Higher bitrate audio = lower file size?

[Season2mask]

No idea if this is something people could help me with here but I'll give it a go. I'm using 4kDownloader to download songs from YouTube. But I've noticed something strange: When extracting audio, the file size for 128k audio is always much lower than 96k. The current song I'm downloading at 128k is 6.6MB, whereas the 96k is 22.5 MB.

Can anyone help me understand this, and if 128k is still the better option for quality?

Thanks

[Julmara]

probably changes to another file format

[Temp name]

Either different file format, or they screwed up the compression somehow

[Lollis]

You sure the 96k isn't flac and in Khz while the 128k is mp3 at kbps?

Check your files in Audacity or something, they might not be the file type that you think they are. Variable bitrates also tend to not show the actual rating properly in some software too.

[anon5123]

Coincidentally I also use 4k Video Downloader and this doesn't happen for me.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yklKIPb38PE

Downloaded it as 128k audio, and the file is 3.35mb.
Downloaded it as 96k audio, and the file is 1.68mb.

I think it only allows 128k audio download from Youtube because 256k requires some kind of paid subscription on YouTube's end. But really, unless you've got high-end audiophile equipment or something, 128k audio is perfectly fine for 99% of personal uses.