[Empeg-general] Re: I've never ripped CD's and I want to do it right

[Dylan@empegbbs-noreply.merlins.org]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I did an experiment last night like Paul suggested. I encoded three songs at 7 different compression rates using the XING encoder in AudioCatalyst. I used fixed rates of 128, 160, 192, and 224 and variable rates of normal, normal/high, and high. I burned them back to CD using Easy CD Creator and compared the results on my main audio system (which I think is a pretty revealing system).

My first reaction was surprise at how good 128K sounded. The differences between 128K and the original were more subtle then I expected. By the time I moved up to 192K the differences were extremely subtle. All of my 224K recordings skipped so either XING messed up when encoding or Easy CD Creator couldn't decode it correctly. I suspect the latter.

The VBR recordings all sounded better then the FBR recordings that took similar space. Normal was around the same size as 128K, Normal/High compared to 160K and High compared to 192K. I'd say that VBR Normal/High was pretty close to FBR 192K in terms of quality but uses considerably less space. I could still hear a difference between Normal/High and High on my home system but it was very, very subtle and I'm almost positive that I won't be able to tell the difference in my car. In fact, I'd probably be happy with Normal in my car.

So I think VBR Normal/High provides the best quality/space tradeoff using the XING encoder. Now that I've got a feel for the different levels of MP3 compression and what I like, I'll play with the other encoders recommended in this thread and see how they compare in terms of features and sound quality.

Oh yeah, one bitch towards XING. I had to pull down a pirated version of AudioCatalyst just to be able to try it out. Their demo version only allows encoding at 128K and doesn't let you choose which song!  Now I'm all for people getting paid for the software they write and I will pay for AudioCatalyst if I choose to continue using it. But if you are going to cripple your shareware don't do it in such a way that prevents people from being able to evaluate it! Grrrrrrrrrrr

-Dylan


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