[StrikerTek]

Ok, right now, nearly all of my library is formatted in 128kbps AAC. This was fine for me with the stock headphones, and sounded pretty good.

Then I got some Shure e2c's, and I thought I'd try upping the bitrate to see if I could tell a difference on some songs I really liked. So I re-ripped them at 192 AAC, and I could definitely tell a difference on the Shure's, but it was hardly noticeable on the stock buds. The Shure's sound much better playing 192 songs.

So I've only encoded a few songs at 192, and I'm wondering if I should make the bitrate higher to make my library more future-proof so I don't have to do this again. I can't really tell a difference with any higher bitrates on the e2c's, but I will probably eventually upgrade to better canalphones (e4c, e5c, or um2's). Will these be able to take advantage of a higher bitrate?

I did a search, and several people have er4's, which are more detailed in the highs than any shure's or westones, and they can't tell a substantial difference between 224/256 AAC and 320 AAC. So I'm thinking of going with 224 or 256, but which one? Will there be a significant decrease in battery life as compared to sound quality between these two?

 

[jordanr]

256 for me (when I use AAC). Above that, I really don't notice much difference. No significant battery effects at this level.

I'm not a "Shure person," but I'd assume that the higher-end models would be more discerning than your E2Cs given their increased sensitivity. Even then, 256 should be more than adequate.

 

[blessingx]

You may find this page of some use.
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[StrikerTek]

What page? Link not work?

 

[blessingx]

The 'X'. I was drunk.

 

[jordanr]

That's some funny crap. You WERE drunk? Sobered up now?

 

[DLeeWebb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx You may find this page of some use. [size=xx-small]x [/size]

Thank you...a very interesting bit of information that I can use. thanks...

 

[Beach123456]

Depending on how much room you have on your iPod, raise it as high as you can while leaving some room for future music.

 

[itsmikey]

i used to go 256 aac but i've got almost 6 gigs now, so i decided to drop it down to 192.

can't tell much of a difference in the cans i'm using now. sennheiser 212 pro.

 

[SunByrne]

I only listen to compressed stuff when on the portable or sometimes at work when I'm mostly working rather than listening anyway. Given that, I use 224 or 192 depending on what it is. If it's not a particularly great recording to start with, 192 is good enough, but if it's a better recording 224 is what I go with. 320 is a little bit better on good recordings but not enough to be worth the almost 50% increase in file size, at least not on my iPod.

 

[bigshot]

I encode at 192, but when I hear artifacting, I up it to 256. That's pretty rare.

See ya
Steve

 

[jpr703]

You really should encode a couple tracks at both bitrates and listen for yourself. After that you can compare the file sizes in Windows Explorer and see which one suits you best.

 

[EdipisReks]

i usually use 192 or 224 KBPS AAC. i find them to be comparable to my older --alt-preset standard and --alt-preset extreme LAME rips, respectively.

 

[viator122]

I started at 128kbps, too. Then I bumped it up to iTunes encoding VBR mp3 with the "Highest" quality setting and a floor of 160kbps. This yields files averaging 170-180kbps and I think they sound pretty decent for my uses. However, now, in the interest of futureproofing myself I'm thinking about going with Apple Lossless. You might want to think about it too. Hard drives are cheap, so you could just buy one, rip all your CDs to ALAC. Then you have a great full rez library and you can encode to whichever lossy format suits your mood pretty easily.

 

[blessingx]

You may want to glance at Eagle_Drivers comments here (corresponds to Apple's recommended 9MB and under file size limit). Possible argument for 224 over 256/320.

Also for anyone on OS X, use the Apple Lossless to AAC link in my sig to maintain an ALAC file on your computer, but AAC file on your iPod.