[oli_ramsay]

Hi all

I've heard that WMA is better quality than MP3, and I've only got a 4GB player (zen stone plus). I'm currently converting my songs to 96kbps wma 48khz from around ~160VBR MP3 44khz. Will the quality loss be very noticable with the lower bitrate of 96? Is there anything else I can do to fit loads of songs on my mp3 player?

Thanks

 

[jiiteepee]

By measures I've made in the past, only 24-bit WMA keeps the quality better than what mp3 is able (@ any bit-rate). Lossy to lower quality lossy sure decreases the quality much.

jiitee

 

[compuryan]

yea if you have to use a lossy format, stick with some sort of mp3.

 

[[L]es]

+1 on mp3

 

[funkychowda]

mp3

 

[majkel]

Changing the sampling frequency is an extremely stupid operation while conversion. Second, when you convert from one lossy to another to shrink the size, better keep the same codec used as different encoding formats cut off different part of the music. Overall, use lossless source like FLAC or CD and rip to mp3.

 

[illy2k]

Quote:

Originally Posted by compuryan /img/forum/go_quote.gif yea if you have to use a lossy format, stick with some sort of mp3.

x2. You can also test different bit rates in order to find the optimal quality to size ratio for your tastes.

 

[krmathis]

x2 on sticking with MP3.
Or at least perform a listening test to some ~160Kbps MP3 files and some transcoded to 96Kbps WMA. Most likely you would hear a very noticeable quality loss.

 

[Punnisher]

Mp3. First of all, V0 lame is great.

Second of all, everything works with mp3.

 

[oli_ramsay]

Cheers for your advice guys, I guess I'll have to re-convert them to mp3 96kbps (from original file) and leave the sample rate alone. Another question though, would VBR @ ~96kbps be better quality than normal 96kbps? As you can see I'm trying to find a ballance between quality and quantity.

Cheers again!

 

[mark2410]

convert a few songs and put both the higher bitrate and lower bitrate versions on and see how much difference you notice between them, personally i wouldnt lower anything from the 160 but i guess depends on what your listening to them on

 

[Chri5peed]

WMA is turd.

 

[Barock]

MP3 every time. Just don't use low bitrates (ie. < 192k).

 

[oli_ramsay]

OK, I've decided to go for 120kbps VBR mp3, 44100KHz (selecting "as source" made them all 32000khz for some reason), 32 bit and I'm using dbpoweramp reference with lame 3.97 codec.

This should allow me to fit a couple thousand songs onto my 4GB stone and still maintain a reasonable quality.

Thanks for your help guys!