2x350W) it sounds pretty good.

[Dr.K]

I think anything at 96 or below runs the risk of having that soul destroying watery effect in the background, so i use anything above that

[Dingo Jellybean]

Minimum I use us 160, bost of my MP3's are at 192 which is equal to CD quality. Even at 128 the quality is awful so I don't know how you can put up with 56.

Not quite...192kbps isn't nearly as the same quality as CD, if you use some sound monitor. But to the human ear, it's impossible to distinguish the difference from 192 and CD. I remember the bit rate for .wav files ripped from CDs are like, 1200kbps.

The earphones and equalizer on the iPod are great though. They really enhance the sound well, even though the sound is filtered through headphones. 56kbps isn't all that bad like some people said, but they're 56kbps AAC, which is like, 72kbps MP3s.

[Necronopticous]

Hmm, I try to avoid anything below 192, HQ VBR is undoubtedly the best. With good headphones blasting the difference is VERY noticable. If you're using crappy standard computer speakers it doesn't really matter much since they're usually not capable of taking advantage what high quality has to offer anyway.

[Lindy]

So, basically, the iPod rips everything out of a track that takes up space.

And you complain about not being able to fill up all the space, christ, you have, what, 30 gigabytes?

At least encode it at a decent rate!

192vbr, though I have a lot of old stuff that's just plain 192 or 128, and the difference between 192 and 128 is VERY noticeable for me, I even re-ripped a bunch of albums at 192 to replace the 128 versions I had, and it's much better.

[Mirage]

Not that bitrate is everything anyway. A good MP3 encoder can produce a better result at 128 kbps than a <img src=http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif><img src=http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif><img src=http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif><img src=http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif>ty encoder can do at 160, for example.

[Dingo Jellybean]

So, basically, the iPod rips everything out of a track that takes up space.

And you complain about not being able to fill up all the space, christ, you have, what, 30 gigabytes?

At least encode it at a decent rate!

192vbr, though I have a lot of old stuff that's just plain 192 or 128, and the difference between 192 and 128 is VERY noticeable for me, I even re-ripped a bunch of albums at 192 to replace the 128 versions I had, and it's much better.

I never complained that I couldn't fill up the space, I just said that I need more music to fill it up. I plan to keep my iPod for a very long time, and since I collect CDs every other week, it'll bound to expand. So by that, I try to keep file sizes low.

I have a 15GB iPod, my laptop will probably have at most 30GBs. I might buy an external HD to store all my music and such later on. But I'm very limited on money right now. So I have to keep bitrates low, otherwise I'll end up needing to buy a new HD.

[Yamaneko]

900+ VBR. :D Or lower quality OGGs. Or CDA.

[Mindflare]

I rip CDs at 256 kbps .mp3, but most of my collection is at 128 kbps. Works well enough for all I do.

[MecaKane]

My speakers are crap, but I can still hear the difference in 96 and 128. Nothing else over that, though. Most of what I get download is 128, or 192, because I just know it's better. >_>

[Mirage]

900+ VBR. :D Or lower quality OGGs. Or CDA.
Just use a lossless format like FLAC? They average at 700 kbps I hear, and are 100% lossless.

[Dingo Jellybean]

Just use a lossless format like FLAC? They average at 700 kbps I hear, and are 100% lossless.

Apple's Lossless format is half the size of the original and supposedly are 100% lossless. I've tested it myself and can't find the difference, but I don't have a sound monitor to know for sure. Sound monitors cost thousands anyways, but eh.