mp3 choice

[Campaign 0]

One thing I do do is listen to my APE and MP3 files in the house too....

[dr_mat 0]

If you can tell the difference between these and a cd whilst driving along you must have exceptional hearing or a poor mp3 player.

 

Well I would say that with the right in-car hifi the "mp3 signature" wouldn't be too hard to spot. But I would also say that I think mp3/ogg is adequate for listening in the car - for me. At home is a different matter - lossless is realistically the only way you get something worth listening to.

 

Not saying you're both imagining the differences, but that for just about everyone else on here mp3s are fine.

 

Didn't disagree. Doesn't mean either of us are wrong. What would (will be?) depressing is when the music industry deems CDs too troublesome to distribute and gives us 192Kb CBR mp3s instead. "Good enough" for most people eh?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I can tell you that no matter how much time I spend on mp3 (or ogg for that matter) it WILL NOT sound the same as a CD. The main reasons? Splashy, ill defined treble, and a complete absence of any low frequency information. (these encoders throw away everything below about 35 Hz - that's how it is.)

 

I have plenty of 196kbs WMAs (fixed rate) that show strong activity in the sub 30hz region using Audioscape's RTA :lol:

 

Most people know what I've got in my car Audio wise, and it wouldn't be in there if I could detect real tangible differences between CDA and Compressed music on the move, I'd just stick some cheapy things in. When stationary - perhaps there is perceived and slight 'closing in' of the soundstage because of the upper frequency constraints of compressed music, but that's it. It's crazy to even think the differences are great enough to notice when the speakers aren't even on axis in a car!!

 

Only in the home environment can you truly do some proper analysis and only there can you switch between a CD and an MP3 playback device and immediately detect the difference. In the car, you have to swap discs and during that time, your mind 'forgets' the finer nuances, so differences are only perceived.

[dr_mat 0]

I have plenty of 196kbs WMAs (fixed rate) that show strong activity in the sub 30hz region ...

 

Only in the home environment can you truly do some proper analysis and only there can you switch between a CD and an MP3 playback device and immediately detect the difference.

 

WMA is better than mp3 in many respects. But I never argued against any of this, anyway. In-car -- MP3/WMA/OGG is fine. But there's no way I'll be getting rid of my CD player at home... :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah I've always preferred WMA to MP3 but I wasn't sure if you were saying Compressed music in general, or just MP3 ;-) To my ears at least, WMA has a far better dynamic range than MP3. Not listened to any Orbs or Flac Jackets, etc etc so can't comment on those, but I'm all for sound improvements. It's kind of ironic isn't it? "Yeah kids, MP3, it's great, no more bulky CDs, 100s of tracks on a pin head sized bit of ram blah blah" but then it turned to "Pah, MP3 is shit, can't compete with CD for sound quality" So, we're back to big, bulky CDs again :lol: There is something about flicking through a folder of CDs in the car though, sense of occasion and interaction with the hi-fi? Dunno, but browsing a track list on a screen is just plain dull!

[dr_mat 0]

There is something about flicking through a folder of CDs in the car though, sense of occasion and interaction with the hi-fi? Dunno, but browsing a track list on a screen is just plain dull!

 

It's even better flicking through a big box full of vinyl ... Now *that's* satisfying .. :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yep, and you can't beat lowering the needle down and hearing the pops and crackles for interaction :lol:

[Campaign 0]

I've been going through my 12" collection recently and putting lots to digital for these, I'm using 24/96 recording using a Echo Darla24 sound card, this is for archive purposes and then I'm transposing these to APE format. Now there is a place where I really can't tell the difference betwix Vinyl and Digital...

[dinkus 10]

And skipping through a CD with 80+ tracks on trying to find the one you want is a pain in the jaxi.

 

At least with a normal you've only got 10 or so to choose from :lol:

[Kevin Bacon 5]

And speaking of Records, the missus has won some ancient old bit of Vinyl on Ebay, so I'm going to have to get the old dinosaur out of the loft - hope it supports 78s!!

 

Actually, MS digital media's analogue recorder did a might fine job of converting all my old tapes and records a couple of years back. The snap, crackle and pop filter is pretty effective too.....but using that kind of takes away the analogue 'character' though :-)

 

So.....who can predict the end of mechanical media then? Will solid state truly take over completely? Will bands record straight onto RAM via the mixing desk in the future? I think it will happen personally. But not until Sony BMG et al have creamed the public all they can with their disc technologies first.

 

And speaking of tech, I read some Jap company has made a 9000 x 7800 something or other huuuuumungous screen....but it'll take 25 years to get it into Comet strores. WTF? I hate all this carrot dangling nonsense...I'll be in my grave before all the truly good stuff appears in the shops!

[Peakz 0]

Solid state is where it's at, as mentioned before the technology is cheap now.

It's only a matter of time before software houses devise some funky programs to elevate digital music to an esoteric level.

