I haven't bothered to determine the bitrate required using L.A.M.E. I would assume that 256k L.A.M.E.-converted material would sound better than iTunes' 320k equivalents and by some margin, such is the chasm I perceive in quality difference. It's an open-and-shut case AFAIC, an absolute no-brainer. Normal Stereo (not interleaved or so-called "joint stereo"). To be clear, the settings I recommend for ultimate quality using L.A.M.E., and IMHO they apply to iTunes et al as well, are: The difference in quality between the two systems is so great that I reconverted my entire iTunes library, a huge undertaking. I'm not going to get into a debate about this I never have.
![xld mp3 256 xld mp3 256](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/89/9e/00839e89.jpg)
I surmised many years ago that the obvious-to-me differences were due to Apples' prioritisation of convenience (speed of conversion) over best-possible sound quality, which is understandable given the huge customer base. via Audacity or another host, compare the same files side-by-side with 320k iTunes equivalents and you'll hear the obvious differences. ITunes' conversion sounds duller and smears transients. I've said it many times here and elsewhere: But sometime ago someone told me iTunes wasn't really a quality converter.ĭon't have details but it left me wondering. NealF wrote: ↑ Fri 10:35 amI usually do it in iTunes. Though I have DSP-Q and it has its features, I'm used to TW. There are ways to do batch conversions in iTunes but I prefer TwistedWave because it's fast and I have custom sorting options. If your phone or iPod has limited space (my old 2GB Shuffles), then iTunes limits your rate to 128K to conserve space. So, even though I wish that iTunes would put 320K on my phone, it doesn't and the sounds in my car are very good. Very few can detect the difference between 320k and 44.1/48k and fewer still will submit to blind A/B comparisons. If not doing Apple Lossless m4a, Apple defaults to 256K for quality sound on iTunes/AppleMusic for loading on iPhones and iPods. When emailing preview files or uploading to the Library of Congress, VBR is just fine. The standard default using most current CODECs is VBR (variable bit rate) and it sounds very good despite the reams of armchair expert nonsense you'll find on the internet telling you why this goofball or that thinks it's no good. How you do the eventual conversion doesn't really matter anymore.