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#1
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
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#2
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
"John Sunier" wrote in message
... http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=910 I agree completely with your sentiments, but am afraid that your suggested actions amount to ****ing into the wind. Until and unless the media (both specialized and general) start telling it like it is to those unused to high fidelity in their music reproduction, instead of using misleading terms such as "cd-quality" applied to everything short of mp3's recorded onto cassette, we will lose the battle. Has it ever occurred to anyone that this whole "wallpaper" thing may have started with the introduction of CD itself, along with the sterility that the first decade of CD reproduction generally created. Seems to me that coincided with the loss of interest in "just sitting and listening". I know, I know, there are lots of other social factors at work. But I think we dropped our guard and started losing this battle in the eighties. |
#3
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
In article ,
"Harry Lavo" writes: "John Sunier" wrote in message ... http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=910 I agree completely with your sentiments, but am afraid that your suggested actions amount to ****ing into the wind. Until and unless the media (both specialized and general) start telling it like it is to those unused to high fidelity in their music reproduction, instead of using misleading terms such as "cd-quality" applied to everything short of mp3's recorded onto cassette, we will lose the battle. Has it ever occurred to anyone that this whole "wallpaper" thing may have started with the introduction of CD itself, along with the sterility that the first decade of CD reproduction generally created. Seems to me that coincided with the loss of interest in "just sitting and listening". I know, I know, there are lots of other social factors at work. But I think we dropped our guard and started losing this battle in the eighties. I think it started much earlier with 8-track and then cassette. The portability was worth more to people than the audio quality. Walkmans then accelerated the trend. Portable CD players were the next step. MP3 is just the latest step. I use MP3 for the portability feature when I travel, but never for home use. -- David Bath - RAHE Co-moderator |
#4
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
David E. Bath wrote:
In article , "Harry Lavo" writes: "John Sunier" wrote in message ... http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=910 I agree completely with your sentiments, but am afraid that your suggested actions amount to ****ing into the wind. Until and unless the media (both specialized and general) start telling it like it is to those unused to high fidelity in their music reproduction, instead of using misleading terms such as "cd-quality" applied to everything short of mp3's recorded onto cassette, we will lose the battle. Has it ever occurred to anyone that this whole "wallpaper" thing may have started with the introduction of CD itself, along with the sterility that the first decade of CD reproduction generally created. Seems to me that coincided with the loss of interest in "just sitting and listening". I know, I know, there are lots of other social factors at work. But I think we dropped our guard and started losing this battle in the eighties. I think it started much earlier with 8-track and then cassette. The portability was worth more to people than the audio quality. Walkmans then accelerated the trend. Portable CD players were the next step. MP3 is just the latest step. I use MP3 for the portability feature when I travel, but never for home use. Agreed. It has nothing to do with the supposed 'sterility' of CD -- that's just Harry on his hobbyhorse, and I guess he's utterly forgotten the Sony Walkman -- it's *all* about being *able* to have music all the time. And of course we also have to note the introduction of Muzak to public spaces...dating back the 50's perhaps? Music that isn't *meant* to be listened to attentively. -- -S "The most appealing intuitive argument for atheism is the mindblowing stupidity of religious fundamentalists." -- Ginger Yellow |
#6
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
David E. Bath wrote:
In article , "Harry Lavo" writes: Has it ever occurred to anyone that this whole "wallpaper" thing may have started with the introduction of CD itself, along with the sterility that the first decade of CD reproduction generally created. Seems to me that coincided with the loss of interest in "just sitting and listening". I know, I know, there are lots of other social factors at work. But I think we dropped our guard and started losing this battle in the eighties. I think it started much earlier with 8-track and then cassette. The portability was worth more to people than the audio quality. Walkmans then accelerated the trend. Portable CD players were the next step. MP3 is just the latest step. I use MP3 for the portability feature when I travel, but never for home use. Oh, come on. It started not long after the Victrola replaced the piano in the parlor. That's when background music became possible, and it's been with us ever since. To ascribe this phenomenon to digital is just trolling. bob |
#7
