# Weird MP3 Question..

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-mp3-question/205501>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 4, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-mp3-question/205501 "2003-10-04T04:55:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PhilAlex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@PhilAlex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhilAlex)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-mp3-question/205501/1 "2003-10-04T04:55:24Z")

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Okay. This is truly weird, so bear with me.

I have a lot of speeches on tapes. Motivational talks. That sort of thing. Some are over 20 years old, so I got the bright idea to MP3 them all.

After all, a 20 year old tape in a hot car is not a good idea.

So. I Start to MP3 them all. WAV to MP3.

Since they are all speeches, I can digitize at a VERY low rate. I usually pick the lowest or second lowest rate Cool Edit has.

Then, I MP3 them. I play them, and they sound great.

They sound great on my MP3 player (Nike Rio) and MP3 car stereo (Kenwood)

Perfection, right?

So. I get an EGOMAN MP3 CD player.

They sound about 60% too fast.

Now, MP3’s of songs, digitized at “full digitize” sound fine.

But the speeches sound wrong.

Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-mp3-question/205501/2 "2003-10-04T05:50:46Z")

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Sounds like it only supports 44.1Khz MP3s.

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**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-mp3-question/205501/3 "2003-10-04T07:28:08Z")

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Thank you **Alereon**! I had the same problem with an MP3 CD in my DVD player.

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**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-mp3-question/205501/4 "2003-10-04T09:19:35Z")

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To get the best MP3 quality for normal speech and maintain compatibility, use the LAME MP3 encoder in Voice mode, set to 44.1Khz Mono (stereo if needed). I would hope there was a LAME cooledit filter, but if not you can find the LAME command line program on various places about the web.