Which bitrate should I choose?
That is entirely up to you. Since different people hear different ranges of sound and play thier music over different systems, their needs for MP3 sound quality vary greatly.
If you’re a sound quality buff, you’ll want to have MP3s encoded at a high bitrate (the floor for sound buffs is usually 192k, but many prefer 256 or even 320.) One thing to keep in mind is that several users at iPodLounge have reported problems with iPods playing 320k mp3s, a result of the iPod not having enough RAM to play the 320k properly.
If hard drive space is a concern, you may want to make your mp3s smaller – 160 or 128k.
The best way to tell what bitrate you’ll need is to do a test: rip the song in several bitrates and compare them to the original CD track. When you can’t hear a difference between the two, you’ve found your bitrate. Remember to test the mp3s on your iPod, not just on your computer.
Related posts:
- Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic: Getting optimal audio quality
- iPod shuffle: Using AIFF and Apple Lossless format files
- Apple claims a 30GB iPod will hold 7,500 songs or 60GB 15,000 songs – how do they work this out?
- How much content will fit on my iPod?
- If I enable FireWire Disk mode on my iPod, can I just manually copy over MP3s and playlists to my iPod using Mac Finder or Windows Explorer?