johnnymk

I am going to convert my old music cassettes to CDs using the Plusdeck I just received. I am debating whether I should convert them to a wav. file or to MP3 using 192 bit rate.

If you use MP3, what bitrate do you use? Do you notice any degradation in quality as compared to the original CD?

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ArkiStan

I think 192 is the popular standard now for near-CD-quality sound. It's a good balance between quality and file size. But since you're sources are gonna be cassette quality, I don't think you would need 192. Maybe 128 at the highest? You definitely don't need WAV.

Merlin

MP3 is fine by me. It seems to be the most universally used - i.e. my car in dash unit can play them. As for bit rates....I would not want to go below 128. Of course 192 is better and when I encode something that is the rate I use. A good balance between quality and compact size.

As for pulling it off of cassette...that will limit your quality so it shouldn't really matter.

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MikeD

192 should be fine. If you've got HDD space to burn, you could do 256. You probably won't notice any difference above that (going to something like 320), especially if migrating from cassette.

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Airencracken

MP3's suck, but I go 192 Min and higest quality VBR for decent sound quality.

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Grimm

I would convert them to .wav files and then clean them up. After that I would store the CDs with the .wav files and use mp3s that I made from the clean .wavs.
You want to keep the best possible source for your audio. In case a new standard comes along later. Each time you convert to a lossy algorityim ytour quality will degrade a bit more. Saving .wav files prohibits this.

zero2dash

I'm fine with mp3 as a whole; my entire collection...of...umm...lots...is all 128kbps mp3 format (minus a few select that are lower, like all of the Bud Light Real American Heroes/Real Men Of Genius commercials which don't need a high bitrate).

Sounds like the one to evolve to will end up being aacPlus.
(couple of articles on aacPlus)
http://www.codingtechnologies.com/products/aacPlus.htm
http://www.slate.com/id/2112548/

aacPlus strips away the frequencies that the human ear cannot detect and only keeps the ones that it can, resulting in higher quality in a lower bitrate. CD quality aacPlus files are only 48kbps. (XM Satellite Radio is apparently aacPlus format.) The only flaw with aacPlus at the moment is that it's not a standard format (like mp3 or wav), so support for it is somewhat limited at the moment (Winamp supports it, and an open source player called VLC supports it on PC, Mac, and Linux).

I recently found out about it because I listen to streaming radio at work but our dsl connection sucks (very slow). Anything about a 64kbps stream can't be enjoyed. Well, I found a site (tuner2.com) that lists streaming radio playlists in aacPlus format, and downloaded VLC and you can get cd quality out of a 48kbps aacPlus file/stream, which is friendly on the weak bandwidth I have at work.

Check aacPlus out.

Bires

Use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) with the LAME encoder and the -r3mix settings. This will give you as near to lossless compression, as it is 192-target VBR (Variable Bit Rate) joint-stereo compression. It's vastly superior to constant bit rate compression and sounds as good or better than files compressed with "lossless" WMA and ATRAC, while being half the size.

Best of all, all my MP3CD players have no problem reading them. (JVC, Pioneer, and Clarion car decks, and my Phillips DVD player.)

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