[SRV]

I was listening to coldplay cd i recorded via optical out to my sharp mdsr60, and i began to hear little quirks in the sound(when listening with senn mx500)....i heard a sort of scratchy distortion in the ACOUSTIC guitar that is not audible on the original cd. I am assuming scratchy sound (or in some instances a fuzz) is what people refer to as an artifact. This really bumbed me out, i thought these artifacts where just a myth. But know that I am aware of the problem i would like to take steps to fix it. right now iam using the optical-to mini toslink(or whatever its called)that came with the sharp, this cable seems rather cheap and flimsy would upgrading the cable help me improve on my recordings? If so, any recomendations?

 

[Sol_Zhen]

That's probably caused by the ATRAC compression. No way around that, but better than MP3.

 

[leon]

It always used to be impossible to convince people that ATRAC can introduce artifaces, heh.

Optical cable... those who do think they make a difference say the material matters. Plastic and glass optical cables are supposed to sound different, and I think they said jitter was the cause.

Again, there will be people who don't believe in that "crap", so I'm not going to go on. Happy experimenting

 

[gloco]

maybe it has something to do with the mx500's?

 

[Beagle]

Maybe it was recorded with the levels too high?

 

[Magicthyse]

There's virtually no way you'll be able to discern ATRAC artifacts with a MX500. An HD280 maybe, but not one of those.

Dud recording or dud disc?

PS. The flimsy optical cable included is surprisingly good. Make sure you retain the caps and take good care of it.

 

[redshifter]

i have also noticed what srv is talking about. on some complicated acoustic guitar passages in music, especially strumming chords, i can hear a little "music in a blender" sound in the higher frequencies. and this is using an optical cable to a high end md deck with atrac type-r. every once in a long while i can hear a sample error, or "pop". my ears are very sensitive to these artifacts, and i use very revealing phones, so i didn't think there would be many others who would notice. still, 99% of my md music sounds near perfect, so it does not bother me. it is just a part of living with lossy compression.

sincerely,
mr. redshifter

 

[Braver]

the mx500's are hardly capable of accurately reproduceing the sound of an acoustic guitar, and probably distorts the sound more than Atrac compression does. and I think they're not quite the headphones to go comparing optical cables with.

I do have one CD which at one point produces a pop when recorded to MD. it's pretty audible on even the cheapest earbuds. now THAT's an artifact. it happens, but few and far apart, so don't worry too much.

 

[MDCT]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sol_Zhen No way around that, but better than MP3.

Not in my experience... Some MD artifacts (pre-echo) can be heard with cheap cans.

 

[Sol_Zhen]

"Some MD artifacts (pre-echo) can be heard with cheap cans."

Still better than Mp3.

[edit] Personally, of course.

 

[SRV]

i've heard the cd thorugh the mx500s as well, and the distortion wasn't there so it wasn't the headphones,thats not the point anyway. I just noticed a problem and would like to fix it(i double checked with my v6's and its there too). I know theres a problem with the Md recording. If its not the cable should i try the recording again to see if it was a one time thing? I am guessing the apperance of artifacts is a random encounter but i'd like to help in sure that more recording efforts aren't ruined.

 

[andrzejpw]

Could you post the cd, track, and location? Just want to see if I can reproduce this. . .

 

[OneMalt]

Most digitial artifacts I get remind me of a "clicking" noise laid on top of fast attack/fast decay sounds like drums. I get a lot of artifacts using M-Crew software on my Sony MDS-PC3.

 

[Loud_TIGER]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw Could you post the cd, track, and location? Just want to see if I can reproduce this. . .

ditto

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Quote:

Originally posted by Braver the mx500's are hardly capable of accurately reproduceing the sound of an acoustic guitar, and probably distorts the sound more than Atrac compression does. and I think they're not quite the headphones to go comparing optical cables with.

I thought the mx500 are your references phones?

Quote:

If its not the cable should i try the recording again to see if it was a one time thing? I am guessing the apperance of artifacts is a random encounter but i'd like to help in sure that more recording efforts aren't ruined.

I'm pretty sure it's NOT a random encounter--if ATRAC can't encode the signal properly, it would fail every time.

I doubt that changing the optical cable would make a difference--yes jitter can make a difference, but only when it's in the playback stream. When you're just receiving the digital bits for encoding, as long as the jitter doesn't make a bit spill over to the time from of another bit, (the jitter would have to be HUGE for this to happen) it should make no difference to the outcome of the recording.

It would be interesting to hear opinion about mp3 from somebody who can actually hear MD artifacts... try encoding to mp3 using LAME --alt-preset standard?

Don't take other people's word for it that mp3 is inferior to MD... try for yourself