sound card and mp3 ripping/encoding question

[Jeff Abrahamson <jeff@purple.com>]

I'm confused on a finer point of ripping music files and encoding them
as mp3.

To wit: what's the effect of my sound card on the end file. (Note that
I'm *not* asking about the playback.)

For example, I have (I think) I SoundBlaster AWE64. Does this mean
that if I rip a file and encode it as mp3 at 128 bits that I'm really
only getting 64 bits? Or are these totally different measures/numbers?

In general, I'm not clear on how, when, and why my machine uses the CD
hardware and sound card to go from CD to mp3, except that the CD drive
is clearly uesd to pull the wav file.


The practical application is that I want to rip a bunch of my own CD's
so that I can carry them with me easier than carrying the CD's
themselves. Suppose that 128 bit mp3's are good enough quality for my
ear for pop music. Is it possible that an old sound card will result
in my having lower quality mp3's, which I then might notice more
clearly someday when I have a better sound card?

(I know this isn't totally linux related, but I'm using linux to do
this. And it's quite related to how *linux* deals with the sound
hardware.)

-- 
 Jeff

 Jeff Abrahamson  <http://www.purple.com/jeff/>