In the past it was uneconomical to use high bit rate mp3's on sd cards as the amount of songs was so limited. Now with 1 and 2 gig cards becoming extremely cheap i have started to use 256kbps for my mp3's. This is great for listening at home through my loudspeakers however, the same files played on my BS2 (with A8's) seem to distort or clip at only moderate volumes.

Does anyone know if there is some sound processing that goes on inside BS2 that would be causing this. There is no problem on bit rates at 192 or below.

cheers for any thoughts on this.

Hi, all my music is compressed at 192 kbps in WMA and there is no problem indeed.

 If you look at the setup menu in BeoPlayer and BeoPort, you will notice that the maximum bitrate for recording is...192 kbps, so probably BeoSound 2 has been optimized for that. Or(and) maybe B&O simply "forgot" to upgrade it...

I have some albums recorded at 320 kbps in 2Gb SanDisk SD cards and my old BS2 (2002 model) has no problems at all to play those 320kbps tracks; all of them sounds simply perfect.

I think you must be sure that the BS2 device has the last BS2 firmware installed via beoport.

I also have no problems to play high bitrates on my BS2. Most of the music I have on the SD-Card is compressed to mp3 with bitrates up to 256 or 320 kbps, and there's no disortion.

Maybe you turn the volume too loud? If the volume is at least one or two steps before maximum or maximum, the sound becomes disorted anyway.

Another problem can be that your mp3-files are too loud for the decoder. Run a programme like mp3-Gain ( http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mp3gain/mp3gain-win-1_2_5.exe?download ) and turn the volume of your mp3s to 89 db.

Maybe it helps! 

I haven't experienced that problem and I always rip at 192 or better.  If your files sound good on another system, the next easiest thing to check would be your headphones on that other system and eliminate them from the issue.  Good luck.