[donunus]

The splishy slashy sound comes from bad encoders trying to do the highs while even good encoders like lame 3.97 at v2 roll off some highs compared to v0 or 320 mp3. This happened clearly when i ripped john coltrane and compared the files from the original. The v0 was 95% of the original sound. close enough that i couldn't do a perfect score on foobar abx. lame v2 wasn't transparent for this disc. I could tell the highs were rolled off even with my hd555s at the time

 

[Forsaken Sound]

I know what you mean. I have found that the lower the bit rate is the splashier the cymbals sound and the less succinct the guitars sound. There is no headroom, and the vocals sound all washed out. The music, if you can call it that at that point, sounds completely void of all feeling. Digital music is not just digital music. I get a headache every time I hear people diminish what music is.

 

[DrBenway]

Staellite radio sounds like crap, pure and simple. It makes my eyes roll back when I hear their accursed marketing pitch, usually along the lines of "...and it's all in pristine digital sound blah blah blah."

Let's be clear: the average consumer is a mouth-breathing moron. That average consumer is the target audience. Hence, the product is optimized for ...

The most obnoxious part of it is how cagey they are about fessing up to the bit rates at which they encode satellite broadcasts. A few versions of Wimamp ago, the install came with sample satellite channels that you could stream through your PC. The Winamp display read out the bitrates. Some of the **MUSIC** channels were encoded as low as 26k MP3.

DEVO was right.

 

[kittens]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forsaken Sound /img/forum/go_quote.gif I know what you mean. I have found that the lower the bit rate is the splashier the cymbals sound and the less succinct the guitars sound. There is no headroom, and the vocals sound all washed out. The music, if you can call it that at that point, sounds completely void of all feeling. Digital music is not just digital music. I get a headache every time I hear people diminish what music is.

Is the difference really noticeable?

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kittens /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is the difference really noticeable?

It's up for you and your ears to decide that.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kittens /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is the difference really noticeable?

That differ from person to person. Depending on their ability to hear artifacts etc. and the gear they play back the audio stream on.

 

[Akathisia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kittens /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is the difference really noticeable?

I agree with the above 2 posts. Back in the Napster days I remember getting mp3's under 192kbps and hating the sound quality. You won't really find much music that is under 192kbps online anymore (except streams like 'net radio), and as long as you rip your own CD's, you can control it.

And better yet, if you can't tell, then who cares? Rip 'em at 92kbps and save that hard drive space!