In Nero (7)in the Convert Audio CDs to Audio Files, under Output File Format> Settings, there are 2 boxes above one another. The top one is Encoding Quality, which has settings (for MP3) of Fast, Medium and Highest. I can't find any real info on this in any of their documentation, and Nero support won't tell me. What do those levels actually mean and do they relate to the 2nd box, for Constant / Variable Bitrate? Do most people prefer using variable bitrate over constant? Can you really tell a difference between mp3 at 128kbits vs. say, 192 kbits (w/o using specialized electronic measuring equipment)? Thanks.

I don't have Nero 7 but... It all comes down to how much storage space you have available and how much data you are working with. I have much more hard drive space than I will ever have the need to store my collection of .mp3 files. I do have an MP3 player with only 1GB of space so I am limited to the amount of songs I can store on it. I presently have ~200 .mp3 songs on it. When listening to the songs using the headphones and the MP3 player I find that the songs that sound the best are those that were encoded at 192kbps (or higher) or in Variable bit rate (going up and over 300kbps). I take notice of their bit rate only after noticing how good the song sounds while listening to them. If you recently acquired your first MP3 player and it only has 256MB of memory then you may not want to spoil yourself by encoding at the higher bit rates. If you have nothing to compare the sound to then you may never know the difference. Encode them at 56kbps or in .wma format. If your new player is a 30GB unit then spoil yourself and go with the variable or constant bit rate at 256kbps or even 320kbps. (at 320kbps a 5 minute song will be 12mb in size vs 2.1mb using 56kbps.) Note: I used to prefer to encode at 160kbps but now prefer them at 192kbps or higher. HTH Bryan On a side note: A few years ago I encoded a song at 128kbps and also at 192kbps. I then converted both to .wav and when done both .wav files were the same size (~50mb). I then reconverted each to 128 and 192kbps and at that time I could not hear the difference between the different rates. But, since then I have noticed the difference in encoding rates while listening to music CDs and my MP3 player. The "good" songs are those that are/were encoded using the higher bitrates.

Bryan, Thanks for the informative reply, especially about your experiments w/ different bitrates. I assume (and it's cool) that you have no idea what the box w/ settings in Nero for "Encoding Quality" mean - the settings of Fast, Medium and Highest? This box is directly above the box where you choose bitrates / frequencies when encoding mp3s. For some other formats, the Fast, Medium or Highest settings are different altogether. I am assuming (DOH!) that they refer to how thoroughly or not Nero reads the tracks that are being ripped, although user manual or online help doesn't address it in the least. Perhaps the Fast mode doesn't do much / any checking for errors on the disk being ripped, and the Highest mode does some error checking / correction? I ripped the same track (at same bitrate) on "Medium" quality and "Highest". There was one (1) byte difference in size of the mp3, so don't think the Fast, Med, or Highest have anything to do w/ ultimate file sizes. So far, Nero support hasn't been forthcoming on this.