M4A -> MP3/OGG

[Event]

Okay, I have a dilema. I just obtained a bunch of new albums from my bro, and they're all in 320kbps AAC M4A format. He has an iPod, so he thinks he's required to use it for some reason. My iRiver does not support AAC format. The songs are already 320kps, so if I do convert all of these to 160kbps VBR OGG or 192kbps VBR MP3, will they really sound that crappy? I know you shouldn't convert, you should re-rip, but that is out of the question. Should I covert them? Will the reduction in sound quality really be that bad? If not, which codec will be better for coverted music, OGG or MP3? I will be using dB PowerAMP to covert.

 

[Iceman]

I think you should do a little testing with one of the files to see what sounds better for you. I do think that converting to VBR OGG would be the best, and shouldn't hurt sound quality much 👍.

 

[sUn]

I convert all my music into 192kbps VBR MP3 with usually not much of a noticable sound quality loss.

 

[Shannon]

You won't notice any drop in quality anyway. Being in a noisy environment (with a portable MP3 player), even telling the difference between a 128kbps and 192kbps MP3 is difficult.