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
On 29 Dec 2005 21:36:27 GMT, (David E. Bath)
wrote: In article , "Harry Lavo" writes: "John Sunier" wrote in message ... http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=910 I agree completely with your sentiments, but am afraid that your suggested actions amount to ****ing into the wind. Until and unless the media (both specialized and general) start telling it like it is to those unused to high fidelity in their music reproduction, instead of using misleading terms such as "cd-quality" applied to everything short of mp3's recorded onto cassette, we will lose the battle. Has it ever occurred to anyone that this whole "wallpaper" thing may have started with the introduction of CD itself, along with the sterility that the first decade of CD reproduction generally created. Seems to me that coincided with the loss of interest in "just sitting and listening". I know, I know, there are lots of other social factors at work. But I think we dropped our guard and started losing this battle in the eighties. I think it started much earlier with 8-track and then cassette. The portability was worth more to people than the audio quality. Walkmans then accelerated the trend. Portable CD players were the next step. MP3 is just the latest step. I use MP3 for the portability feature when I travel, but never for home use. However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. -- Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering |
#8
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
"David E. Bath" wrote in message
... In article , "Harry Lavo" writes: "John Sunier" wrote in message ... http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=910 I agree completely with your sentiments, but am afraid that your suggested actions amount to ****ing into the wind. Until and unless the media (both specialized and general) start telling it like it is to those unused to high fidelity in their music reproduction, instead of using misleading terms such as "cd-quality" applied to everything short of mp3's recorded onto cassette, we will lose the battle. Has it ever occurred to anyone that this whole "wallpaper" thing may have started with the introduction of CD itself, along with the sterility that the first decade of CD reproduction generally created. Seems to me that coincided with the loss of interest in "just sitting and listening". I know, I know, there are lots of other social factors at work. But I think we dropped our guard and started losing this battle in the eighties. I think it started much earlier with 8-track and then cassette. The portability was worth more to people than the audio quality. Walkmans then accelerated the trend. Portable CD players were the next step. MP3 is just the latest step. I use MP3 for the portability feature when I travel, but never for home use. There is one thing, though, David, that I can't reconcile with your post or many of the others that have responded....granted that portability and laziness have been possible factors from Sousa's lamented Gramophone through 8-trak on up to the Cassette, which you rightfully mention, why did they not seem to negatively affect home listening? In fact, one can argue that they actually helped home listening...certainly the Gramaphone. And the 8-trak and cassette carried it mostly into the car, which in a way is a dedi ated listening space that supplements home listening. Nor do I believe the walkman was ever seen as any real competition to a good stereo. But since digital came in, even without digital portability, people changed their habits (often at home) and stopped "listening" to music and started using it as "background". This is mostly true of pop and rock, surely, but I think even jazz and classical has suffered. Is it all cultural? Or could there be a subtle cause and effect? |
#9
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Stewart Pinkerton wrote in
: However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. -- stealthaxe |
#10
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Stewart Pinkerton wrote:
On 29 Dec 2005 21:36:27 GMT, (David E. Bath) wrote: In article , "Harry Lavo" writes: "John Sunier" wrote in message ... http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=910 I agree completely with your sentiments, but am afraid that your suggested actions amount to ****ing into the wind. Until and unless the media (both specialized and general) start telling it like it is to those unused to high fidelity in their music reproduction, instead of using misleading terms such as "cd-quality" applied to everything short of mp3's recorded onto cassette, we will lose the battle. Has it ever occurred to anyone that this whole "wallpaper" thing may have started with the introduction of CD itself, along with the sterility that the first decade of CD reproduction generally created. Seems to me that coincided with the loss of interest in "just sitting and listening". I know, I know, there are lots of other social factors at work. But I think we dropped our guard and started losing this battle in the eighties. I think it started much earlier with 8-track and then cassette. The portability was worth more to people than the audio quality. Walkmans then accelerated the trend. Portable CD players were the next step. MP3 is just the latest step. I use MP3 for the portability feature when I travel, but never for home use. However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. Does anyone actually put .wav files on their ipod? No. |
