Stevie Boy wrote:

" If you ask me, 320k is excessive, especially for portable use.

Well considering the quality of 180k mp3 you can download from the web I
would want something better for my car. Having heard this over my Hi-Fi via
pc not to impressed... but then 320k of same material barely sounded much
better....maybe other factors come into play (soundcard creative
soundblaster live).

There is a huge difference in the quality of different encoders. While
the differences are obvious when listening through studio monitors, I
find running the LAME encoder at a constant bit rate of 160kb/s to give
me acceptable results for casual portable listening. I use constant bit
rate for best compatibility with the widest variety of players.

Cheers.

James.