Loading up on music, 320kbps MP3 or 192kbps WMA for sound quality? (On Flash Drive)

[zorphon 10+ year member]

Title ^.

Thanks in advance.

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[Imtjnotu 5,000+ posts]

Flac

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I think 320kbps cbr mp3 is good enough that most people will not tell a difference in a blind test, and those who can tell a difference probably need high end equipment to do so. I carry music on 320kbps flash drive. 32GB is the file system size limit for FAT or whatever the head units usually can read (which seems pretty mediocre, but good enough for my collection).

 

[zorphon 10+ year member]

Flac

Not an option. The formats I mentioned are the only ones my HU supports :/ (and the highest bitrate at that)

 

---------- Post added at 01:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:57 AM ----------

 

I think 320kbps cbr mp3 is good enough that most people will not tell a difference in a blind test, and those who can tell a difference probably need high end equipment to do so. I carry music on 320kbps flash drive. 32GB is the file system size limit for FAT or whatever the head units usually can read (which seems pretty mediocre, but good enough for my collection).

Cool beans, I guess I'll go with the mp3 then.

 

[zorphon 10+ year member]

Anyone else? Is 320kbit MP3 the best out of these two? Also where do you guys get the majority of your mp3s for your vehicles?

 

[MisterDeadeye 10+ year member]

It doesn't matter what the file type is, the bitrate is what you should pay attention to(among other things, but your head unit might not be able to play things with high sample rates or bit depth).

You should use v0 VBR though, instead of 320 CBR. VBR utilizes all of its space, instead of filling every bit of your music with fluff.

The quality is the same(might be better in some cases) than 320 CBR, even though your songs will have a lower bit rate(usually from 200-260).

 

[Dirtrider4eva 10+ year member]

I usually just download music at 256-320kps. Works for me //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[zorphon 10+ year member]

It doesn't matter what the file type is, the bitrate is what you should pay attention to(among other things, but your head unit might not be able to play things with high sample rates or bit depth).
You should use v0 VBR though, instead of 320 CBR. VBR utilizes all of its space, instead of filling every bit of your music with fluff.

The quality is the same(might be better in some cases) than 320 CBR, even though your songs will have a lower bit rate(usually from 200-260).

So VBR doesn't sacrifice quality at all? I've been doing highest quality VBR I can make and playing that and it sounds pretty good, just want to make sure I can't do better with other ways. Too bad iTunes doesn't have a built-in LAME plugin for windows

 

[DET08 10+ year member]

Mp3's are compressed files, they cut out the highest and lowest notes to save space. If you have itunes, you can convert to WAV Audio, uncompressed. Definitely a more finished sound to bass kick with rap and deeper bass if you listen to dubstep or DnB

 

[zorphon 10+ year member]

Mp3's are compressed files, they cut out the highest and lowest notes to save space. If you have itunes, you can convert to WAV Audio, uncompressed. Definitely a more finished sound to bass kick with rap and deeper bass if you listen to dubstep or DnB

Unfortunately my Headunit only plays mp3's/wma's, it doesn't support WAV.

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

Once you have an MP3 that's been compressed to 320Kbps, you can't "uncompress" it to a wave... A wave file is a raw sound file (WAV). It would only be converted. MP3 compression works by taking "unneeded" sound information out of the spectrum, the entire track.

FLAC, WAV, WMA Lossless are all formats that are very high quality, CD quality.

The way most music is arranged on digital recorders negates the need to get much higher than 320Kbs quality. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif The compression, D/A losses, distortion, etc pretty much kills any chance of having 'high' quality recordings in the last 10 - 20 years or more (depending on type of equipment).

 

[zorphon 10+ year member]

Once you have an MP3 that's been compressed to 320Kbps, you can't "uncompress" it to a wave... A wave file is a raw sound file (WAV). It would only be converted. MP3 compression works by taking "unneeded" sound information out of the spectrum, the entire track.
FLAC, WAV, WMA Lossless are all formats that are very high quality, CD quality.

The way most music is arranged on digital recorders negates the need to get much higher than 320Kbs quality. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif The compression, D/A losses, distortion, etc pretty much kills any chance of having 'high' quality recordings in the last 10 - 20 years or more (depending on type of equipment).

So what would you suggest to get the highest quality mp3/wma music that my head unit can play? Right now I'm doing like the highest bit rate VBR I can do and it sounds the same as the m4a files, so I'm not hearing much of a quality loss at all. I'm sure there is one, but it definitely isn't noticeable. Is that the best solution? Is there a way to convert my iTunes music to Lossless WMA easily? Would that sound any better than what I'm currently doing?

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

If the file is already in Mp3 format, changing it to another format won't increase the sound quality. Its already been compressed (destroyed) so there's nothing you can do with it once its been compressed.

If you are Ripping CD's, you can make WMA Lossless or WAV files with Windows Media Player. Otherwise you have to download the files in a higher quality format, but like I said, anything above 320Kbps probably won't be audable since most recordings are not as high of quality as they used to be. I actually see a lot of clipped, distorted and outright bad SQ productions. Especially rock music composed on Pro Tools......sounds so horrible.

 

[Slayerx 10+ year member]

I am usually happy enough with 320kps I don't bother taking the time to find better quality, especially when most the time to notice a difference you have to focus on trying to hear any differences lol. And I doubt you do the majority of your listening with the car off in your driveway haha.

 

[zorphon 10+ year member]

I am usually happy enough with 320kps I don't bother taking the time to find better quality, especially when most the time to notice a difference you have to focus on trying to hear any differences lol. And I doubt you do the majority of your listening with the car off in your driveway haha.

Lol fair enough. I'll just stick with my high bit-rate mp3s and call it a day.