Hey,
 
For public distribution of MP3's, I'm wondering if there is a general consensus on what the best settings are.
 
I see that Amazon and iTunes use 256kbs VBR.
 
Is this a good standard to go with?
 
I've been using 320 CBR for my own purposes, but wonder what it is best for the public.
 
Thanks!

192 CBR

For me it depends on what I am doing. If I have to send a track to a client say and the track is short I go for the 320K rate. Keeps the quality high and the file size is still reasonable. (email attachment is reasonable. There is sort of 10 Meg limit with a lot of our servers here in Australia) For a longer track I go down to 256 or 192 (not under those rates though) so the file ends up a little smaller and easier to manage.
 
For distribution it comes down to smallest files verses quality. 256 or 192 still sounds pretty good.

I can't hear a difference between 256 and 320, so I usually use 256 unless I'm sending someone a track for a collaboration. But if the file size is critical, such as when I'm trying to get under Soundclick's 10MB limitation, I'm OK with 192 or 224. I won't go below 192, though. If 192 won't do it I use VBR.

Thanks guys.  I'm go with 256CBR for now.
 
Thanks.

320 is pretty good, and 250 is good, too.  I don't go below that if I don't have to.
 
@

256 is the broadcast and online distribution standard.  They all sound a little constrained to my ears.  I usually stick with 320 for my own personal listening.  

Pretty much what they all said..... I use 320kbs for my personal listening....and as high as I can keep it and still fit it into the particular music site's limitations.

In exporting to mp3, I started getting this mid-freq rumbling noise at 128.  I had read some threads about what rate to export at and so tried 320, no noise.  The dithering option didn't seem to matter.  My projects are not large, so I guess I don't have trouble with file size limits.
 
I don't believe this happened prior to X3d, I didn't try every bit rate to test it though.

I use 320 when I have to but for my own stuff I create wave files for playback on my iPad and iPhone and in my car using a USB stick.