Ok, it has been some time sine I read about the MP3 vs WMA wars, not to be confused with BluRay and HD-DVD.

I'm going to start ripping some of my CD's to go on my new MP3 cell phone with 4GB capacity. Anyway, I remember Microsoft used to claim that WMA sounded better at less bitrates, maybe that was just snakeoil?

So, if I go with WMA 96kbps versus MP3 128kbps to save space, will it sound good?

I don't think you will notice a difference between the two on your cell phone. I say use the one with the smallest file size.

At the same bitrate it is a tossup on filesize. I'm trying 98 WMA right now...

yah, that was my second suggestion- try both and see!

please report back your findings...

I was actually pretty impressed with WMA at like 70 kbps versus 128 kbps MP3.

I notice there is a variable bitrate option as well, that conserves space. During less active parts of a song it uses a lower bitrate, then picks up during more dynamic passages. I think there is a WMA 50-96kbps variable setting.. hmmmm

well, here's some generally useless input, but I have a friend who seems to store everything at variable bitrate 192 mp3 and we trade music every now and then, so I have a lot of his stuff (thanks JonSimon!). I generally store my CDs at 320, and I have a bunch of stuff from back when I stored at 128 (because I've found I'm happier with three or four good quality albums on the road vs a dozen not as good quality). Between 192 variable and 320 there's a slight difference, but between 128 and variable 192 or 320 it's pretty distinct. So with my ears, I can't imagine there'd be too much between 128 mp3 and variable 96 WMA or whatever. Just a guess.