I have an MP3 CD player on my boat. I am trying to figure out what
bitrate to use to maximize the number of songs on a CD. The receiver is
an inexpensive JVC and the speakers are likewise average JVC. I am no
audiophile, but don't want to hear hissing and cracking. What is the
lowest I can go where there will be no discernable difference in sound?
Keep in mind with the boat engine running, even the best
encoding/stereo won't sound great.

On 25 May 2005 15:04:33 -0700, wrote:

I have an MP3 CD player on my boat. I am trying to figure out what
bitrate to use to maximize the number of songs on a CD. The receiver is
an inexpensive JVC and the speakers are likewise average JVC. I am no
audiophile, but don't want to hear hissing and cracking. What is the
lowest I can go where there will be no discernable difference in sound?
Keep in mind with the boat engine running, even the best
encoding/stereo won't sound great.

64kbps isn't painful for casual listening in a noisy environment.
Does it have to be stereo?

Don't bother going lower than 128k - that's some pretty heavy
compression, you save quite a lot of space over uncompressed audio and
you'll fit 7-10 albums worth of music on a single CD...

Cheers,
Kai

On 2005-05-26 08:04:33 +1000, said:

I have an MP3 CD player on my boat. I am trying to figure out what
bitrate to use to maximize the number of songs on a CD. The receiver is
an inexpensive JVC and the speakers are likewise average JVC. I am no
audiophile, but don't want to hear hissing and cracking. What is the
lowest I can go where there will be no discernable difference in sound?
Keep in mind with the boat engine running, even the best
encoding/stereo won't sound great.

Laurence Payne wrote:

64kbps isn't painful for casual listening in a noisy environment.
Does it have to be stereo?


I disagree.
Even 192kbps can have quite obious artifacts depending on the material.
Even on low end equipment and in noisy environments 128kbps or lower
usually sounds horrible to me although it does depend a lot on the
actual recording you're encoding. Some (but not many) sound somewhat
decent at 128kbps.

Sander

On Thu, 26 May 2005 11:56:56 +0200, Sander
wrote:

64kbps isn't painful for casual listening in a noisy environment.
Does it have to be stereo?


I disagree.
Even 192kbps can have quite obious artifacts depending on the material.
Even on low end equipment and in noisy environments 128kbps or lower
usually sounds horrible to me although it does depend a lot on the
actual recording you're encoding. Some (but not many) sound somewhat
decent at 128kbps.



I make bespoke musical backing tracks. I will often post a 64kbps
preview version on my web site so the client can grab an advance copy.
Some say "That's fine! Don't bother to mail the CD."

Some hear the music, some hear the medium. He's not going to throw
away the originals. I guess he'll just have to suck it and see :-)

"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
...
On 25 May 2005 15:04:33 -0700, wrote:

I have an MP3 CD player on my boat. I am trying to figure out what
bitrate to use to maximize the number of songs on a CD. The receiver is
an inexpensive JVC and the speakers are likewise average JVC. I am no
audiophile, but don't want to hear hissing and cracking. What is the
lowest I can go where there will be no discernable difference in sound?
Keep in mind with the boat engine running, even the best
encoding/stereo won't sound great.

64kbps isn't painful for casual listening in a noisy environment.
Does it have to be stereo?

Even better at 64kbps mp3pro which is more like 128kbps mp3 if the player
could play mp3pro. Otherwise it just sound like 64kbps. Satellite radios
receive at this low bit rate, right? XM radio sounds pretty good to me.

On 25 May 2005 15:04:33 -0700, wrote:

I have an MP3 CD player on my boat. I am trying to figure out what
bitrate to use to maximize the number of songs on a CD. The receiver is
an inexpensive JVC and the speakers are likewise average JVC. I am no
audiophile, but don't want to hear hissing and cracking. What is the
lowest I can go where there will be no discernable difference in sound?
Keep in mind with the boat engine running, even the best
encoding/stereo won't sound great.

It's all very subjective. For the popular LAME encoder, I would not
consider going below 160 kbps for 44.1 KHz stereo, about 50 seconds per
megabyte.

If you don't mind going to mono, that means you can get twice as many
files in the same space using 80 kbps. (1:40 per megabyte)

If you want stereo but don't mind losing the top octave (which may be
inaudible in a noisy environment), you can go to 22 KHz sampling rate at
80 kbps.

And then 22KHz mono can go at 40 kbps, giving you 3:20 minutes per
megabyte.






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Laurence Payne wrote:
On Thu, 26 May 2005 11:56:56 +0200, Sander
wrote:


64kbps isn't painful for casual listening in a noisy environment.
Does it have to be stereo?


I disagree.
Even 192kbps can have quite obious artifacts depending on the material.
Even on low end equipment and in noisy environments 128kbps or lower
usually sounds horrible to me although it does depend a lot on the
actual recording you're encoding. Some (but not many) sound somewhat
decent at 128kbps.




I make bespoke musical backing tracks. I will often post a 64kbps
preview version on my web site so the client can grab an advance copy.
Some say "That's fine! Don't bother to mail the CD."

Some hear the music, some hear the medium. He's not going to throw
away the originals. I guess he'll just have to suck it and see :-)

Why not run some tests with diff bit rates? For noisy env I think MP3
128 is best; its better than FM radio. Then again I encode to ogg now
at quality 6 for portable listening and flac at home.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have an MP3 CD player on my boat. I am trying to figure out what
bitrate to use to maximize the number of songs on a CD. The receiver is
an inexpensive JVC and the speakers are likewise average JVC. I am no
audiophile, but don't want to hear hissing and cracking. What is the
lowest I can go where there will be no discernable difference in sound?
Keep in mind with the boat engine running, even the best
encoding/stereo won't sound great.

I used to think 128kbps was okay, but that swishy sound effect it too
apparent in some songs. I moved up to 160kbps and it sounds nearly clear of
it to me. It is a good compromise. 128kbps can be fine where storage space
is an issue.
John

wrote:

I have an MP3 CD player on my boat. I am trying to figure out what
bitrate to use to maximize the number of songs on a CD. The receiver is
an inexpensive JVC and the speakers are likewise average JVC. I am no
audiophile, but don't want to hear hissing and cracking. What is the
lowest I can go where there will be no discernable difference in sound?

192 kbit/second stereo, 96 kbit pr. second mono, less sounds dull if mp3
and sharp if realmedia.

Keep in mind with the boat engine running, even the best
encoding/stereo won't sound great.

Some things are audible on the cheapest of gear, as for mp3 oddities,
the encoding pre-supposes that the playback frequency response is
reasonably linear, so worse equipment may be worse rather than better.


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

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