AirTunes streaming and rip bitrates

[Humbro]

Please choose the appropriate forum for this topic. Thank you. I've been using 128kbps AAC when ripping, partly because I use a Nano. 4GB isn't that much space and I thought I'd squeeze in as much as possible. Now I've started to stream music to my stereo with an AirPort Express (neat thing by the way), and am considering going up to 160 kbps.

Bitrate is always a quantity/quality-tradeoff. Any opinions? Will 160 make a difference that makes it worth the extra precious space on my Nano (cuz ripping things separately for the nano and home listening, is just too much of a hassle), or is it lossless or nothing so I could just as well go for 128?

[kornchild2002]

Personally, I would stick with 128kbps. 160kbps would provide you with extra quality but I honestly don't think it would put it over the top and be an excuse to re-rip at 160kbps.

Just make sure that you are using 128kbps VBR and not the iTunes default option of 128kbps CBR. Enabling the VBR option will give you better sounding files without sacrificing too much space. The iTunes music store now uses 128kbps VBR mpeg-4 AAC files and they have for quite some time now.

You can look over at hydrogenaudio.org for a recent 128 listening test. It seems that iTunes AAC and OGG are tied at 128kbps VBR in terms of quality, this is pretty big as OGG and MPC have always had better sound quality than anything on the market. iTunes AAC beat out MPC and came damn close to OGG.

[yinyang]

depends really on what you'll be using to listen to the streamed music ie your amp/speaker set up.

if it's pretty 'sensitive' maybe you'll need to increase the bitrate. have a read of this for some background info...

http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/itunes.htm

[Humbro]

Thanks a lot for your replies

[kornchild2002]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Humbro
[B]Thanks a lot for your replies