Since about two years now I am trying to find a way to convert high quality mp3 files to m4a or aac files with a fixed bitrate 192k. Please don't suggest using another format - i thought this through as far as it goes.

The problem here is:

• ffmpeg obvioulsy can't convert to a higher bitrate than 152k. Even when it says it does so the resulting files still have 152k instead of 192k.

• ffmpeg also has/had a bug not writing the bitrate into the audio file tags which means when testing you have to calculate the bitrate manually by dividing the filesize by the length of the audio in seconds (resulting in 152k - see above)

• choosing faac as converter gets me the same results

• other programs don't work reliably (see this thread Howto convert audio files to *.m4a?

I know that this is not an original new problem but I am wondering if there is still no way to convert with ubuntu/kubuntu 12.04 after a lot time passed and I can't find some of the bug issues mentioned in the other thread anymore.

So: Is there a solution after all?