mp3 vs. WMA (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Reno]

I have a Dell Axim that I want to play music on when I travel. I also purchased a 512MB CF card to store music on.

I definately prefer the sound of mp3's encoded at 160 instead of 128 but the file size difference is enough to make me chose 128. I read that WMA encoded at 128 sound better than mp3 files. Is that true? Is there any place that I can download samples to hear the difference?

 

[Kris McLaughlin]

Can the Axim play variable bit-rate (VBR) MP3 files? These give you the benefit of higher bitrate when the music is complex, but revert to a lower bitrate for less demanding passages.
In this manner, you can get great quality with a smaller file size than a normal Constant Bit-Rate (CBR) file. You might want to look into encoding your music this way.
r3mix.net has some great info on MP3 encoding.

(sorry if you already know all this)

Cheers,

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Yes, there are very good MP3 players available now for the Pocket PC. For that matter, even the built in Media Player (while lame in other respects) plays VBR files.

With 512MB of memory you can squeeze in quite a bit of music even at 160, and I would recommend you go with VBR MP3 instead. That way, you will have readily available MP3 files you can just copy over and get excellent sound quality from the files no matter what you play them on.

WMA may sound better at lower bitrates, but it is still an entirely proprietary format. If you need to keep sizes down and are willing to give up MP3, look at Ogg Vorbis instead. That is a free format that does a very good job at lower bitrates; see http://www.vorbis.com

Second the recommendation for r3mix.net. Also look at Exact Audio Copy and the Lame encoder if you're going to go VBR MP3, can't beat them and both are free.

 

[NickSo]

I find WMA files to sound really bad compared to MP3... I know they're smaller, but alot of the times i hear 'compression' noises (a high pitched whining) with WMA...

Is there an MP3pro player for PPC? (i assume the Axim uses PPC) Its backwards compatible with normal Mp3 but if decoded with an Mp3Pro program, itll sound decent at like 80kbps

 

[Nigel McN]

MP3pro, you mean there are people who actually used it?

 

[Dennis Reno]

MP3pro, you mean there are people who actually used it?

I tried it and thought it was terrible! It can't even compare to mp3's recorded at 128.

 

[Phil Kim]

At lower bitrate, CDs ripped to WMAs often sound better than MP3s (at least to my ears).

However, MP3s converted to WMAs sound worse (of course) and if you can use reasonably high bitrate (160-192 kbps VBR), I would stick with more industry standard MP3.

Better yet, get an iPod.

 

[Camp]

In my own personal tests wma files aren't much smaller than mp3. Nothing significant at least. -perhaps the 3 tracks I tested were just oddities.
Ogg Vorbis, however, created much smaller files at similar or better sound quality.
MP3 pro files are equally small...and pro can sound bad if you play it back on a player not optimized for it (though the files should play back on all MP3 players).

 

[NickSo]

Yeah, i have some albums that are in MP3Pro that i dont listen to often on my MP3Cds.. I have an MP3CD Player, and even though i may not listen to them, i'd like to have the option of being able to play them on my MP3CDPlayer even if it does sound bad.