Audio Formats for The Fourth Ambit

Audio CD
 The best audio quality comes from the original audio CDs. Each hour-long episode is on its own CD, and of course the CDs can be played on any CD player.
Audio Cassette
 Cassettes are the most expensive option, but sometimes it's the only format that's right for you!
MP3 on one CD-ROM
 MP3 is the most common format for portable digital audio devices, and almost all computers can play them. These files are encoded at 160 kbps, so the sound quality is very close to the original audio CDs.
Windows Media on one CD-ROM
 These files sound even better than the MP3 ones, but are less portable. They conveniently play on your computer, but only if your computer runs Windows. Some portable audio devices play Windows Media files, but many do not. Bitrate is 160 kbps. The latest version of the Windows Media player is available here.

Notes on MP3 or Windows Media files

On your computer: For many computers, all you have to do is insert your Fourth Ambit CD-ROM into your computer and it will start playing the series at the beginning of episode 1. You can choose other episodes or chapters from directly within your computer's audio playing software. If your computer doesn't automatically detect the audio and start playing immediately, just open up the CD-ROM folder and start the "playlist" program.

On your portable digital audio player: Because these files are encoded at the near-CD quality level of 160 kbps, each episode requires about 67 MB.

Ambit Group Channel subscription

The fastest and cheapest way to download the entire series to your computer or portable device is to go to the Ambit Group Channel at mp3.com. For $9.99 you can listen to or download every episode. The $9.99 is a monthly subscription rate, so be sure to cancel your subscription after downloading the files.

The Ambit Group Channel MP3 files are encoded at two different bitrates. The Hi-Fi files are 128 kbps (51 MB each) for high quality sound, and the Lo-Fi files are 24 kbps so you can cram as many episodes as possible into your portable player. Your $9.99 subscription gets you all nine episodes in both formats.

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