Burning Audio CD Question

Hi,

I have some MP3s that I would like to burn onto a CD to listen to in my car. In the past I have used Windows Media Player to burn the audio CD.
I was wondering:
Will I notice better sound quality if I use a different program such as Nero?
What's the best program for making audio cds? Is there any software out there that has special features for audio cds?

What speed should I burn at - fastest??

Lastly, most of the MP3s I burn are 320kbps. Will this high kbps be kept when it's burned on a cd?

Thanks

BTW, what's the average bitrate of a song on a regular music CD?

 

CDs don't have an average bitrate. The bitrate is fixed. Remember, the CD format was devised in the late 70's and early 80's, back when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.
44,100 samples per second × 16 bits per sample × 2 channels = 1,411,200 bit/s = 1,411.2 kbit/s.

Sound quality won't be too different regardless of the software, especially if you are listening in a car with all the background noise. Sound quality should not degrade when going from 320kbps to CD since CD uses more bits, not less.

If the CD player in your car is relatively new, it will likely be able to handle CDs burned at 12x and higher. If it chokes on such discs, burn them at 4x and see if it likes them.

 

ok, thanks for the reply.

1. So back to my first question:

Will I notice better sound quality if I use a different program such as Nero instead of WMP?

2. My car is able to handle CDs burned at max speed on WMP. But if I lowered the speed, would that make the audio better?

 

No. mp3 encoders vary in quality, but decoding is pretty standard. All decoders are going to produce almost identical PCM streams, and it's this PCM stream that you're burning to an audio CD.

No, unless your drive is not able to burn accurately at its max settings.

 

ok, so I'll stick with WMP.

Thanks!!