[pomidor]

Hope this is the right forum to ask in, my question is:

What is the recommended kbps rate for classical music when listening on the iPhone on the move (i.e. just iPhone and the apple buds, no other gear)?

I ask as I am going to the mountains for about a month, so lots of hiking, rock climbing, cross country etc., during which I like to use only my iPhone with the apple buds, because of the size and the fact I can pick up call without taking off gloves etc. There are about 20 or so classical CDs that I want to rip to put on it and was wondering what is the best rate to rip at. Considering how and when I will be listening will I actually notice a difference between 320 cbr and 260 vbr or even lower? Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks for the help.

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pomidor

 

[Mclulinjenek]

I would encode them with the newest LAME and then V2. V2 is a variable setting, which means it uses more kbps for the more intensive parts and less kbps for the less intensive parts. It's always advice able to go for a variable bit rate and I dont think you will be able to hear the difference between V0 (the highest bit rate setting) and V2 with your setup.

 

[krmathis]

Highest possible.
If you can hear an audible difference between 320kbps CBR and 250kbps VBR is up to you to define. As only you would know the answer. I suggest you perform a simple listening test.

 

[a_recording]

If you are just using the Apple Earbuds, and this is a temporary solution (ie: You will re-rip your music later and listen with better earphones later) I think you should just stick with something like 160k AAC. I'm not sure you will actually hear the higher levels of details on earphones like those.

I'd say go with AAC rather than mp3 though, especially if you are just going to use iTunes to rip it.

I'm just curious as to why you are asking though - is this a matter of space saving? Do you need to fit other things on the iPhone? Otherwise you should just rip at the highest possible to save yourself time down the long run.

 

[Trysaeder]

First priority: Headphones
Second priority: Source
Third priority: Music

You have garbage headphones, a not very good source, and pretty good music.
Instead of making a thread about it, go do some ABX with a few tracks to see if it is worthwhile.

 

[Get_Zwole]

320 already pretty compact no reason to go lower and sacrifice.

 

[bba1973]

With iBuds, 192 CBR will probably do fine. You should seriously consider uprgrading your headphones. There's stuff in the music that you're probably not hearing with the iBuds that will be more audible/obvious/lively with better headphones. You'd have to hear what you're missing to fully appreciate and understand. Koss KSC75's make decent earmuffs and they sound pretty good too.

To answer your question, just rip to different formats and bitrates, and do some listening tests. From there, figure out which one will provide you the best mix of quantity and quality. ~256 VBR works for me, but I use OGG. I'm sure there's something similar for MP3.

 

[rawrster]

is it worth higher bitrate on ibuds really? I wouldn't think there would be much of a difference if at all.

However the advice above is good. Why ask us when you can find out for yourself. Rip to different bitrates of your choice of lossy and find out if you hear anything. I typically rip my flac to 256 vbr V0 mp3 on foobar for portable use and I find its a good bitrate at not too much storage size

 

[LintHart]

You may as well rip in 320 even though there may not be much of a difference with ibuds as if you keep reading and contributing to these forums, and hopefully you do, then you will no doubt, like myself, get sucked in to the world of higher quality headphones in which you'll spend less time later fixing the mistake of ripping at a lower quality.

 

[Young Spade]

The ability to hear a difference in SQ based on encoding bitrates is going to depend heavily on what headphones you are using. If you're using something cheap like iBuds or something, then you won't hear a difference.

However if you get a good pair of IEMs or cans you are definitely going to hear a difference between 256k and 320k and even 320-lossless.
I'd say that if you have to encode to mp3, do it in 320. Anything less is going to cost you some SQ (depending on how good your player and headphones are).