I'm curious what people find acceptable for mp3s...I know it's better to downsample from a song straight off the cd but I'm talking about the cases where you have a downloaded mp3 and want to downsample it to save space...I want to use WMA b/c I use Voice Command for in the car and that only works with WMP...

To make clear, I mean for listening to music with an Axim...

I find 90kbps gives very acceptable listening quality using earphones. This is for music recorded off CD. I don't download off the internet.

mAXIMum Addiction

  

I never use WMA. I'm a 128kbps MP3 kind of guy.

Don't Panic!
Bobby

Don't Panic!
Bobby
42
Soft-reset is our Friend :

    

I find anything less than 192 to be intolerable. I listen through pretty decent headphones though and I am pretty picky.

Any difference in audio quality between mp3 and WMA (same bitrate for both)?

I use Variable Bit Rate (VBR) for all my MP3s. I don't download MP3s as I have an extensive CD collection. I use my Ax at work, so I load up a CF card in the morning with the MP3s I want for the day, and go. I can get about 3-4 CDs worth of VBR MP3s on a 256MB CF card.

Using Exact Audio Copy to do the ripping and LAME to do the VBR encoding gives me significantly better quality with only slightly larger files than when I was using 192kbps. My file sizes are also increased slightly since I scan in the CD covers and add them to the MP3 tags.

FLJeepGuy
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Axim X5, PA255, 400 MHz, A05, WM2003
Socket Low-Power CF WLAN
CF Memory: 128MB, 256MB, 256MB
Sena Case

Although I prefer ogg over both mp3 and wma, I usually end up using wma because it is supported by my VirginPulse solid-state player. (I have the flexibility of playing the files on either my PPC or VP player.)

I find that 96kbps is slightly better than mp3 at 128. If you find 128kbps acceptable, then 96k wma will be fine.

Tom Perconti (aka SpeedRacer - Lancelot of the Information Superhighway)
speedZone - soup up your Pocket PC!

I honestly will do anything I can to avoid listening to MP3s. I am pretty picky, and all WMA and MP3s sound so flat and liveless compared to the original source (CD). They get you by, but, man I try my best to do without them. I usually rip my CDs at lossless WMA.