car audio talk MP3 player

320 is a lot better quality than 192, will sound much fuller, almost storebought quality.

 

You can NEVER increase fidelity with a higher bitrate....from a low bit rate source, If the source is say 50, and you burrn at 100, you gain NOTHING.

 

Not all rippers are created equal, and not all encoders are worth using. Windows Media Player has one of the fastest rippers I've ever seen, but the sound quality sucks regardless of bitrate.

I really like Audiograbber for ripping but its internal encoder sucks. One of the best encoders would be Lame 3.97, but it is just an encoder not a ripper. The reason I like Audiograbber so much is that it is easy to install other encoders. It is easy to install and use Lame in Audiograbber

Now for bitrate, everyone thinks that they can hear the difference between a CD and an MP3 CD at 160 bitrate (when ripped using a good encoder). Our ears ain't that good. For a small percent of the population some might hear the difference between 128 k/sec and a CD, but thats a small percent of the population.

To be on the safe side I recommend 192 or better. When setting up Audiograbber select "MP3 file via intermediate wave file" Next select "internal encoder" and then select the "Lame encoder" that you installed in Audiograbber. Select your bitrate. In Quality select "stereo" and select "high"

Do NOT select "Normalize" we will adjust volume of the MP3 files themselves later. Normalizing is bad.

I learned all this because all the music in my truck is on an Ipod interfaced with my Kenwood radio, I've reloaded my Ipod almost a dozen times, ripped and re-ripped my music to my computer 5 or 6 times. All this in an attempt to get the best sound possible, I think I have succeeded.

No one thats heard my truck would have ever guessed that they were listening to an Ipod.

Audiograbber should is a free download and can be found at http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/

Lame 3.97 can be found at http://lame.sourceforge.net/download.php

 

Hmmm, windows media player can rip up to 980 or something like that but i don't find it necessary. I use dbpowerAmp if i want to convert to a high quality cd or music files. It comes with lame, oggvorbis and all the plugins.

If the songs you want are available at 320 then i would grab those over 190 any day. There is a huge difference. 192 is ok.. but is missing a lot of the bottom end and fullness. Also your going to hate me for this (Viking) but when you convert 192 to 320 you are gaining quality, the sound originally came from a cd so the quality is still there and can be brought back even if it was only 192 when you get it.

Maybe most people wouldn't notice a difference but i noticed the first time i made a cd with 320, it's like night and day. I had to change my eq setting to make up for the difference.

 

Store bought cds are not 128kbs they are more like 1200kbs

 

the source would have to be at least 128kbs to still have all the quality still hiding! Anything under that you probably wouldn't be able to make it sound better.

 

If you can hear the difference between a CD and an MP3 at 320, I would really consider a different encoder. Its just not possible to hear the difference.


The bad midbass reputation of MP3 files were due in part by encoders like FhG l3enc, .FhG Fastencc, BladeEnc, Xing MP3 encoder (used in Real Player and Real Jukebox) and especially QDesign MP3 encoder (one of the worst).

One other thing, I am one picky b*tch, if there was the slightest difference I would not use MP3 files, even the RTA says there is no difference in sound between a CD and the Ipod.

Had to add my 11-cents worth

Everything you wanted to know about Lame and then some http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/1912

 

320 and cd quality are very close, I probably couldn't tell the difference, but 128 and 320 is a huge difference, and thats how 80% of the music files out there are compressed down to 128kbs.

 

It sound like you know a little about compression, what can you tell me about Variable Bitrate, is it better than Constant BitRate.

Would the sound quality be improved, I'm curious. I'm not even sure if the Ipod supports VBR

 

lol, i've seen some mp3s like that with the bitrate jumping all over, sometimes up to 980kbs, i would imagine it's better but i just use the lame with dbpowerAmp at 320kbs or ogg-vorbis is good too, i think you can also do variable bit rate with dbpowerAmp it's been a while since i've used it.

Heres a quick link i found with all the info!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_bit_rate

Ogg-Vorbis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

Try a mixed cd at 320 and listen to the whole thing, i bet you will hear things that you never heard before.

 

Actually thats how I figured most of this stuff out. I must have ripped music to my computer atleast 5 or 6 times, and reloaded the Ipod almost a dozen times. All of this just to get it right.

I would compare the songs on the Ipod (which is interfaced with the Kenwood using a Kenwood KAC IP500 interface) with the CD the songs were ripped from. I knew I had it right when I (or any one else) could NOT tell the difference. And I mean no one could tell the defference, customers, co-workers, friends and even employees at other stereo shops.

Anyway I do not use MP3 CD's in my truck, the main reason for the Ipod was so that I never have to keep CD's in the truck. There was nothing that I hated more than having CD's all over the truck. Now I have 27 Playlists (albums) and 422 songs in the truck and only one CD in the player.

The truck looks so much neater now

 

Ipods are sweet, a lot of defects along the way but if your lucky you will have one that will last. Out of all the electronics gadgets thats the one thing i haven't got yet. But i'm happy with 120 songs on an mp3 cd for now. The pioneer deck has an IP Bus which allows you to plug in ipods and all kinds of stuff and i bought the special cord, its plugged in the back of my deck waiting there in case i want to plug something in.

 

Excellent choice of music for a check. Basically thats what I did, trial and error. At one point I got so annoyed with the sound Quality of the Ipod I almost gave up. A kid (anyone half my age is a kid) I go to college with sugested the Lame encoder, I never looked back. This encoder is much slower than Windows Media Player but the sound difference, even at the same bitrate is amazing.

Anyway have fun and experiment. I've done a little research on Variable Bit Rate and it looks like its the way to go, but I need to do a little more research.

 

Also there is no difference in quality no matter how many times the data file-mp3 is copied. When the song is converted to an mp3, now it is just information like 0s and 1s billions of them probably. So no matter if you take that mp3 and burn it to cd, upload it to your ipod, store it on your computer, or laptop, or usb flash drive or burn to dvd cd, bring it to your car or wherever... it will always be the same because it is exact information now and it is being stored on a micro chip or hard drive. The trick is when its converted to getting the best quality possible.

 

hey he's back lol, whats going on with all those amps in your pic Darryle