Can't decide in which quality to rip!

[timewaster]

First of all, I have trouble deciding over the formats, as each has its pros and cons.

Then, If I choose to rip with MP3, I can chosse between Low, Normal, High.. but then there is Extreme, Fast Extreme, Insane! What do they mean by Insane? Is it the best quality, or is it so bad that you're insane if you use it?

So, If you can explain me some of these topics, I would thank you. And if this was already posted, then I'm sorry.

[jiri]

I think that the best think would be to wait few days to the next version (2.0.2), where the mp3 conversion dialog will be completely redesigned and all options will be more clearer. Should you have any problem then, let us know!

Thanks,
Jiri

[rusty]

2.0.2 Beta 2 has just been posted to the beta forum.

Although we've improved the dialog somewhat, we still have a bit more work to do in this area before beta 3.

The short answer to your question is that 'it depends' on how space constrained you are/how much music you have, how good your ears are (some people can't tell the diff between an MP3 at 128 kbps CBR while others will be able to do so at 192 kbps).

Here are some rules of thumb that I use:
-I generally prefer OGG over MP3 as it gives greater quality at any bandwidth, however, it may not be supported on other devices that you play your files on.
-If I'm using MP3, using the Pre-tuned settings (aka presets) gives the best results as these have been fine tuned for optimal quality.
-Any of the VBR (variable bit rate) settings give better quality than similar ABR (average bit rate) or CBR (constant bit rate) settings. This is because VBR uses more bandwidth if the musical sample requires it. ABR is simply a variant of VBR that does so as well, but is further constrained than VBR in terms of how much the bandwidth used may vary. CBR is even further constrained as its bitrate is constant.
-The main reason for not using VBR is in case you have some MP3 player that doesn't support it--some players are more finicky with VBR/ABR than with CBR.
-Assuming you've decided to use VBR, the best choices are most likely one of the following presets: Medium, Standard, or Extreme -- the choice really depends on the level of quality you desire vs. how much space you have available on your drive and the devices you'll be using to play the tracks (note that the '-fast' versions of each of these presets yield slightly reduced quality, but encoding is faster).

Hope this answers your question.

[Peke]

My Settings for over 60000 files was and stil is

MP3
-----
VBR
70%
Joint Stereo
R3Mix

Level Volume

As rusty said most of the people do not recognise diff.