MP3 Bit Rate: What Does It Mean?
Meaning of bit rate and what MP3 bit rate to use
MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding format. When looking at the bit rate of an MP3, generally the higher the bit rate, the better the sound quality. A lower bit rate is only useful when space is minimal.
What does the bit rate mean
The bit rate of an MP3 file is a measure of the performance of audio data over a specified period of time. Simply put, it is the number of bits that are processed each second.
For example, audio data in an MP3 file that has been encoded with a constant bit rate (CBR) of 128 kilobits per second (kbit / s) is processed at 128,000 bits per second. For audio that has been encoded at a variable bit rate (VBR), the displayed value is an average.
The higher the bit rate, the better the sound quality will be when playing a lossy audio format tune. To put digital audio compression into perspective when it comes to bit rates, a standard audio CD, which contains uncompressed audio data, has a bit rate of 1,411 kbit / s. This is much higher than the best bit rate for MP3, which is 320 kbit / s.
Does the bit rate matter?
Unless you consider yourself an audiophile and have a top-notch pair of headphones to wear while listening to your music, the bit rate of your MP3s may not be as important.
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If you use low-cost headphones with your iPod, you won’t be able to hear the difference in your music. Even with premium headphones, the difference between high and low bit rates is most noticeable in just a few areas:
Some details in low bitrate MP3 may be missing.
You may not be able to hear subtle background tracks.
You may hear a slight distortion.
Use an audio file converter to change the bit rate of an MP3.
Here are some examples of how audio quality differs as bit rate increases:
32 kbit / s: Generally used only for spoken audio
96 kbit / s: low quality voice or transmission
128 or 160 kbit / s: midrange bit rate quality
192 kbit / s: medium quality bit rate
256 kbit / s – A commonly used high quality bit rate
320 kbit / s – The highest bit rate level MP3 supports
