Question about mp3 quality on my Zen Micro

[skyflakes]

I recently bought a Zen Micro about a week and a half ago and I love it! I plan on formatting it soon and my question is, Will I notice a difference in quality with a 192 kbps and a 128 kbps mp3? I am thinking about making my mp3s to 128 kbps so I can put more songs on my ZM. But before I take the time and do that, is there a huge difference, enough for me to notice? Any help is greatly appreciated! :D

[insanekiwi]

imo you won't really notice it unless you're an audiophile. 128kb is good enough for an mp3player. it's also way smaller than 192kb.

edit: why ask anyway? just go ahead and try it. encode the same song at 128 and 192 and listen to it on your zen micro. :)

[skyflakes]

imo you won't really notice it unless you're an audiophile. 128kb is good enough for an mp3player. it's also way smaller than 192kb.

edit: why ask anyway? just go ahead and try it. encode the same song at 128 and 192 and listen to it on your zen micro. :)

585884587[/snapback]

:rofl: I honestly never though of that... I feel like a moron now. :laugh:

But I don't really like putting a song on my ZM, then delete it right after. :/

[insanekiwi]

why not? its an mp3player. it was made for that :rofl:

[skyflakes]

why not? its an mp3player. it was made for that :rofl:

585884601[/snapback]

True. :laugh:

Well, I'm too tired to try it out right now, so I'd like to know from audiophiles if there is a huge difference. :sleep: ;)

[joseph-]

Make sure whatever you bitrate you encode at is variable. It'll save on the filesizes and generally sounds better than a constant bitrate file.

Personally, I use variable bitrate with an average bitrate of about 224. Yeah, the file sizes are a tad bit bigger, but they do sound better.

[skyflakes]

Make sure whatever you bitrate you encode at is variable.  It'll save on the filesizes and generally sounds better than a constant bitrate file.

Personally, I use variable bitrate with an average bitrate of about 224.  Yeah, the file sizes are a tad bit bigger, but they do sound better.

585884615[/snapback]

Are they bigger then 192? Or a little bigger then 128?

[insanekiwi]

VBR is always bigger as CBR.

using lame encoder and "--alt-preset standard" is the highest VBR you can achieve. means best quality you can get with mp3. but its also kind of big compared to 128kb ones.

[joseph-]

On average, most of my songs I've encoded are *about* 6 megs, give or take. Depends on the length of the song.

[PureEdit]

I dont really like 128k mp3s, 192 sound a little better to me. 128k AAC files sound good enough for my iPod, but I would use 192k if it didnt make the battery life so short.

[yudi_lks]

True. :laugh:

Well, I'm too tired to try it out right now, so I'd like to know from audiophiles if there is a huge difference. :sleep:  ;)

585884605[/snapback]

Are you an audiophile? If you are not, why bother to ask them? They surely will notice it.. I definitely not, and I didn't notice much difference... Better if you rip it directly from the CD though..

[Monkeh]

There's a huge difference that's very obvious even when using stock earbuds.

When you have 5GB, use 192k. 128k is for people that value space of audio quality. The Zen line's audio quality is top-notch, so when you put 128k mps on the ZM, it kinda defeats the purpose of having a Zen doesn't it :/

[Veedems Veteran]

There's a huge difference that's very obvious even when using stock earbuds.

When you have 5GB, use 192k. 128k is for people that value space of audio quality. The Zen line's audio quality is top-notch, so when you put 128k mps on the ZM, it kinda defeats the purpose of having a Zen doesn't it :/

585885948[/snapback]

Basically what I was going to say. I encode everything at 192 vbr and would never go lower.

[PrototypeX2]

To note that you also need a pair of decent headphones to hear the difference!