Re: Ask EU - .wma files

In message <6mbe56Fg0o7sU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, BrritSki <BrritSki@xxxxxxxxx> writes
I have downloaded some books from Audible and want to convert them into .wma files that I can then store on my MP3 player and also burn to CD.

I'd agree with whoever said use .mp3 rather than .wma, and for the same reasons. Of course, you (a) can burn any file to CD if it's a data CD, (b) _have_ to use 44.1 kHz stereo 16 bit if it's to be an audio CD. But you will have known those.

I am trying to decide which format to use and I've done an experiment with a short section from the start of one of the books and recorded it as WMA 9.2:
1. 8kbps, 8kHz mono CBR file size 1x
2. 48kbps, 44kHz mono CBR file size 5.5x approx.
3. 64kbps, 44kHz stereo CBR file size 7x approx.
4. 128kbps, 44kHz stereo CBR file size 14x approx.

But to my untrained ear listening back on the PC there is very little difference between them. Maybe in format 1 there's a bit of loss of clarity in a quieter passage, but the other 3 seem about the same.

I'd have expected that. My own experience (mp3 files) is that the lower kbps values are still quite usable _if_ you drop the sample rate, which you most definitely can for speech. (I have some old Tom Lehrer tracks - that's with music, but limited frequency range - that are quite listenable to at 32 kbps!)

You haven't told us what the original files are; if they're audio books, I would have thought they may well be 22.05 kHz (or even 11.025k), and possibly mono, anyway; if so, there's little point in going higher, and of course you won't hear any difference between your 2 3 and 4 above. If you don't know what they are, most players will tell you - including I think good old WinAmp. (I use GoldWave on the few occasions I play with audio, or an ancient garish version of Rip'n'Coder for mp3 encoding.) What file type are they as well?

The CDs will be listened to in my car and I'll be burning these files to a test CD to see if they sound any different in that environment,

Is your car player MP3-compatible? If not i. e. it needs ordinary audio CDs, then see above.
[]
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