EricM wrote:Saying 96kbps is good enough for mono is an opinion. Not everyone has the same tolerances for compression noise.
I have a very low tolerance for noise, amazingly so. I can tell if a TV is on an AV input channel with no audio coming out from downstairs from the hallway upstairs.
96 to 112 k is the general standard we get on DVD for each 'side' of the Stereo track, 96 for mono doesn't overtly cause compression noise, especially for older (and relatively low quality in comparison) audio, that already has a degree of analog noise to it.
As I recall, looking at a release that everyone agrees had ULTRA HIGH END audio...
The LOTR extended editions had 3 audio tracks (ignoring commentaries of course)...
a 5.1 with 448k audio
a 6.1 with 768k audio
and a 2.0 with 192k audio
All 3 of which are considered rich amazing audio tracks, so let's break that down per track (ignoring the .1 and rounding up to single numbers.)
5.1 gets 90k per channel
6.1 gets 128k per channel
2.0 gets 96k per channel
So the ultra high quality audio track for a modern film that had amazing audio on DVD is 25% more on it's highest quality track.
Lord of the Rings gets 128k... I think we can all survive with DBZ getting 96k.
Although if you can't I'm sorry about that, there is (from what I hear, amazing) 448k audio on the R2s if you are willing to forego subtitles.
Like I said, 96k is good enough, even if it isn't what would have been preferred.