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[Patrick C. Dalton]

What's the Difference in Encoding Quality Between MP3 & VBR MP3?

[Deathrider]

VBR means variable bit rate, the bit rate goes up in quality in the areas of the music that need high quility and goes down in the areas that dont need the quality. So the MP3 will have an advantage trade off, it keeps a degree of quality and a slightly smaller amount of space needed than a regular MP3, overall quality will not be the same as a regular MP3 but the space required on the HD will be smaller. pro's and con's can be found on both sides of the fence on this. Best to do is to try it and see if it fits your needs with out undue compromise of quality, and as the file plays you can watch the bit rate count and see it go up and down any where from 64kbs to 256kbs or there abouts.

Hope this helps a little.

Robert Long

[RAVMAN]

VBR generally produces better quality sound files given that the file sizes are equal by increasing the bit rate when needed. I prefer VBR (high quality) over CBR. Visit this site for more information. Click on the Quality link on the r3mix home page and you will find an in depth discussion on the topic and the advantages of VBR.

http://www.r3mix.net

[KingSparta]

Patrick C. Dalton

Both Great Answers

With VBR you can get better Sound Quality For The Same Drive Or less Drive Space.

VBR normaly Produce a 190kbps - 211kbps Avarage On A High Setting, But Will Go As High As 320kbps If Needed.

Now Playing: Isley Brothers - Let Me Down Easy.mp3

[zevele1]

first ,check for compatibility
With you mp3 player
your disman/cd mp3 encoded player
your DVD if it plays mp3
If you plan to make cds mp3 encoded for friends,ask them to make a test as well
If every thing fine,go forVRB
Not my case so i keep regular mp3

[Severian]

Some players don't claim to support VBR, but most do in reality. My handheld and my car stereo both 'say' that they only do CBR at max 128, but neither has a problem. The only problem I've noticed with VBR is that the time-elapsed indicators on these devices seem to get thrown for a loop by it. No big deal.

[KingSparta]

>> The only problem I've noticed with VBR is that the time-elapsed indicators on these devices seem to get thrown for a loop by it.
Yep, Sure Do

[zevele1]

I am dealing with my own gear,and the ones from all my nephews,they parents and many friends.
Because of this i have some problems with some players,include my DVD

[Patrick Dalton]

Hey Folks:

Thanks for the posts. Since I have ripped 4,000|PLS| cd's
in CBR and didn't know there was another choice, I guess
I am in the CBR mode. I wanted to place a post, because
I just learned about VBR. I was using MusicMatch and as
my database got so large the program started getting
extremely slow at startup and for file list sorts, etc.
When I changed to MediaJukeBox this week, all problems
eliminated with speed. But now I am finding there are
so many encoding options that I never knew about. Folks,
thanks for the insight. Sounds like I'll be OK for now with
CBR. When I play a real cd through a 24 bit DAC sony es cd
player and a/b switch between my P3-866Mhz w/CREATIVE mp3
AUDIGY card and monster cable link to my ADCOM seperates, the
sound quality through 3 sets of monitors pumping out 1200watts
is unnoticable between the real CD and the CBR MP3 encoded at 160kbs
w/error correction. If anyone thinks I am going about this wrong
please let me know. I have 2,000|PLS| more cd's to encode.
Peace Out.

[KingSparta]

Patrick Dalton

I would Switch To VBR - High

MusicMatch Has VBR Encoding, So Does Real Jukebox, And They Have For A Few Years

[Patrick Dalton]

I ran a test under VBR High like Sparta said:

The results were like this:

160Kbps - CBR - Size = 5.12MB
VBR - Size = 8.67MB

This will take up alot of space.
I played both on my stereo fairly loud
and I could not tell the diff.

Where is the difference?
Also the VBR recording/rip took
a long, long, long, long, long time....

Patrick

[KingSparta]

your compairing apples and oranges

use whatever sounds good to you, if CBR 32kbps sounds good then use that

try it at 320 CBR see what size it is, with vbr high you get the same quality with a smaller file

if you like 160 cbr then try "Normal" Or "Normal/High" VBR and see what Avarage Kbps You Get

[jakobluck]

After using VBR MP3 --alt preset extreme for the past few months, I can't stand most MP3s encoded under 192kbps CBR anymore. Too much echo and smearing. 224 and 256kbps on more intensive music is beginning to grate my nerves now, too. Try listening to acoustic rock with 160kbps and compare that to a HQ-encoded VBR rip of the same song...most people will hear the obvious differences in quality there.

[Scronch]

I have two questions:

1) Patrick - How old are your ears?  I've been finding this is the biggest factor in what bitrate is required.

2) jako - I agree that switching between a 160kbps source and a higher quality source provides a notcieable difference.  But, can you walk into a room, and go "Oh, geesh, they're playing something that was ripped at 128kbps or 160kbps."  Be honest.  I haven't met anyone who can tell the difference without hearing a side-by-side comparison.  Of course, my firends have ears that are 40-something.  And the quality of the stereo will obviously have an impact.

Scronch

[Poison Dan]

Patrick,

It also depends on the music you are encoding. Some music is relatively easy for MP3, while on some music or some audio parts MP3 has lots of problems. One notorious example is the intro of the song "Kalifornia" of Fatboy Slim.

If you want to hear the artifacts MP3 introduces, then check out this website:
http://ff123.net/ (the Fatboy sample is also mentioned here)

Especially check the section "Various Listening Tests". It also contains a page "Artifact Training Page".

Another excellent forum about high quality audio compression is Project Mayhem:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org

[Scronch]

Artifact Training.  Great.  That's like going to art school to learn what you're not supposed to like.

Scronch

[Patrick Dalton]

I am 32 years old.
I am an audiophile freak - Yes I am picky.
But I cannot hear the diff. between 160Kbps w/oversampling
& VBR High. Maybe I did the test wrong.

I will do it again.

When I am playing this music back I am doing so thru excellent equipment.

Thanks for all your help Gentlemen.......