#11
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
In article ,
"Harry Lavo" writes: "David E. Bath" wrote in message ... In article , "Harry Lavo" writes: "John Sunier" wrote in message ... http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=910 I agree completely with your sentiments, but am afraid that your suggested actions amount to ****ing into the wind. Until and unless the media (both specialized and general) start telling it like it is to those unused to high fidelity in their music reproduction, instead of using misleading terms such as "cd-quality" applied to everything short of mp3's recorded onto cassette, we will lose the battle. Has it ever occurred to anyone that this whole "wallpaper" thing may have started with the introduction of CD itself, along with the sterility that the first decade of CD reproduction generally created. Seems to me that coincided with the loss of interest in "just sitting and listening". I know, I know, there are lots of other social factors at work. But I think we dropped our guard and started losing this battle in the eighties. I think it started much earlier with 8-track and then cassette. The portability was worth more to people than the audio quality. Walkmans then accelerated the trend. Portable CD players were the next step. MP3 is just the latest step. I use MP3 for the portability feature when I travel, but never for home use. There is one thing, though, David, that I can't reconcile with your post or many of the others that have responded....granted that portability and laziness have been possible factors from Sousa's lamented Gramophone through 8-trak on up to the Cassette, which you rightfully mention, why did they not seem to negatively affect home listening? In fact, one can argue that they actually helped home listening...certainly the Gramaphone. And the 8-trak and cassette carried it mostly into the car, which in a way is a dedi ated listening space that supplements home listening. Nor do I believe the walkman was ever seen as any real competition to a good stereo. But since digital came in, even without digital portability, people changed their habits (often at home) and stopped "listening" to music and started using it as "background". This is mostly true of pop and rock, surely, but I think even jazz and classical has suffered. Is it all cultural? Or could there be a subtle cause and effect? On second thought it started even earlier with the introduction of changer devices such as the 45 changers and then the LP changers. It's that capability that allowed one to queue up a lot of music and then let it run as background entertainment. CD changers then continued that capability. I don't think it becomes background until one can set it up and forget about it for a significant time period. -- David Bath - RAHE Co-moderator |
#12
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
stealthaxe wrote:
Stewart Pinkerton wrote in : However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. firswt, who says you have use an ipod to play mp3s? second, IIRC Stereophile favorably reviewed the ipod's sound quality a little while back. |
#13
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
fogdog wrote:
Does anyone actually put .wav files on their ipod? No. Surely there are at least a few audiophile know-nothings who wouldn't dream of using any form of compression, including lossless. (Just don't tell them that hi-rez digital relies on it as well!) bob |
#14
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Harry Lavo wrote:
"David E. Bath" wrote in message snip? I think it started much earlier with 8-track and then cassette. The portability was worth more to people than the audio quality. Walkmans then accelerated the trend. Portable CD players were the next step. MP3 is just the latest step. I use MP3 for the portability feature when I travel, but never for home use. You forgot the even more miserable 4-track cartridge that preceded the 8-track. Horrible. There is one thing, though, David, that I can't reconcile with your post or many of the others that have responded....granted that portability and laziness have been possible factors from Sousa's lamented Gramophone through 8-trak on up to the Cassette, which you rightfully mention, why did they not seem to negatively affect home listening? Primarily, I think, because there were no rapid cultural changes associated with the majority of the music listeners contemporaneous to these technological changes. They (we) just had more options available to do what we were already doing, listening to music. There also was a very limited amount of competing entertainment, especially video based, in comparison to the last couple of decades. In fact, one can argue that they actually helped home listening...certainly the Gramaphone. And the 8-trak and cassette carried it mostly into the car, which in a way is a dedi ated listening space that supplements home listening. Nor do I believe the walkman was ever seen as any real competition to a good stereo. Well, while the quality of the "reproduction" is certainly not as good in the car, or the Walkman, the quality of the "music" is unchanged. I think this just highlights that enjoyment of the music does not correlate well with the quality of the reproduction. Certainly not outside of the audiophile realm - a realm that is clearly shrinking IME. But since digital came in, even without digital portability, people changed their