simple Bitrate question

[efiste2]

Please dont shoot me down in flames for such a lamens question, but When converting music files am I correct in thinking the higher the bitrate, the better ?

Basically when converting music files to play in M4A format on my iPod, eg from a FLAC file, Using AVS Audio Converter, which I find a great program, its default setting for best quality is 256Kbps but it can be customised to 512.

Will changing this setteing improve the listening quality of the audio track ?

[sneaker]

"Improve" is not the right word. When encoding using a lossy codec like AAC/M4A there is always quality loss. The higher the bitrate you choose the less quality is lost. But there are diminishing returns. While you should be able to easily hear a difference between 16 kbps and 128 kbps you most likely won't hear a difference between 256 kbps and 512 kbps. So even though the 512 kbps version is technically better it won't make a difference to you as a human.

[efiste2]

Great advice, thanks for that........