[Inkster]

Originally Posted by Stripey

sorry but you have no idea what you're talking about, as chris has pointed out the speed of your computer has no bearing atall on the quality of the encode output, just the length of time it takes to complete.

A/D Converters don't come into it, because when you rip a CD in a computer and encode it to mp3 it's all happening in the digital domain, and if you rip at the slowest possible speed from a well manufactured CD, you're very very unlikely to encounter any errors.

You're totally wrong about clipping, this is something which is controlled by the studio when they produce the master recordings. If you're CD doesn't clip, when you encode it to MP3 it's not going to clip either. You're confusing clipping with dithering and aliasing, which is dependant on samplerates, and that is why you notice washy highs and what *sounds like* distortion as you decrease the bitrate/samplerate of an mp3. It's not clipping.

For the purposes of this discussion, most people who buy and listen to music do not have outrageously expensive hifi setups with professional quality A/D converters, in acoustically treated rooms. That's a niche market, which is full of a lot of chinstroking nonsense perpetuated by people who claim to be able to hear a gnat fart at 200 yards.
320kbps is more than adequate for most normal purposes, and you're certainly not going to be able to tell the difference between that and a CD when you're listening on an ipod.

Did you not read the bit further up that says to stop talking about this now?!