iTunes store quality?

[andrewfee]

I have to agree with what everyone has said, it really does sound crap. On my GS-1000s, some tracks (based on the previews anyway) are laughably bad, and it's very noticeable even on my SR-80s.

I recently had five free tracks though - still got one to use up, but I noticed that on two of them (Elliott Smith tracks) the bitrates are 245kbps and 264kbps, so perhaps they've moved up to 256k vbr now?

Even if they were to move to lossless, I'm still not sure I'd be buying from them, as I doubt they do as good a job as EAC. (or are they provided with perfect masters of the tracks?)

 

[Purgatos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewfee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Even if they were to move to lossless, I'm still not sure I'd be buying from them, as I doubt they do as good a job as EAC. (or are they provided with perfect masters of the tracks?)

Actually considering how much better their 128 rips are than anything I can make I would be very surprised if they didn't do it as well as EAC.

 

[ca911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Purgatos /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually considering how much better their 128 rips are than anything I can make I would be very surprised if they didn't do it as well as EAC.

what is EAC?

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ca911 /img/forum/go_quote.gif what is EAC?

Exact Audio Copy

 

[andrewfee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Purgatos /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually considering how much better their 128 rips are than anything I can make I would be very surprised if they didn't do it as well as EAC.

I think they are just ripping from CDs actually - I was just doing some random browsing on the store earlier (trying to find something to use this free track on before it expires) and there were definite skips in one or two of them.

I'm so happy that I can use EAC now that I've got an Intel Mac though, it's so much better than anything I've found to run on OSX for ripping discs.

 

[hempcamp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewfee /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think they are just ripping from CDs actually - I was just doing some random browsing on the store earlier (trying to find something to use this free track on before it expires) and there were definite skips in one or two of them.

They use original studio masters to make all the music on the iTunes music store.

The skips on a preview track may be due to network errors and latency.

Apple does not market to the audiophile community, for good reason. The profits are in the young adult, pop-music, bass-head market. But I think, nevertheless, they have done an outstanding job -- considering how ridiculously mass produced everything is -- to focus on *decent* sound quality. Given the ease of use (EAC is not exactly grandma- or cheerleader-friendly, neither is LAME) I really can't blame them. Plus, they fit -- and the iPod is all about having a sleek way to carry lots of cheap tunes, without the hassle.

Given higher speed internet and increasing quality demands of a growing market of older (middle aged+) listeners, mixed with the rapidly lowering cost of hard drive storage, it would not surprise me if one day they don't move on up to higher quality files.

--Chris

 

[andrewfee]

Hmm, it did seem to happen even when playing the preview a few times and setting it to the largest buffer, maybe it's a problem with the preview file though. I did think they would use studio masters for the music, which makes it even more of a shame that they don't offer lossless. I would gladly pay twice as much for a lossless version to cover their additional bandwidth costs etc. (although I do hate their DRM, it has stopped me using my music a number of times)

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hempcamp /img/forum/go_quote.gif Apple does not market to the audiophile community, for good reason. The profits are in the young adult, pop-music, bass-head market.

They got a lot of stuff that will never be played on the radio: The Master Musicians of Jajouka come to mind. Or the Rare Kodo / Yosuke Yama****a crossover.

 

[ca911]

is there a particular album or record company that produces better sounding albums that I can test these headphones out with?