[wolfen68]

I listen to my 200 kbps vbr mp3's on my two portable DAPs. I've noticed that regardless of which headphone I use or which DAP I'm listening to, I can sometimes BARELY hear a "static-like" sound, usually on the right channel.

The static is repeatable each time I listen to the tune, and it seems to occur during times of congested sounds on a recording. I've also heard it in other circumstances such as on the Joe Walsh - "Rocky Mountain Way" recording. During the electronic "wow, wow" notes, I can barely make out the static on the tail end of those notes.

It really sounds like the Grado "grattle" to me, except that all my headphones will do it. I may only hear this in one out of ten songs.


I'm wondering if this is a common compression artifact with a name, or is it a common studio mixing error? Maybe I have a loose hair in my right ear

I plan on doing some personal research and comparing my mp3's to my cd originals, but the sound is so slight and difficult to detect.....I thought I would ask here first.


Edit: Oops! I should have put this in "Dedicated Source Components"

 

[psyco1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfen68 I plan on doing some personal research and comparing my mp3's to my cd originals

I'd do that first. I'd guess it's from the mp3 encoding. What program are you using for it?

 

[slwiser]

One thing you can do is to rip those tracks at a higher bit level to see if this noice disappears.

I have heard similar noise from one CD writer. I now have a very good CD writer and have had much less problems with it. My previous one I did have these type problem.

At a higher bit rate and leaving the computer alone to compress the files may help.

 

[wolfen68]

Quote:

Originally Posted by psyco1 I'd do that first. I'd guess it's from the mp3 encoding. What program are you using for it?

I'll have to get going on my own comparisons....

I'm using Musicmatch 7.5 to rip/encode. I've done former comparisons against EAC/LAME and felt it kept up. If it's failing me now with this static....it's gone!

I've also been wondering if it is one drive vs. another (I have two opticals on my rig). EAC always picks my Pioneer 105s DVD as the preferred drive over my TDK VeloCD writer. I'll have to try ripping tracks with both drives to see if one does it and not another. My Pioneer is getting along now in age and has had many hundreds of cd/dvds put through it.

Thanks for you input.

 

[The Monkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slwiser One thing you can do is to rip those tracks at a higher bit level to see if this noice disappears. I have heard similar noise from one CD writer. I now have a very good CD writer and have had much less problems with it. My previous one I did have these type problem.

Just curious, what CD writer do you have? To the OP, I've also encountered this problem.

 

[OceanEnthusiast]

sometimes i hear slight cracks and pops (distortion) on percussion instruments or certain guitar lines on a few recordings. after swapping headphones, sources, and amps, i determined it was actually the cd recordings. so it's also possible it could be in the original recording.

 

[bigshot]

I've never heard a compression artifact that sounded like static, but I have heard ripping errors that sound like that. Try re-ripping and re-encoding and it will likely go away.

See ya
Steve

 

[slwiser]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Monkey Just curious, what CD writer do you have? To the OP, I've also encountered this problem.

The writer I have now is a Sony DVD RW DRU-710A. This has worked for me very well.. This is also much faster than the one I had before.

The artifacts that I heard before was a screech for part of a second. This probably was more of a ripping error than and artifact. But with my present dirve this has not been a problem even with multiple programs active.

 

[psyco1]

Try this: Use EAC/LAME preset extreme at 224 kb/s or so and if you burn onto a cd, try burning at 2 or 4x.