WMA to MP3 Settings

You'll probably get lots of replies that will tell you to forget about converting directly from mp3 to wma. Converting from one lossy format to another is generally disappointing. I've tried it. I decided to re-rip all of my stuff directly from CDs to mp3.

In general, I encode to 64kbps wma, and it's almost as good as 128kbps mp3. If you are any more discerning about audio quality than I, you will surely be better off re-ripping your stuff.

For what it's worth...

I encoded a bunch of my CDs into 128Kb WMA files because i once used a RioVolt SP250 Cd/Mp3 player. Now that i have an iPod, i converted one album to 128Kb Mp3 using a program called Cool Edit Pro 2.0. To say the least, i am VERY disappointed in the conversion.

I would say that i am a moderate audiophile. I once thought i was hardcore, but i can't seem to distinguish the sound qualities between 128Kb to 160 to 192Kb to AAC 128Kb. But some of these people on the board can (how do you do it?) But on this conversion from WMA to Mp3...i could tell a BIG difference in sound loss. It sounded a bit wobbly and it sounded more mechanical than natural...but not A LOT, just eneogh to annoy you if you are concerned enoegh about sound quality like i am.

I don't know if the poor sound quality was due to the transfer from one lossy format to another, or if the converter used by Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (Fraunhofer IIS) isn't that good. From what i can tell, the converter is actually pretty decent when encoding from uncompressed formats like WAV. I've done tons of live MD recordings on Cool Edit Pro using the Fraunhofer converter to much success using 320Kb encoding. I have noticed however that i wasn't too pleased with 128/160/192Kb convertions. Too much data was lost.

Also keep in mind that when converting from lossy format to another. From what i've heard, always convert using the same bitrate or equivilant bitrate as the original file. I've done some 128Kb to 192Kb converting just to try it out...and it SUCKED big time. So if you have WMA files encoded in 128Kb, i would stick to an Mp3 bitrate of 128 or 160Kb. I would stick with 128 the conversion isn't that great anyway.

I too have 1000+ WMA files mostly from CD's, which my kids have since taken, lost and/or destroyed. Let us for the sake of preventing a debate say I wanted to convert all my files to allow use on my new IPOD. I live by the KISS (Keep it simple stupid) method and don't want to go throught the hassle of convert, retag, organize....ugh! I have read thread after thread of why you don't want to convert and lose quality but I will be honest I will be in an airplane or in my car and I don't think that I will notice much loss in quality..like the rest of you acute hearing devices. ;-P From what I can gather it sounds as though Media Center is the way to go?
Thanks for any help and advice.

Warmest regards,

Surfing_md

A little bit off topic but all of you probably have your "own" program to rip cds but I just wanted to mention that I use [and like very much]: CDex ( http://cdexos.sourceforge.net) so if your looking for something [else] try CDex [freeware].