The CD drive was the standard Matshita 8x that came with this machine. This represents a happy compromise between file size and sound quality. For our tests we chose an average length track and a rather long track off two separate CD's.
All times are in seconds with lower numbers being more desirable of course.
Lower numbers and shorter bars are better. Again, lower numbers and shorter bars are better For this last test we encoded the same track with several different bit rate settings. As I mentioned at the beginning of this page, 128kbps is a happy medium between sound quality and file size. If speed is your main consideration, go with N2MP3. Bear in mind however, that N2MP3 is strictly an encoder and requires a separate application for playback.