CD bitrate equals what?

[cool9]

Someone told me that CD bitrates > 320. If so, when you rip a CD the highest bitrate I've ever seen used in any software is 320 kbps?

[Blue_MiSfit]

http://www.teamcombooks.com/mp3handbook/11.htm


The bit-rate of uncompressed audio can be calculated by multiplying the sampling rate by the resolution (8-bit, 16-bit, etc.) and the number of channels. For example, CD Audio (or a WAV file extracted from a CD) has a sampling rate of 44,100 times per second, a resolution of 16 bits and two channels. The bit-rate would be approximately 1.4 million bits per second (1,411 kbps).


You are thinking in terms of MP3 bitrates. When you rip audio from a CD, you generally want to compress it to save space.

MP3, AAC, and Vorbis are popular lossy formats for doing this. 320kbps is the max for MP3, and is pretty much overkill for any of those formats for 2ch 16bit 44.1 KHz. If you are okay with using that much bitrate, you should use a lossless format like FLAC, which is smaller than the uncompressed source, but the output of a FLAC decoder is mathematically identical to the uncompressed source. FLAC typically produces results around ~500kbit in my experience for CD audio sources - dependent of course on the complexity of the source.

~MiSfit

[cool9]

I use FLAC/APE/SHN all the time but I was interested in what the bitrate of a CD song equals.

[Sharktooth]

there is no answer to your question.
the bitrate varies depending on the audio stream format.
uncompressed (as found in the CD) is as Blue_Misfit described. The other formats may vary.

[raquete]

http://www.teamcombooks.com/mp3handbook/11.htm
~MiSfit
wonderful link Blue_MiSfit.
:)

[DewAsmara]

In my personal opinion,
Best way is set at WAV 1,411 kbps, but I always rip my CD collection at 320kbps MP3 so I can play it on my car sound system or into my mp3 gadget. But you will notice that this MP3 320kbps bitrate cannot match into original CD sound if you really have ear that can notice HiFi sound. I even have to always turn on my Digital Sound Retriever amplifier in my Micro HiFi Home Theater to make my ripping collection sounds at least nearly match its original CD sound. No wonder why sometimes DTS sound at 768kbps still cannot match CD Sound Quality.

[check]

<snipped for incorrectness>
In any case, you should also be aware that CDs are stereo (some old discs are mono), and DTS is 5.1 - there is no direct comparison possible in terms of sound quality, it's chalk to cheese.

[DewAsmara]

Well,
At 1,411 kbps almost difficult to hear the difference, you can make it lossly at 1536 kbps but that better listen from CD it self isn't it?

[DarkZell666]

2 channels @ 16bits per sample with 44100 samples every second gives : 2*16*44100=1.411.200bps (1411kbps). CD's may have overhead, but the audio data can't take up more than 1411kbps anyway =)

[check]

err, pardon me... my calculations were off. Yes, CDs are 1411 >_<