habits (often at home) and stopped "listening" to music and started using it as "background". Well Harry, I don't think you can tie the change to "digital". I, for one, listen more with digital, simply because I now can. Traveling 25 days a month is *not* conducive to vinylphilia... As to background music, you seem to presuppose that this is necessarily a "bad" thing. It's not what *we* do, but it still supports the music industry, and gives artists a chance to make a living. With the competing visual media (HT, cable, DVD, etc.) these days, I don't think there will be many, if any, new generations of audiophiles. This is mostly true of pop and rock, surely, but I think even jazz and classical has suffered. Is it all cultural? Yes, IMO. The cultural adaptation both to new technologies, and to new forms of entertainment. Or could there be a subtle cause and effect? I would say absolutely not, relative to digital being your culprit. Do you really believe that if we still *only* had vinyl for music, and still had DVD's, video games, etc., etc., for visual entertainment, that *more* people would be listening seriously to music than do so now? Given that A.D.D. seems almost to be a merit badge in American society today, that seems incredibly unlikely to me. Keith Hughes |
#15
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
stealthaxe wrote:
Stewart Pinkerton wrote in : However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. Assuming that good headphones are used, where would the loss of quality be? |
#16
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Harry Lavo wrote:
There is one thing, though, David, that I can't reconcile with your post or many of the others that have responded....granted that portability and laziness have been possible factors from Sousa's lamented Gramophone through 8-trak on up to the Cassette, which you rightfully mention, why did they not seem to negatively affect home listening? In fact, one can argue that they actually helped home listening...certainly the Gramaphone. And the 8-trak and cassette carried it mostly into the car, which in a way is a dedi ated listening space Yeah, maybe when you're parked. that supplements home listening. Nor do I believe the walkman was ever seen as any real competition to a good stereo. But since digital came in, even without digital portability, people changed their habits (often at home) and stopped "listening" to music and started using it as "background". This is mostly true of pop and rock, surely, but I think even jazz and classical has suffered. Is it all cultural? Or could there be a subtle cause and effect? Or could you just be making this stuff up? I see no reason to believe that people suddenly stopped listening seriously to recorded music 20-odd years ago. All I see is a guy who wants to pick the same old digital/analog fight yet again. Your sociology is as bad as your psychoacoustics, Harry. Please give it up. bob |
#17
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
On 31 Dec 2005 16:45:55 GMT, fogdog wrote:
Stewart Pinkerton wrote: However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. Does anyone actually put .wav files on their ipod? No. Yes, pretty obviously, given my post............................. -- Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering |
#18
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
On 31 Dec 2005 16:41:46 GMT, stealthaxe
wrote: Stewart Pinkerton wrote in : However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. Actually, I'm very hard pushed to differentiate it from an original CD on my main music rig, and that seems to be a common consensus. What makes you think that it *should* sound inferior? -- Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering |
#19
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Harry Lavo wrote:
But since digital came in, even without digital portability, people changed their habits (often at home) and stopped "listening" to music and started using it as "background". This is mostly true of pop and rock, surely, but I think even jazz and classical has suffered. Is it all cultural? Or could there be a subtle cause and effect? You have to be joking, Mr. Lavo. I have three kids, and they all listen to music at least 4 hours a day. No, not on vinyl, but on iPods. If anything, the advent of the portable MP3 players makes it much easier for younger people to "listen" to music, anytime, any place. Each of my kids has a music library that is easily an order of magnitude larger in size than what I had when I was at their age. And they do not use that library as only background music, but every bit as attentively as when I listened to my vinyl when I was at their age. You go to any college in the US, and you see the same phenomenon: young people with sizable music collections and actively listening to them. You think iPods were sold mostly to people who use it as background music only? |
#20
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
bob wrote:
fogdog wrote: Does anyone actually put .wav files on their ipod? No. Surely there are at least a few audiophile know-nothings who wouldn't dream of using any form of compression, including lossless. (Just don't tell them that hi-rez digital relies on it as well!) bob There might be someone out there but I haven't met the guy yet. Plus iPod's do not play flacs and shns. |
#21
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Isn't it called the background music already? What did your kids do?
