What is the best software to make MP3 files without losing quality?
Aargh! This is an *endless* conversation. Try searching on Deja News for group alt.music.mp3 and topic “best mp3” – you’ll find tons of stuff. Also search for “bitrate” and you’ll find relevant stuff. The very short answer is – yes you will lose something when you encode to MP3… what encoder and what bitrate and other options you have to use to get to the point where what you lose is not noticeable to you or doesn’t bother you anymore is a question open to endless debate, and depending much on your personal hearing. Just to state my own conclusions to this point in time (which are entirely personal and subject to ongoing change): * Stay away from Xing at least for lower bitrates and VBR – which means don’t encode with older releases of Musicmatch (4.2 or before) or Audiocatalyst. * Use Fraunhofer for sure for bitrates 128 or below. * Blade and LAME both seem good at 160 or higher.
