wma and mp3 size - what's wrong?

[tbd]

I have read that wma files are good in quality and about half the size of mp3 files. So, I thought if I converted my mp3 files to wma files, I would be able to fit twice as many songs on my portable mp3 player.

I downloaded the software and was able to convert a file easily immediately. However, now that I'm looking at the file info, it looks like the wma file is bigger than the mp3 file. Here's some of the info:

WMA FILE
original size 49211 kb
compression ratio 7 to 1 13%
bit rate 192639 (I've only heard of 3-digit bit rates...does that mean 192?)
size 6731 kb


MP3 FILE
original size 49095 kb
compression ratio 10 to 1 9%
bit rate 128
size 4464 kb


The only thing I can see is the possible 192 bit rate is higher, therefore bigger. I didn't set it at any particular bit rate. I guess that's just what it happened to be on. But, even so, I would think that I could get a wma file at a higher bit rate than an mp3 file and it still not be any bigger. Like I said, I have read that wma files (of the same bit rate I suppose) are half the size of mp3 files.

Can you explain to me why my file got bigger when I converted it to wma? Cause that's going to defeat my purpose of converting it.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Bit rates of audio files are measures in kbps (kilobytes per second). This basically means that a one-second long audio file encoded at 128 kbps in ANY format will be 128 kb. What you said is true, WMA files tend to have better quality than MP3 files (I’m not exactly sure about the 1/2 size, though). If that is true, then an MP3 file encoded at 128 kbps will sound about the same as the same file encoded with the WMA codec at 64 kbps.

I’m guessing the 192639 means 192, that should make sense.

Also, converting between two compressed formats is generally a bad idea, although if your aim is to have more space on your MP3 player then it won’t matter much (read the FAQ for more infdo)