music

[moreira85]

question, i like to listen to a lot of music. If you download music from a computer and put them on your ipod and play your ipod through the yamaha ipod dock how much sound quality do you loose regarding clarity compared to buying a cd from the store???? is there a noticeable differ??

 

[Thaedium]

Mp3's are compressed files, but I understand you can get higher quality mp3's... At this point, I really don't think you'll notice much of a difference in the average song unless its a poor file in the first place. A quick test you could do is simply play a CD with a song you know well that you also have an MP3 of and compare the difference.

My guess would be that for music that requires greater freq range and that possess more insturmentation you might be able to pick out subtle differences, but I am no authority on the matter, thats just my subjective opinion on this.

 

[manofsteel2397]

it has been my experience that music that was recorded anolog sounds a lot worse im mp3 form then that of the newer music that was recorded digital although i still like the warmth you get from anolog recordings the sound just dosent translate well in mp3 form grant it this is not always the case but it is what i have observed most recording taken right of the cd and put on to an ipod seem to need a boost of volume and in gerneral just dont sound as good as the orginal.

 

[snickelfritz]

I believe the iPod is compatible with Apple's lossless compression; use that for maximum sound quality, not MP3.

 

[OttoMatic]

It also depends on what you're looking for. Are you listening critically, or just using it a background music?

You can definitely tell the difference between mp3 and not. And as noted, there are varying levels of mp3.

Also, sending analog from your iPod to your receiver may also degrade the sound in and of itself. I would suspect that the DACs and amps in the iPod are pretty cheap.

 

[fmw]

Here's how to test it for yourself. Take a CD and rip it twice - once as a 320 kbps MP3 and again as a 128 kbps MP3. The CD itself can represent the uncompressed music. Play them, compare them and see what you think. Let us know what you concluded.

 

[Rickster71]

They didn't name MP3 a lossy format for nothing.
I agree with Otto, backround music would be ok.
Anything else? Let 'your' ears be the guide.

 

[GlocksRock]

what bitrate the .mp3 is encoded at makes a difference, as well as the quality of your gear, especially the speakers. Many will say that they can't tell a difference between a 192 kbps mp3 and a cd, but a lot depends on the person, and what they are listening to it on.

 

[onlyshawn]

...granted, I'm new here, but *this* is something I can contribute to. There are some half-truths mentioned here, primarily based on old information, and while apple lossless is great, it's about 4x-10x as large as a properly encoded mp3.

It ALL depends on how you rip the music, and how you encode it. The variables are:

quality of rip (the initial data that's pulled off of a cd...a bad rip will give you audible pops)
encoding algorithm (just purely the 'machine' that that initial data is fed through...a bad or old algorithm will give you shitty results no matter what the bit rate is)
bit rate (the amount of data that's allowed to stay after it's been fed through that machine...everyone's familiar with bit rate, but that's only part of the story.)

A non-scratched-to-hell cd that's ripped with Exact Audio Copy (on a PC...Max on a mac is similar but not AS good), and encoded with the current LAME encoder (go to hydrogenaudio.org to find out what the current recommended compile is...at this point, it's 3.97 I believe) at V2 or V3 will be *transparent* to the ears. Almost almost almost nobody will be able to double blind it from the original. LAME is an open-source encoder, and it's been tweaked phenomenally to provide mp3's that are leaps and bounds better than what was produced when mp3's were first hitting the scene.

So, if you do your mp3's correctly, you'll end up with appx. 200kbps files (it's variable bit rate, so it devotes more bits to complicated music, as determined by the algorithm's analysis, and less bits to the 'easy' portions of a track) that will sound awesome!

For a detailed 'how-to', visit bestmp3guide.com (i'd link it, but i'm not allowed to yet...and it's a temperamental site, I've had it not work on some days, and others it's fine.)

The following is from the hydrogenaudio LAME wiki page:

High quality: HiFi, home or quiet listening

-V3 --vbr-new (~175 kbps), -V2 --vbr-new (~190 kbps), -V1 --vbr-new (~210 kbps) or -V0 --vbr-new (~230 kbps) are recommended. These settings will produce transparent encoding (transparent = most people cannot distinguish the MP3 from the original in an ABX blind test). Audible differences between these presets exist, but are extremely rare.

Personally, I rip mine at V3, because the majority of my listening is done through my (quality) headphones on my iPod...once I get my system set up in the house, i MAY re-rip my favorite albums to V0.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

If you download music from a computer .....

What you are downloading and who it is from make very big diffrences. Its like produce at the grocery store; you can hand pick the best apple on the shelf, or grab hatever is on top of the pile.

..... put them on your ipod and play your ipod through the yamaha ipod dock .....

Your iPod and iPod doc may or may-not add some distortion. iPods themselves eem to be pretty good, but there are some really bad connectors on the market that can add a constant stream of static & hiss.