Mp3 bitrates for CarPC's

edrex · 02-05-2005, 01:41 PM

Just wondering what bitrates you guys use for your cars. I have about 90% of my music at 128 and it sounds great being played through my home theater system. The bass sounds good, the highs are all there and it sounds CD quality.
Will it be the same in the car? I plan on amping the stock speakers until I can afford to upgrade them to something else. So, speaker quality aside, will 128 mp3's sound decent in a car? What bitrates do you all use?
Thanks.

gleinz · 02-05-2005, 01:59 PM

Well, I believe 192 kbps is CD quality audio... so that's how all my mp3s are encoded. I also have a bunch of variable bit rate mp3s, which also sound really good.

neon_eddy · 02-05-2005, 02:08 PM

I guess it all depends..

I'm looking at re-encoding all my music for my car using razorLame great tool .. I've found I can get 128kbps quality out of a 72kbps file .. using joint stereo and VBR .. I used those file in my RioMP300 .. the ORIGINAL portable mp3 player.. good god I spend $300 on that .. only 32mb

and if you listen to two tracks one encoded at 128 and the other at 192 .. .you'll hear a difference.. especially in the high end.. symbols, and other chimey things..

I rip at 160 using the Lame Encoder .. VBR ..

it all depends.. do you have a 120gb drive in there and or you looking to keep it small with a 10 or 20 gb laptop drive.. and do you really care if it sounds the best is could.. I know people who will only rip at 320kbps ..

I would do VBR whatever you do if space is an issue.. joint stereo is nice too.. it combines the frequencies below 600hz or so maybe lower.. into one channel .. I can'd tell stereo bass apart much .. but it keep the high end nice and seperated..

hope that helps..
-shawn

omar · 02-05-2005, 02:27 PM

IMO, for playback in the car, do not go below 160kbps. Encoding at anything below 160kbps non-VBR you will hear artificats--especially in the high end. I can hear a difference. YMMV.

Peoples · 02-05-2005, 02:33 PM

personally i cant tell the difference between 128 and 160, i dont think many poeple can. anything below this though makes a pretty big difference. My cellphone only plays 56kbps quality, and you can definatly tell the difference.

edrex · 02-05-2005, 02:38 PM

Thanks for the replies.
Space will not be an issue as I will be installing two HUGE HD's (total of about 360GB) because I will be loading my collection of Divx movies on my CarPC.
I am going to go through my CD collection and re-encode as much as possible. Thanks again for the suggestions.