Hey, just a wee question maybe someone can answer. I've got ahold of some nice juicey 320kbps MP3 files recently (oh, and yes, the HQ versions of these...items...totally rule the initial OST scene release...), and want to burn them to audio cd. The problem seems to be that whenever I try to do it, the conversion knocks the bitrate way the hell down to 144. Is this a factor of the software I've been trying (Nero 6), or a limitation of the format (don't see how this could be possible, since the mp3s were originally ON an audio cd. Anyways, anyone have some suggestions for how to get the best result with these things?

WTF? If it's an audio CD, it should be burning to AIFF. It's an uncompressed resample at 44.1khz. There is no "bitrate".

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here ...

Okay...it WAS from an audio CD, ripped out to MP3s @ 320 Kbps, and distributed as such. Now I want to put the thing BACK into CD audio format. I think that makes it clearer...

Yeah, well, I wouldn't have thought it would change the bitrate, but it definetly is 320 when I play the mp3s, and definetly reports as being 144 when I play the burned cd in winamp.
Hmmm..again, maybe it's just a quirk of Nero? Any other software people have had luck with?

What I meant was that as I understand it, uncompressed audio really doesn't have a "bitrate" - it's simply a full spectrum sampling. Usually takes ~10mb/min. Only the sampling rate can change and CD audio uses 44,100hz. I'm sure FBR can swoop in here and clear the air.

Can the Windows version of iTunes be used to burn audio CDs? That's how I burn them on my Mac, and I've never once had the problem that you describe.

yes. only 7x per playlist though I believe.

LOL, okay, so burn it once, trash the playlist and then make a direct COPY of the disc you just burned?