Kudos to Audible.com – Better Audio Formats for Old Titles

In addition to being a rabid music fan, I also use my iPod to listen to audiobooks. While I don’t commute, other than from the ground floor of my house to the first floor, where my office is, I like to listen to audiobooks when sitting outside on my terrace, contemplating the mountains around me.

I’ve bought quite a few books from Audible.com over the past couple of years, and I was a bit disappointed that some of the older titles were in low-quality formats (what Audible calls format 2, which is a very low bit rate, hence a poor sound).

Just out of curiosity, I went to the Audible web site today to see if one of the titles (a selection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson) was available in a better format. To my surprise, it was! As was another title I had in format 2!

So, if you’ve bought Audible content in the past, and have any titles that you want to listen to again, you might want to check in your library on the site to see if there are better versions of any of your audiobooks. If you have an iPod, you can use the best-quality versions; Audible sells lower quality versions for people with low-capacity devices.

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