Question regarding bitrates and Ripping programs.

I'm sure it's been a discussion, but I have questions about certain things...


I just received the Ace Combat Zero OST from the link in the AC thread. When I dl'ed the tracks, they were in VBR quality. However I have a 20 gig iPod, and I like to save space on it...so with all music I get that's higher than 192 kbps, I use iTunes' CDripper to take the music that's higher quality and downsize it to 192. However, since i've been doing this i've noticed the tracks that i've re-encoded into 192 have had a sort of...well I don't wanna say static sound, but they have a "chhhhhh" noise, but it's hardly noticable unless you truly LISTEN to it. It bothers me however, and I was wondering...is it the iTunes? Should I just use another CD Ripper or Mp3 encoder? If so, which?


Thanks for helping if you reply.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yea, I know...i'm just so anal about saving space on the ipod, so I can fit as much music as I can on it. So you guys are saying...I shouldn't even worry about turning the re-rncoding the files? VBR is perfectly fine? Hmm.

Lemme ask you, should I rip my CDs into VBR then if that's the case? Also, what about mp3s that are 320, should they turn into vbr and not 192?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Hmm well i'll use vbr from now I guess, but here's my new question...at what should the quality of the CD rip be at? Let me explain, since I use iTunes to rip the music [Yea, it's not the greatest ripper, but work with me], and when it comes to VBR ripping, it has multiple selections such as "HIGH, MEDIUM HIGH, MEDIUM, MEDIUM LOW, LOW] My question is, which of the selections would be used to give great quality, but without space on my iPod being all used up. I'm listening to my mp3s more and more, and I hear the quality and it's bothersome now. :/

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.