Is alt preset extreme gonna be overkill for that? If so, what setting do you folks recommend for audio books?

That's kind of like asking "How high is up?" The bitrate you use depends entirely on your expectations and requirements for quality.

I can offer some insight, however. I have about 200 hours of audiobooks on my computer from different sources and at greatly varying bitrates.

Probably the best quality is my "Lord of the Rings" ripped and encoded from CD using Audio Catalyst, VBR, probably averaging about 100--105 kbps. I've never detected any deficiency whatsoever with this, and it is probably overkill.

I have several audiobooks downloaded from "audiobooksforfree.com" at 64 kbps. Not concert hall quality, but certainly more than adequate for listening when you consider that at least 95% of your attention is to the content, not the sound quality of the file.

Audiobooksforfree.com keeps cutting the bandwidth on their free downloads. Their 32 kbps files were noticeably poorer than their 64 kbps, but still OK, just lacking in low frequency response, and a bit scratchy on the high end. A bit of equalizer tweaking made them quite listenable.

Then they went down to 16 kbps. With standard equalization it would hurt my ears to listen to it. With major equalization changes (as much as 20 dB down in some bands) it became listenable (I had no difficulty understanding the words) but hardly enjoyable.

When they went to 8 kbps it became intolerable. No amount of equalization could make it listenable. A pronounced whine about 2500Hz, no bass response whatsoever, could hardly tell if it was a man or woman doing the reading, sometimes not sure what language. So they accomplished their goal, and got me to pay for the 64 kbps downloads. At a flat fee of $6 per book, it is still a very good deal, and 64 kbps is quite acceptable to me for an audiobook.

tanstaafl.