Nothing but just music? :-) |
#22
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
fogdog wrote:
bob wrote: fogdog wrote: Does anyone actually put .wav files on their ipod? No. Surely there are at least a few audiophile know-nothings who wouldn't dream of using any form of compression, including lossless. (Just don't tell them that hi-rez digital relies on it as well!) bob There might be someone out there but I haven't met the guy yet. Plus iPod's do not play flacs and shns. But they do play Apple Lossless. -- -S "The most appealing intuitive argument for atheism is the mindblowing stupidity of religious fundamentalists." -- Ginger Yellow |
#23
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
stealthaxe wrote:
Stewart Pinkerton wrote in : However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. Because it's an MP3 you atuomatically assume its totally inferior. Is that ignorance? Have you given yourself a chance to find out if MP3s can sound good? Just like all audio, there's good and bad in everything. Some people are happy with their walmart $40 CD player, and others need the Benchmark DAC coupled with some exotic transport. Hoards of people own a technics turntable, but the "real" audiophiles own a Rega, or Linn, or whatnot. It's the same, to a large extent, with MP3. You've got the Britney Spears crowd who get massively compressed to hell 128 kbps MP3s available over the ubiquitous file sharing networks, or you could try and give a listen to a 320 Kbps mps encoded with LAME or Fraunhoffer. MP3 can sound very very good. There are also a bunch of other lossy codecs which arguably do a very good job of "preserving" the highest quality audio, like OGG and Apple's AAC. CD |
#24
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
On 1 Jan 2006 19:28:10 GMT, fogdog wrote:
bob wrote: fogdog wrote: Does anyone actually put .wav files on their ipod? No. Surely there are at least a few audiophile know-nothings who wouldn't dream of using any form of compression, including lossless. (Just don't tell them that hi-rez digital relies on it as well!) bob There might be someone out there but I haven't met the guy yet. Plus iPod's do not play flacs and shns. Hi there, glad to meet you! :-) BTW, Apple has its own lossless encoder. -- Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering |
#25
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Where can you get the Brittney Spears' 320 Kbps mps encoded with LAME or
Fraunhoffer. I have been looking for these for a long time. Maybe they are not available here in Canada. "Codifus" wrote in message ... stealthaxe wrote: Stewart Pinkerton wrote in : However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. Because it's an MP3 you atuomatically assume its totally inferior. Is that ignorance? Have you given yourself a chance to find out if MP3s can sound good? Just like all audio, there's good and bad in everything. Some people are happy with their walmart $40 CD player, and others need the Benchmark DAC coupled with some exotic transport. Hoards of people own a technics turntable, but the "real" audiophiles own a Rega, or Linn, or whatnot. It's the same, to a large extent, with MP3. You've got the Britney Spears crowd who get massively compressed to hell 128 kbps MP3s available over the ubiquitous file sharing networks, or you could try and give a listen to a 320 Kbps mps encoded with LAME or Fraunhoffer. MP3 can sound very very good. There are also a bunch of other lossy codecs which arguably do a very good job of "preserving" the highest quality audio, like OGG and Apple's AAC. CD |
#26
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
In article ,
Stewart Pinkerton wrote: On 1 Jan 2006 19:28:10 GMT, fogdog wrote: bob wrote: fogdog wrote: Does anyone actually put .wav files on their ipod? No. Surely there are at least a few audiophile know-nothings who wouldn't dream of using any form of compression, including lossless. (Just don't tell them that hi-rez digital relies on it as well!) bob There might be someone out there but I haven't met the guy yet. Plus iPod's do not play flacs and shns. Hi there, glad to meet you! :-) LOL I'm a bit torn about what type of files to put on my new iPod. As is the case of most of us here, I'm a very critical listener, so part of me wants to go for the very best sound, which means smaller amount of music on the device. On the other hand, the thought of having the maximum amount of music at my disposal is the larger pull, I think, especially since I will use it for classes. I think that I'll use it for DIFFERENT kind of listening; 128 kbps importing will sound good enough for what I'll use it for: instant access to a ton of music. I recognize that the fidelity isn't optimum, and that's OK. At least that's my plan at this hour :-) BTW, Apple has its own lossless encoder. |
#27
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
In article ,
