[m8o]

Ok, this could be in the portable thread or here, as it bridges the gap and is really encoding/playback oriented.

Inspired by what I am listening to, I was posting in the "what are you listening to right now" thread, and decided to abbreviate it and post the full observation tangent here in a new thread.

I'm here listening to Wayne Horvitz and Zony Mash - Brand Spankin' New. Insain Organ Jazz on a Hammond B3, Moog, Wurlitzer, etc.. Listening from the CD - Sony Double Layer DVD burner as player through the computer. No EQ, processing, volume @ max in all computer slider adjustments (noisy but clean computer audio card). Little Dot II+ amp and DT880 cans, both still breaking in but a good many hours on them.

Before had only heard that CD on my highly customized Martin Logan Sequel IIs (no passive x-over; ripped them out), supplemented with 4' Newform Research ribbon tweeter, bi-amped, digitally crossed over, digitally EQ'ed, digital room correction, 130w/ch tubes Audio Research Classic 150 on the electrostats+ribbon and 200'ish w/ch Perreaux SS on the bass.

...this is better in some ways, just as good in the rest.

Had been listening exclusively to some select MP3s from my collection before this, from an iPod or the computer. HAHAHA ... whoever says there's no difference between CD and even 320Kbps encoded music, which I was listening to, is fooling themselves! Though before hearing MP3s followed by CD through these cans driven by this amp, I would have been one to say there was no differnce too...

The absolute biggest difference is dynamic range and lack of distortion on the transients of the music. There's just so much more music, imaging, clarity, younameit, from the straight CD. At the 320Kbps bitrate, I just don't understand the compression and lack or resolution. Granted, I didn't make the MP3s I'd been listening too and I don't know what encoder was used.

But is this to be expected with even the best of encoders? Should I not bother ripping my hundreds of CDs?

 

[StanleyBuchanan]

That's what flac is for

 

[blargman]

x2

 

[Redo]

Use FLAC format if you rip, only way to go IMO


Though 320kpbs mp3 should sound damned good and VERY hard to distinguish. I bet something else is afoot here, what do you use to play your music? 320kpbs mp3 on a very good setup vs uncompressed audio should take severe critical listening to hear the differences.

 

[blargman]

actually reading the post again, looks like he knows the answer already. he didn't rip the mp3's himself. he doesn't know the source of them. thats most likely the issue. i agree 320kbps mp3 really should be realll near .wav

but just for future reference, if you rip. use flac

 

[Slogra]

I don't think the 320kbps mp3 is the problem. First try if you can hear difference between a cd and a wav (or any other lossless format). If you can hear difference than the problem isn't mp3.

The problem my be:

- you have connected your cd-rom with a analog cable and you are using this to listen to cd's. This way the sound will be very different from mp3s (or any other format) that are played digitally through your card.
- mp3s may introduce an increased level of clipping especially when the source was a very loud or already clipping cd. Foobar can solve this by decoding the mp3s at a lowel volume with the preamp slider at playback options. Or use replaygain to avoid clipping. Using a lossless format also solves this problem.
- you are not using LAME to make your mp3s. Other encoders give worse quality.
- your soundcard (driver) sucks. Directsound can increase noise especially when you play two streams at the same time. Playing your music with Kernel streaming or ASIO may solve this problem. (get foobar or winamp with kernel or asio output plugin).
- you are imagining things.

 

[m8o]

Thanx everyone. I'm going to d/l Foobar2000 and begin ripping with it and playing with it ; through Kernel streaming or ASIO. I'll reserve judgement of my ability to hear a notable difference between a CD compared to a hi-quality MP3 that I can attest to, until later. And flac statements understood, but I don't think iPods, which my wife & I are now tied to, supports that, so maybe just AAC.

 

[bungle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slogra - you have connected your cd-rom with a analog cable and you are using this to listen to cd's. This way the sound will be very different from mp3s (or any other format) that are played digitally through your card.

This seems likely. I believe the CD audio is played through the analog cable connecting the CD drive to the sound card. The sound card should just pass the analog signal through to the outputs. Thus you're using the DAC in the CD drive. When playing an mp3 you're using the sound card's DAC. Perhaps that DAC sucks more. However, all CD/DVD drives now will also support digital audio, so it is possible to play the CD digitally through the bus and then the soundcard would still be the DAC. I'm not sure how you can tell which way it is doing it, except maybe EQ wouldn't work the first way.

 

[m8o]

I have 2 DVD drives. I 'think' I wired the Sony DVD-R to the analog audio in; because it was a Sony.

That all makes sense, and can explain differences in fidelity as well. Dissapointing is the quality of audio out of an iPod through the bottom connector via a dock. Could be better IMO. Was fine before the new amp + phones showed its limits.

 

[maarek99]

You probably WEREN'T listening to real 320kbps samples but ones that had been encoded twice. First to 128 and then to 320 or something. The net is full of these. Encode yourself to be sure.

 

[blargman]

analog cable? who still uses those? :\

 

[Killercrush]

Hi !!!

I don't want to start a new thread for my question since this thread attracts people who might know the answer.

I know that ripping/encoding audio from cd to mp3 on pc depends on the soundcard you got (software use also),the best card, the best fidelity you get but I was wondering when ripping to ALAC or FLAC, is there any differences between lossless files obtained by, say, foobar, with a top nutch soundcard and foobar with a normal soundcard integrated in the motherboard ?

 

[Febs]

Ripping and encoding to FLAC or MP3 has nothing whatsoever to do with the sound card.

 

[Killercrush]

so it stricly depends on your cd player abilty to read the information on a cd?

 

[m8o]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blargman analog cable? who still uses those? :\

...apparently just me...