Some (most?) of you may know of Apple's implementation of MPEG-4 Audio compression standard. And many of you argue the quality of MP3 vs. CD. Now, I must say, mp3s are not bearable for a listen on a solid system when below 160kbps. Flat frequency response and artifacts are generally the biggest problems here. Mp3s out the question, I decided to, by ear (with my sexy headphones,) compare Chems tunes encoded with AAC (in iTunes) at 128kbps to the same tunes in uncompressed AIF format, to see how many sweet-sounding Chems tracks I could put on my iPod.



I found that there are very rarely any artifacts of encoding, and that the frequency response is very wide but often lacks deep bass. I consider this acceptable for listening at my computer, in bed at night, and on the road.



When it comes down to it, I can deal with these minor compression flaws to reap the benefits of compression (file size, practicality). Of course I'll listen to CDs on the big system in the living room, but for day-to-day use 128kbps AACs are fine.



What are your opinions on this? And I'm not asking what you think sounds best, that's clear; I'm asking whether you find the disadvantages of compression outweigh the advantages.

My attitude has always been, if I like the music, get it on CD as it's the best quality. I'm not for downloading commercially available MP3 music files, I'd rather get it on CD. Although you can tell the difference if you literally play one version against another, I compress my CD's to 320kps as this is the least loss of audio, and it still sounds good. Mainly though, I compress for convienience rather than a main focus on compression, since I can access all my music easily/burn compilation CDs easily and so on if I have the music on my computer.



However, I would love to have an iPod, as the main advantage for me would be to have all the music in one small, portable unit, saving me (during long car journeys) having to carry my thick CD wallet or fidget around trying to change the CD, when I can just press a button to access a track! I have also heard that the sound quality of AAC is extremely impressive, even at high compression rates, and apparently is just as good as CD sound. Funny you mention artifacts, since I keep getting trouble with GYH and TGP. With GYH, I get a weird scrambled noise near the end (not the on purpose one), which really annoys me. With TGP, near the last 1/3 of the song I get annoying clicks. The other day when I tried to play TGP on my CD player it skipped really badly, so maybe something's up with my disc :'( .



I would love to get iPod, 'cos it brings so many advantages, but with the cheapest (15GB) model at �250, I'm going to have to wait a while :'( :x .

I still like my minidisc player but nobody else seems to have them. You can fit 20-25 tracks on a minidisc and I don't have to put up with annoying skipping and stopping like with my old cd player.



Anyone have a minidisc and a mp3 player? Which do you think is best? Just curious.

I don't know anything about AAC technology or quality. I'm a real nut about performance and I don't settle for anything than the best. This carries over to sound quality and being an audiophile. I carry around my cd's when I want to listen to music, in the car, working out, or what ever. I don't really use a portable cd player at all. I don't think I'd ever use an iPod/mp3 player. There is just something about having everything on one device that doesn't appeal to me. I know it sounds crazy, and I know that's what is what makes it very attractive, but I don't like it. I might use it for recording audio (can anyone tell me if you can do that?).

You can, but it's not something I'd do, for the quality is not good enough for me :P



(I like recording at 24/96 or higher)

GLAKO-FAHN Escribi�:

You can, but it's not something I'd do, for the quality is not good enough for me :P



(I like recording at 24/96 or higher)

Do you know the bit/sample rate?

It records to mp3, not sure about bitrate.

I use a minidisk player myself i find it to be great, no audioble difference from cd really.

griffin Escribi�:

I use a minidisk player myself i find it to be great, no audioble difference from cd really.

hear hear

Cool!



Hey Joslyn, does your sig count down the days automatically? ;-)

i use mini-disc for my walkman and its cool, canna really tell the differenmce between cd quality tbh.



but mp3 compression is a bit of a bug bear of mine. its ok to listen to, but it loses so much of the top end - even on high kbps iy still has a weird compression format.



i dunno - its ok for just listening to some stuff, but if im really into it ill go and buy it on cd. however, having an ipod and having all that music at your disposal with no hassle of changing discs etc etc does seem very appealing, so id probably buy one if they were a lot cheaper.



as for sampling mp3's - no chance!!! maybe a vocal here or there but NEVER a drum beat - they just sound rubbish.

I want to get myself an iPod but they arn't cheap, nice piece of kit though.