Jenn writes: In article , Stewart Pinkerton wrote: On 1 Jan 2006 19:28:10 GMT, fogdog wrote: bob wrote: fogdog wrote: Does anyone actually put .wav files on their ipod? No. Surely there are at least a few audiophile know-nothings who wouldn't dream of using any form of compression, including lossless. (Just don't tell them that hi-rez digital relies on it as well!) bob There might be someone out there but I haven't met the guy yet. Plus iPod's do not play flacs and shns. Hi there, glad to meet you! :-) LOL I'm a bit torn about what type of files to put on my new iPod. As is the case of most of us here, I'm a very critical listener, so part of me wants to go for the very best sound, which means smaller amount of music on the device. On the other hand, the thought of having the maximum amount of music at my disposal is the larger pull, I think, especially since I will use it for classes. I think that I'll use it for DIFFERENT kind of listening; 128 kbps importing will sound good enough for what I'll use it for: instant access to a ton of music. I recognize that the fidelity isn't optimum, and that's OK. At least that's my plan at this hour :-) I'm going through the same experimentation with encoders and encoding rates myself. So far I'm quite happy with the LAME encoder set for VBR standard. VBR (variable bit rate) encoding is superior to any fixed rate that I've tried so far. I've been unable to tell any difference between the original WAV file and the MP3 via headphones on my computer. 128 Kbps fixed is noticeably different from the WAV in the same setup. The resulting VBR files are about 20-25% larger than the 128 Kbps files. -- David Bath - RAHE Co-moderator |
#28
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Jenn wrote:
I'm a bit torn about what type of files to put on my new iPod. As is the case of most of us here, I'm a very critical listener, so part of me wants to go for the very best sound, which means smaller amount of music on the device. On the other hand, the thought of having the maximum amount of music at my disposal is the larger pull, I think, especially since I will use it for classes. I think that I'll use it for DIFFERENT kind of listening; 128 kbps importing will sound good enough for what I'll use it for: instant access to a ton of music. I recognize that the fidelity isn't optimum, and that's OK. At least that's my plan at this hour :-) It's hard to imagine filling a 30- or 60-gig iPod with 128kbps content. You'll be ripping disks for a year! (And how many minutes of class will you waste scrolling through all of it to find what you're looking for?) I usually recommend ripping at 192 kbps as a good compromise between resolution and file size. Of course, that won't work if youreally need to cram 400 CDs onto a 30-gig drive. In which case, I have any even better solution: You need TWO iPods--one for the class, and one for you! bob |
#29
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Bob McDonald wrote:
Where can you get the Brittney Spears' 320 Kbps mps encoded with LAME or Fraunhoffer. I have been looking for these for a long time. Maybe they are not available here in Canada. "Codifus" wrote in message ... stealthaxe wrote: Stewart Pinkerton wrote in : However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. Because it's an MP3 you atuomatically assume its totally inferior. Is that ignorance? Have you given yourself a chance to find out if MP3s can sound good? Just like all audio, there's good and bad in everything. Some people are happy with their walmart $40 CD player, and others need the Benchmark DAC coupled with some exotic transport. Hoards of people own a technics turntable, but the "real" audiophiles own a Rega, or Linn, or whatnot. It's the same, to a large extent, with MP3. You've got the Britney Spears crowd who get massively compressed to hell 128 kbps MP3s available over the ubiquitous file sharing networks, or you could try and give a listen to a 320 Kbps mps encoded with LAME or Fraunhoffer. MP3 can sound very very good. There are also a bunch of other lossy codecs which arguably do a very good job of "preserving" the highest quality audio, like OGG and Apple's AAC. CD You can make it yourself. Get the CD, rip the wavs to computer and use LAME to make some very nice 320 kbps MP3s. Of course, why you want to do that for a Britney CD is another matter for discussion CD |
#30
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Steven Sullivan wrote in
: stealthaxe wrote: Stewart Pinkerton wrote in : However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. firswt, who says you have use an ipod to play mp3s? he stated "My 60GB iPod..." in his text. i was responding to the context. second, IIRC Stereophile favorably reviewed the ipod's sound quality a little while back. perhaps compared to other similar types of devices, but for me they're pretty mediocre. -- stealthaxe |
#31
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
"jwvm" wrote in :
Assuming that good headphones are used, where would the loss of quality be? have you listened to an iPod? critically? -- stealthaxe |
#32
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Stewart Pinkerton wrote in news:dp7ovt02uu0
@news2.newsguy.com: Actually, I'm very hard pushed to differentiate it from an original CD on my main music rig, and that seems to be a common consensus. ok, now i'm confused. your main music rig is an iPod? What makes you think that it *should* sound inferior? i don't think it "should" sound inferior. i think it DOES sound inferior, at least to my home rig, which doesn't include any iPod or any mp3 players. -- stealthaxe |
#33
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
Codifus wrote in
