I inherited a sizable CD collection and got three different computers ripping CDs to speed up the process, and my PowerBook G3 was chugging along, ripping those files at 192 kb/s or whatever it is. Glad iTunes 1 or 2 even goes that high, that's about my minimum for mp3 crunchiness lol. (I'm no audiophile, I think it sounds fine.)
Funnily - and probably not surprisingly - the resulting mp3 files from the PowerBook were a lot easier to work with after transferring it all to my main computer where I store my music, compared to another (I think 2010?) MacBook I had ripping at the same time, with newer iTunes. The MacBook defaulted to some weird encoding option that literally every other computer I had seemed to hate. iTunes has been ruining my life since the 2000s, never thought it would attack again even in 2026... iTunes about version 4 up has got to be the most annoying software ever written.