iPod iDeal ripping bitrate?

[ortuno2k]

Mostly everyone rips at 128kbps AAC and it sounds fine to them, either 'cause they don't know any better or because it's a matter of personal choice.
I had all my music ripped at 256+kbps (extreme with CDex on my PC) but noticed that it was taking a bit long to update my iPod, transfer music, and it was draining battery life quite a lot.

I've recently started to rip my collection again, this time at 128kbps AAC. I've played each clip (128 & 256+kbps) and can't really notice a difference, can't. I've tried this with different types of music.

I feel I'm cheating myself by going with the higher kbps if I can't hear the difference, but then I feel I'm not getting the best by ripping at 128kbps.

What bitrate does everyone use?

 

[GnrlyMrly]

I was happy for a long time with 190 on my 4g and 30gb video, but with my recent switch to the nano I've had to drop my bitrate down to 128 so I can get more choons on there. I seriously can tell no difference at all, with ipod earbuds or even my sony mdr- v700's.

 

[howard]

i would rip differently depending on how you listen.

with earbuds, or in the car mostly, do 128AAC

if your listening mostly on a really nice stereo at home, think about upping that to 256, or even going lossless.

I personally rip at 128AAC because when I'm listening to my ipod I'm on earbuds or in the car. Then I just listen to cds if i'm listening on my home stereo. best of both worlds

 

[Angelus520]

I've started importing everything as AIFF files since I just bought a 500GB Seagate external drive. That way I don't have to worry about reripping them in the future. I have the space and I can always change them to 128KB files if I want to put them on my iPod. Right now I have a mix of bit rates - 15500 songs takes up about 215GB. Eventually, I'll rerip my entire collection as AIFF.

 

[luckylisp]

I started off ripping at 128 AAC and then ripped an album at 192 AAC and I could definitely tell a difference to the point where the 128 ripped songs just didn't sound nearly as good to me. So I now only rip at 192. Of course, it's best to use the lowest bitrate that your ears can't tell a difference at because it does help preserve battery life. 128 would probably be good for most people depending on your earphones.

The only thing I have to say is I do regret not ripping at 192 mp3 just because if I want to use a program other then iTunes to burn a cd, I now can't. So looking back I would have preferred to keep everything in the more common mp3 format as I do keep my entire itunes library on a second hard drive.

Also, you might be interested in checking out a thread I made on this same subject for more input:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/191108/