need advice: convert lossless wma to ??? for 6gb mp3player

[eorstail]

I'm a newbie to digital files and mp3 players--and finding too much info to figure it all out. Now that I'm almost brain dead and confused, perhaps someone can simplify the answers for me.

I have started building a digital library ripping CDs to wma lossless using WMP11 (p.s. which I have learned to hate ... so I am now using media monkey and much happier). I want to keep the lossless format for archive and use at home but want to use a smaller file for mp3 player. I have a sansa e260 w/2gb card so I only have about 6gb to work with.

Question 1: wma vs mp3 conversion???
I want to transfer files to my sansa AND have as many files as possible on it, so won't use lossless format. What should I convert wma lossless files to before syncing to sansa? I've read that mp3 file size might be larger than wma, but mp3 consumes less battery than wma. Then there's other formats which I am not aware of pros/cons over mp3 and wma. So I am confused which would be better to convert to.

Question 2: what bit rate is decent enough for mp3 player?
I use mostly headphones, but I eventually will use player in car via transmitter. I recently had the unpleasant experience of trying to listen to converted mp3 files in my car but had to crank up the volume so loud that the background hiss wasn't worth the effort! (Those mp3s were done at 192kbps.) I realize that bit rate will affect the size of the files so I am looking for something that will work in the car but not too big. Am I asking for too much?

Question 3: Not exactly sure how I should set the volume leveling when converting files? Read some stuff about volume analyzing vs leveling and not really sure if this is involved when converting files. Perhaps this is why I had trouble in question 2 (?)


I'm not a techie but I can understand some basics. Would appreciate some guidance from experienced users. Easy on the tech talk if possible. I've seen some posts which flew right over my head... Some of you really know this stuff!

Thanks in advance!
eorstail

[leafinator]

If you talk to 5 people you'd probably get 5 answers so here's my suggestion.

1. Convert to .mp3. It's the standard in that if you get a new mp3 player in the future it's guaranteed that it'll work on it without having to do more conversions. The size of the .mp3 is going to depend on the bitrate.

2. For use with .mp3 players I think 128 bitrate sounds good - especially with high quality headphones. I think it's a matter of personal preference and the size of the hard drive/mp3 you have to work with. Using a Variable Bitrate (VBR) improves quality while not taking much more (if any) space. I more informed audio file could tell you better than I could the difference between constant bitrate (CBR) and VBR. If you have the space to do it you may like sound of 192 VBR even better but that's going to take more space.

3. The difference between volume analyzing and leveling is important. (I stick with the default setting myself because I don't know enough to mess with them) When you analyze the volume it basically tells MM how to play it back on your computer - it doesn't change the file at all. If you level the volume it will change the file itself. In other words, if you have a cd that want to use on your mp3 player and it has volume issues, you're going to have to level the volume so it changes the file itself as if you analyze the volume you'll only hear a difference on the computer you used to analyze the volume.