[MusicMania]

Hello everyone,
 
These days a lot of unanswered questions were in my mind and I decided to create a thread to ask you (the professionals) 'cuz researching in the net is exhausting and sometimes pointless as far as you 're not sure about the validity of the articles written in websites. Well, we all know that in .mp3 files there are a lot of "qualities". For instance 147kbps, 192kbps, 320kbps etc. Does that fact happen with CDs too? What I mean is we can find a CD of METALLICA for example in a bad quality and one in a better qualty? Or is it impossible? Also which programs can I use to create .mp3 files from my CDs? Which program for that purpose is better and in which can I choose the quality of the output file? Finally which other audio formats are available and supported by all mp3-4 players? Are these formats better or worse than .mp3?
 
Thank you

 

[cravenz]

hey,
 
in short, yes, CDs may be poor in quality but this is not down to the CD, but by the production company e.g. how it is mastered and how it is redistributed i.e. if the production company for that album doesn't mix the album properly, that is exactly how it will sound and there are many albums especially popular music that tend to be poorly produced. One which has better quality of the same album could be the original or the remastered album, and sometimes there are different versions of albums and occasionally, there are different qualities. this has nothing to do with the quality of the CD used itself if I am not wrong, but I stand corrected if anyone shows otherwise as I am not too clear on this point.
 
note also that there are SACDs, etc but I don't think your question was directed to that, but in short, SACDs are better quality than CDs.
 
for mp3s and FLAC, I use foobar2000; for ALAC I use iTunes; for playback, I now usually use foobar2000 which supports most music formats. there are others and I'll let them chime in on their choices e.g. Media Monkey or something like that and J.River, etc.
 
vbrs and aac are the other common formats found besides mp3s and they do have different qualities, but the differences to me are subtle and some are better adept at answering this question so I will stop here before I talk about stuff I don't know.
 
hope that helps a little.

 

[MusicMania]

Thanks my friend... you really helped me. You mean that if I'll create a cd in a certain quality and then i'll burn it, the second one won't have the same quality with the first one? Also every album is selled both in CDs and SACDs?

 

[Azathoth]

Recent remasters these days tend to sound worse than the original press versions. For instance, I vastly prefer the original 1992 press of Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction compared to the 2004 remaster (it's actually remixed). So yes in general it depends how the recording was produced and mastered.
 
As for the formats, I find 320kbps mp3 to be sufficient for portable listening, it sounds pretty much the same as the CD. I use Exact Audio Copy (LAME mp3 encoder) for ripping, and I also use it to rip to FLAC lossless (for archiving and home listening).

 

[radioactive28]

If you're asking about bitrates, audio CDs (or CD-DA) have only one universal standard - the Red Book. It has 2 channels (typically left and right), sampled at 44100 frames a second with 16 bits per frame, giving it a bitrate of 1411kbps.

 

[MusicMania]

1411kbps and .mp3 files only 320kbps? How is that possible?

 

[cravenz]

Quote:

1411kbps and .mp3 files only 320kbps? How is that possible?

to rip a CD to mp3 there are different bit rates e.g. 320, 256, 192, 128, etc. It is fine to rip to a lower quality, but to upscale a 128 to 256 for example, which is considered lossy formats, is a no-no. To upscale from 128 to 1411 or lossless is fine as you will obtain the same quality of music, except with a huge file size.

 

[MusicMania]

There is not a better quality than 320kbps?

 

[Azathoth]

As far as mp3 goes, yes 320kbps is the highest. If you want to go FLAC, depending on the level of the conversion, it's somewhere around 800-1000+ kbps.

 

[MusicMania]

And FLAC is supported by all mp4 players? Also is it better for listening music? Why some persons prefer .mp3 files?

 

[digger945]

You would need to look at the product description to tell what formats

are supported. It varies from player to player. Some players support WAV or ALAC which is another lossless format similar to FLAC.

Edit: word of caution. Some older players do not work well with VBR(Variable Bit Rate) files.

 

[cravenz]

Quote:

And FLAC is supported by all mp4 players? Also is it better for listening music? Why some persons prefer .mp3 files?

most people prefer mp3 because they are more universally accepted. FLAC though lossless, is not universally playable on every player unfortunately.

 

[Arjisme]

MusicMania,  be careful with how the word "quality" is used in this discussion.  Your OP asked about the varying quality of mp3 files and whether CDs had similar varying quality.  In that context, you were asking about the quality of the encoding.  CDs have only one quality "level" - Redbook -- as was previously mentioned.  MP3s have different quality levels, or bitrate levels.  MP3s with lower bitrates will be a lower quality encoding of the music.
 
The other way "quality" can be used is to describe the mastering of the music itself, which is independent of encoding.  So, yes, two different CDs could sound different because each encodes a different master of the music.  But if you have two CDs of the same mastering, they should sound identical (barring physical damage to the disks).

 

[MusicMania]

Well. Me, personally i use an iPod NANO Chromatic 4th generation 8GB and a Sony NWZ-E436F, so can someone tell me if they're compatible with these files? Also, because i can't speak english very well in orfer to understand you easilly let's take it from the begginig. I have an original CD, but I dislike CDplayers and I want to convert the CD songs in songs that can be played from my mp4 players. The think that mostly interests me is the QUALITY of the song and not so much the space that it needs. What do u suppose me?
 
 
Thanks again

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

What do u suppose me?

LAME V0 MP3. Variable bitrate, coming to about 240kbps file size with the sound quality of a 320kbps MP3. And for just about every song, sounds the same as a lossless file.
 
If you're storing these files on a computer as well, use a lossless format which makes it much easier to re-encode or even burn a new CD later on. FLAC if you're on PC, ALAC if you're on Mac or have any desire to someday put it on an iPod (unnecessary because lossy will work fine for portable use).
 
LAME
FLAC