Best Possible MP3 Quality Setting?

Hey, DaVo,

You should check out the article I've written on this topic: Getting the Most out of Your Audio Gadget Storage. Mainly on the 4th page ("Let's Encode" section). I've clearly pointed out the differences between VBR, ABR, and CBR. The bitrate is a no-brainer, the higher the better, but 320kbps is oftentimes more than enough; to be honest, it seems a bit of overkill, too. But you need to realize that MP3 by its very nature is not a lossless transcoding algorithm. Therefore, should you re-encode the same MP3 file dozens of times even though maintaining a high bitrate and ultra-high qualities, the overall quality of the track will gradually decrease (becomes exponentially more and more lossy).

Good luck.

i usually use a bitrate of 192 kbps vbr. i usually avoid cbr b/c it's just increasing the file size for no apparent reason. vbr will give you a smaller file size w/ the same quality. i have a pair of $3000 cerwin-vega speakers and 192 kbps sounds perfect on them. only some songs can i tell the 320 kbps version is a tad, tad, tad, tad bit better.

Really? I beg the differ (sorry!). I'm a DJ, and I can hear the quality differences of 192 to 320 anyday.

So I can assume that those original setting I set are the best possible for MP3's?

i'm probably not listening to the right songs to tell the difference. i'm sure if i listened to some classical music at 192 then again at 320, i'm sure i would be able to tell a better difference. but i mainly listen to country and rock music.

for the best file size and quality, i would rip at 320 kbps vbr.

Ok fantastic. So VBR should be preferred over CBR for quality in this circumstance?

In my article that I've linked above the reason why we usually consider "VBR > ABR > CBR" is detailed thoroughly (page 4 - section Let's Encode).

But like I explained there, it's just an overall generalization and results in a rule of thumb. You shouldn't take that for granted on each and every situation. There are a multitude of factors influencing the outcome results. But usually CBR is omitted since it is traditional and old-fashioned.