iPod newbie question about song encoding

[sanooj]

So I don't know what 128 kbps means. Someone told me that for better quality, I need at least 256 kbps. I use my ipod with my stereo system and am planning on purchasing a pair of Shure e4c's for my nano. I am wondering what kbps rate will make the biggest difference with my earphones (256, 320, etc)

Also, I do not know the best way to change it. I know if in iTunes you go under preferences and choose custom under the advanced importing option you have lots of choices. But I dont know what sample rate I should choose, the channel, or if I should enable Variable Bit Rate Encoding. Thanks.

 

[zephead]

I don't think 256 kbps is really necessary, unless you have very distinguishing ears and can tell the slightest discrepancies in a music file. I rip my songs at 160k AAC (both list boxes auto, no checkboxes), and it's a little better than 128k MP3, but I only use AAC for my favorite bands' full albums, so it'll probably be fine for you.

 

[sanooj]

That helps, but I have one more question. I was looking at past threads and there is a lot of mentions of "lossless encoding." If that could be explained that'd be great, I couldn't find a guide for any of this stuff.

 

[PlaceofDis]

the higher the bit-rate the hight the quality of the encoding. MP3/AAC are both lossy formats, in that you lose some of your sound quality by compressing the track down to a smaller bit-rate, but it saves you from having huge files.

Lossless encoding has higher bit rates and loses none of the quality of the song. and exact copy if you will. However, you will see significantly higher file sizes. much closer to the capacity of a CD per album to be honest.

some people can here the difference. others cant. some people are content with the lower bit rates. others aren't.

192 MP3 is about equal to 128 AAC. this is why i prefer AAC personally. smaller file sizes and better encoding.

my best suggestion to you is to rip a track or two in various bit rates and encoding formats and pick the one that sounds the best to you. no one can tell you that Lossless is the best if you cant hear the difference.

i hope that helps.