: stealthaxe wrote: Stewart Pinkerton wrote in : However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. Because it's an MP3 you atuomatically assume its totally inferior. Is that ignorance? Have you given yourself a chance to find out if MP3s can sound good? interesting that you throw words around like ignorance. what reason would you have to believe that i've never tried out mp3s? or iPods? i have a large collection of mp3's, ripped from my collection, which i listen to on the road when working. i find that the sound quality i get from my laptop is superior to these portable sound devices including the iPod. It's the same, to a large extent, with MP3. You've got the Britney Spears crowd who get massively compressed to hell 128 kbps MP3s available over the ubiquitous file sharing networks, or you could try and give a listen to a 320 Kbps mps encoded with LAME or Fraunhoffer. I have a copy of lame, and i encode using VBR on nearly the highest settings. MP3 can sound very very good. There are also a bunch of other lossy codecs which arguably do a very good job of "preserving" the highest quality audio, like OGG and Apple's AAC. OGG Vorbis was pretty interesting to me for a while. Arguably, high res mp3 files are a considerable improvement over the 96 k/sec crap you find here and there, but in the end i'm interested in finding better formats and higher quality and not the other way around. I find "really good" is not quite the same as "no loss of quality" which is the phrase i took issue with. -- stealthaxe |
#34
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
"bob" wrote in :
Surely there are at least a few audiophile know-nothings who wouldn't dream of using any form of compression, including lossless. (Just don't tell them that hi-rez digital relies on it as well!) i'm sorry, were we talking about lossless compression? -- stealthaxe |
#35
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
"John Sunier" wrote in message
... http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=910 Whilst agreeing with the sentiments, there is one glaring errors in the text, which will detract from the value of the message. MP3 files do not offer 1/30th of the sample rate of CD. They are sampled at the same rate, or even a little higher at 48kHz. DATA rate is lower (not sample rate), but not 1/30th. An MP3 at 128kBs is approximately 11:1 data reduced, not 30:1. Nevertheless, it is true that right up until a few years ago, audio reproduction was ever upwards in quality. Microgroove LPs replaced 78s, and CD replaced LPs, to provide ever increasing quality for the vast number of consumers. (I don't want to get into a futile discussion about vinyl being better than CD, it may be perceived to be so for a few audiophiles, but for the great majority of the population with their radiograms or music centres, CD was a VAST improvement.) Latterly, SACD and DVD-A promised even better quality, but these have failed to capture the public imagination, for whom CD is already "pure, perfect sound forever" Instead, the public imagination has been captured by the convenience of portable storage and free (or at least cheap) downloading of music, and quest for quality has lost the public interest. I can very well understand the frustration of recording companies and their artists and audiophiles like ourselves when we find that bye and large, nobody cares for audio quality any more. It is very interesting that even amongst the audio professionals with whom I have spent my working life, questions of audio quality no longer seem to figure in choosing equipment; reliability, convenience and of course, price, are considered more important, as good audio quality is "taken as read". I would dearly love to see a campaign along the lines of the Campaign for Real Ale which did so much to reverse the downward spiral of beer quality, do the same for audio, but sadly, I think that as long as the bulk of the music listening public can't see what's wrong with MP3, the likes of us audiophiles will be crying in the wilderness. Sadly, S. |
#36
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
stealthaxe wrote:
Steven Sullivan wrote in : stealthaxe wrote: Stewart Pinkerton wrote in : However, one can now have both portability *and* high quality. My 60GB iPod is capable of storing some 150 CDs as .wav files with no loss of quality whatever, or about 750 as 320kb/sec AACs, which I personally cannot distinguish from the original. "no loss of quality"? perhaps not with the source material, but what about the playback equipment? surely you're not stating that the sound quality of the iPod rivals your home gear? if it does i'd seriously consider an upgrade @ home. firswt, who says you have use an ipod to play mp3s? he stated "My 60GB iPod..." in his text. i was responding to the context. second, IIRC Stereophile favorably reviewed the ipod's sound quality a little while back. perhaps compared to other similar types of devices, but for me they're pretty mediocre. http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcom...34/index2.html "The compressed formats began to show some real promise at 320kbps. Definition, detail, and soundstaging were all impressive, and high-frequency response was almost liquid in its lack of edge effects. At this rate, differences between the two formats jumped into sharper focus: MP3 made transients "splashy," while AAC just sounded anemic compared to the original. With both formats, dynamic variation was considerably reduced compared to the CD." Best of all€”and, to my ears, completely indistinguishable from the original CD€”was AIFF. Dynamics were impressive, imaging was nuanced and detailed, and the frequency extremes sounded extended and natural. On my reference rig, I could listen with immense pleasure for hours on end to files ripped in AIFF. In fact, I did." These quotes from Stereophile's ipod review do not suggest that sound quality of the ipod per se is the problem. Of course, typically for SP, they didn't do their comparisons blind, and I suspect the 'splashy' and 'anemic' qualities heard at 320 kbps might mysteriously disappear if so done. -- -S "The most appealing intuitive argument for atheism is the mindblowing stupidity of religious fundamentalists." -- Ginger Yellow |
