Best MP3 VBR Encoding Settings?

[AFOH]

What's higher quality (as long as it's mp3 any size is ok, but I want the top quality for this format), VBR 320-320 or VBR 32-320 (as in alt-preset-extreme)? I thought if I put minimum 320 and maximum 320 I'd get top quality but I don't know.

[musicf8]

CBR 320 is the best quality you can get with an MP3

VBR 320-320 is pointless because you're only allowing the bitrate to be 320, so you might as well choose CBR 320 (which is the highest bitrate for an mp3). VBR with 32-320 will give you a good quality and lower file size because areas in the music that don't have much complexity will be encoded in a lower bitrate, and more complex sound will have a higher bitrate.

of course, this is all assuming you are encoding from a lossless file (wav/flac), if you are encoding a lossy file over to an mp3 then it will always be worse than the original.

[MrSinatra]

if i used vbr i'd use a 160 to 320 range... but i am happy with cbr at 256.

[AFOH]

Alright, I'll go with 320 CBR then, thanks. I thought VBR could improve anything over CBR but it seems CBR is tops so I'll go with that.

[donalexinder2]

hello there

256 is the way to go, in my opinion.