I have my mp3 music recorded at 320 kbps (on a hard drive).  I want to
batch convert this music to VBR.  I am considering I am considering
Batch Converter from Sonic Foundry at a 120 dollars for the program. 
I already have the music at 320 kbps  My question is this...(I am
archiving at a high quality...) is converting from 320 to vbr
degrading the quality much more than if I recorded wave to vbr  My
goal is to have the music  at high quality and be free of cd's and be
able to shrink the size for my laptop or for friends and portable
players

Hi eddiejanzer...

Just as a comment... saving as
VBR, no matter what will degrade
the sonic headroom of the recording
because you are expecting the bitrate
to increase in areas of greater 
musical detail. While the bitrate is
ramping up, you will have sonic loss
at the edge of the transfer in rates.

And this is down here as a comment,
because I've gotten into alot of
arguments regarding this ;0) It's
a pretty even camp on both sides
of the VBR discussion.

I think the best way for you to tell
is listening to the same recording,
3 different ways. CD first, then 320k
then VBR. If YOU can't tell... then
does it really matter? If you're
worried about others noticing... 
leave it at 320k. Some people say
they can notice the differences
above 192k, etc... I wouldn't mind
having the ears they think they
have ;-)

-AI