#37
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
In article ,
"Serge Auckland" wrote: "John Sunier" wrote in message ... http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=910 Whilst agreeing with the sentiments, there is one glaring errors in the text, which will detract from the value of the message. MP3 files do not offer 1/30th of the sample rate of CD. They are sampled at the same rate, or even a little higher at 48kHz. DATA rate is lower (not sample rate), but not 1/30th. An MP3 at 128kBs is approximately 11:1 data reduced, not 30:1. Nevertheless, it is true that right up until a few years ago, audio reproduction was ever upwards in quality. Microgroove LPs replaced 78s, and CD replaced LPs, to provide ever increasing quality for the vast number of consumers. (I don't want to get into a futile discussion about vinyl being better than CD, it may be perceived to be so for a few audiophiles, but for the great majority of the population with their radiograms or music centres, CD was a VAST improvement.) It might surprise some to know that I agree totally with this statement. Latterly, SACD and DVD-A promised even better quality, but these have failed to capture the public imagination, for whom CD is already "pure, perfect sound forever" Instead, the public imagination has been captured by the convenience of portable storage and free (or at least cheap) downloading of music, and quest for quality has lost the public interest. I can very well understand the frustration of recording companies and their artists and audiophiles like ourselves when we find that bye and large, nobody cares for audio quality any more. It is very interesting that even amongst the audio professionals with whom I have spent my working life, questions of audio quality no longer seem to figure in choosing equipment; reliability, convenience and of course, price, are considered more important, as good audio quality is "taken as read". I would dearly love to see a campaign along the lines of the Campaign for Real Ale which did so much to reverse the downward spiral of beer quality, do the same for audio, but sadly, I think that as long as the bulk of the music listening public can't see what's wrong with MP3, the likes of us audiophiles will be crying in the wilderness. Sadly, S. Serge, thanks for the cogent post. IMO you are spot on with each issue. There is an interesting piece currently on the NY Times website on amplification in classical music performance that, I believe, relates to the current of audio reproduction: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/ar...ic/01tomm.html Thanks again for the post. Jenn |
#38
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
stealthaxe wrote:
"jwvm" wrote in : Assuming that good headphones are used, where would the loss of quality be? have you listened to an iPod? critically? Forgot to add, having posted a bit from the critical-listening review in Stereophile -- they also measured the thingie. "The iPod's measured behavior is better than many CD players€”ironic, considering that most of the time it will be used to play MP3 and AAC files, which will not immediately benefit from such good performance. But if you're willing to trade off maximum playing time against the ability to play uncompressed AIFF or WAV files, the iPod will do an excellent job of decoding them. Excellent, cost-effective audio engineering from an unexpected source.€”John Atkinson" -- -S "The most appealing intuitive argument for atheism is the mindblowing stupidity of religious fundamentalists." -- Ginger Yellow |
#39
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
In article , "bob"
wrote: Jenn wrote: I'm a bit torn about what type of files to put on my new iPod. As is the case of most of us here, I'm a very critical listener, so part of me wants to go for the very best sound, which means smaller amount of music on the device. On the other hand, the thought of having the maximum amount of music at my disposal is the larger pull, I think, especially since I will use it for classes. I think that I'll use it for DIFFERENT kind of listening; 128 kbps importing will sound good enough for what I'll use it for: instant access to a ton of music. I recognize that the fidelity isn't optimum, and that's OK. At least that's my plan at this hour :-) It's hard to imagine filling a 30- or 60-gig iPod with 128kbps content. You'll be ripping disks for a year! Well, I've got 20 gig remaining on my 30 gig 'pod, and lots that I still want on it! (And how many minutes of class will you waste scrolling through all of it to find what you're looking for?) I'm organizing the files into very specific playlists that will make finding them quick and easy. I usually recommend ripping at 192 kbps as a good compromise between resolution and file size. I'll give that a try and see what happens. Of course, that won't work if youreally need to cram 400 CDs onto a 30-gig drive. In which case, I have any even better solution: You need TWO iPods--one for the class, and one for you! bob LOL Good idea! |
#40
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Editorial on MP3 Threat to High-End Audio
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