Will my laptop or CD Player produce the best mp3s

[baddave]

I have an I-River and want to compress CD tracks to mp3 from the purest source hoping to get the best quality at a given bit rate.

I've two options, convert using WinAmp on a Sony Viao laptop or recording opticaly from a decent Rotel CD player using a digital to optical signal convertor and letting the I-River convert the signal into mp3.

Because there's no digital to analogue conversion, will either the CD player/I-River or the laptop convert the ones and zeros to mp3 in a superior manner?

Will it make any difference?

Dave

[pwh03]

I doubt it just pick the easier faster method

[WmAx]

The quality is most dependant on the encoder used to create the MP3 files. Different encoders have varying perceptual weighting algorythms.

Generally, Lame 3.96 is a good mp3 encoder(also free) according to ABX listenig tests accesbile from hydrogenaudio.org. Encoding at 192kbps variable bit rate should produce transparent or nearly transparent lossy encoding dependant on the particular music and listener. Lower bitrates are also a viable option; it just depends on how sensitive you are too the compression scheme(s).

http://www.rarewares.org/mp3.html

For the highest quality CD rips, Exact Audio Copy has some of the most powerful error correction routines. It also has support to automate ripping/encoding with the lame encoder. The best part: it's free:

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

-Chris







I have an I-River and want to compress CD tracks to mp3 from the purest source hoping to get the best quality at a given bit rate.

I've two options, convert using WinAmp on a Sony Viao laptop or recording opticaly from a decent Rotel CD player using a digital to optical signal convertor and letting the I-River convert the signal into mp3.

Because there's no digital to analogue conversion, will either the CD player/I-River or the laptop convert the ones and zeros to mp3 in a superior manner?

Will it make any difference?

Dave