 

I can also fully appreciate the sense of occassion with vinyl and not all vinyl has snap, crackle & pop - but that's a whole other story!

 

I used to have an MP3 head unit but have since sold it, it was convenient to listen to them on a long trip but sounded dull compared to pukka cd's.

[dr_mat 0]

We're only 1.5 years away from 64GB compact flash cards with write speeds equivalent to a current generation hard drive, and almost unlimited overwrite capability...

 

Of course, by then, we will have 2TB SATA hard drives for £300, and your OS will require 150GB..

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Aha Mr OBD2 convert! Good to hear from you.....on here at least!

 

Vinyl - You cannot beat it for bass, I'm sorry. It's a rich, organic, meaty bass that no digital format can ever hope to match. SuperAudio CDs....hmmm, OK, Sony can keep it's overpriced junk. Why go up to 50Khz and beyond where no fecker except dogs can hear it? Why not focus on bass extension instead? Bass is after all the foundation and defining octave of any music!

 

Anyway - for ultimate involvement and fidelity = Analogue, end to end ;-)

[Peakz 0]

Indeedy, analogue bass is to die for but I reckon you'll be eating your words with regards digital being unable to reproduce it.

 

. . . might have to dig out the old Systemdek and listen to my Kajagoogoo LP's.

[dinkus 10]

In theory, analogue to analogue end-to-end is perfect, but hardly ever sounds as good as digital in practice. Obviously there are exceptions, but I'd go for a suitably high-quality digital recording every time.

 

Try doing a tape-to-tape recording 3 times and see how it sounds when it's finished...

 

Or plan an LP 300 times and see how it sounds :?

[dr_mat 0]

We forgot how to do bass in the last few decades. It used to be easy, but now too much stuff has band-pass filters or insufficient power supply capability to drive the near-DC ultra low frequency signals we are missing .. Back in the old days of massively over-specifying everything, bass was easy ..

[dinkus 10]

I beg to differ - by suitable knob twiddling, I can get enough bass in my car to make me soil my underpants, but then the car sounds like a chav chariot.

 

Bally seemed to have got the idea of bass at E38 too :lol:

[dr_mat 0]

I was kinda referring to mainstream gear and DAC chips .. I don't have a shortage of bass at home, either ..

(and really I'm referring to clean, smooth bass extension into silly low notes rather than boomy chav chariot "I've got 100db at 28 Hz" .. )

[dinkus 10]

Yeah, I get you - it's good to have silly low notes to send shivers up your spine every now and then.

 

Continuous pounding bass gets tedious after more than about 20 seconds.

 

Other continuous pounding is ok tho :lol:

[vdubjb 0]

I'd switch to an ipod hu or get the kenwood mp3 cd changer. 700 Megs times 10 cd's is about 42+ hours of music...

[Henny 0]

I'm a Senior Broadcast Engineer by trade and, as such, I have to research alternative music storage/recording methods to assess viability for use on-air and for archiving audio... We've recently changed from using MP2 to using Broadcast WAV (Cartchunk)... We don't use MP3 on air, not because it sounds bad by default, but because there's no way of ensuring it won't sound bad if someone screws up the settings when they're recording stuff... :roll:

 

My 2 Dension HDD MP3 head units sound almost indistinguishable from CD in either of my cars (Passat or Corrado)... There's a couple of tracks on my HDDs where you can tell it's an MP3 rip of a CD, (mainly due to them not having been encoded by me to my standards) but otherwise, you'd be hard pushed to tell on just about any of the 8,000+ tracks that are normally in the cars... (80Gb capacity in either car is good for around 55 DAYS of audio!)

 

It's all about the combination of the CD-ROM you rip with, the version of the MP3 compression software you use and how good the de-compressor/processor is in the playback unit... I've played some of my MP3s on other players and they've sounded awful and full of digital compression artifacts, but that's purely down to the firmware on those players or the CD-rom drive within the headunit...

 

To be honest, what with road noise, engine noise, wind noise and other idiots with their BOOM-TISH-BOOM-TISH subs and tweeters only setups I'd be impressed if most people could tell the difference between an MP3 recorded at 32KHz and one recorded at 44KHz when in a moving car. A car is NOT a good place for listening to hi-quality audio, and if you think it is, well...

[latestarter2 0]

ok..thanks for all this input.

 

So is it worth the £239 do you think or not...lol

[mattnorgrove 0]

2x Technics SL1200 1x Allen and Heath Xone 64. Ortofon stylus. Reference Monitors. Say no more.

[Campaign 0]

2x Technics SL1200 1x Allen and Heath Xone 64. Ortofon stylus. Reference Monitors. Say no more.

 

In the back of your Corrado?

[mattnorgrove 0]

2x Technics SL1200 1x Allen and Heath Xone 64. Ortofon stylus. Reference Monitors. Say no more.

 

In the back of your Corrado?

 

LOL! Nah only in the studio unfortunately....