[ca911]

Since I am new to all of this I am not sure where it falls in the range of things.. but quality wise how do you all consider the downloads from the iTunes stores rate?

obviously it is probably not as good as a CD, but I was curious where it falls in the range of things...

 

[Tbeze]

Bad, IMO. i used to buy songs from them, until i heard 300+ kbps and ALAC ...

 

[GlendaleViper]

99 cents a song seems like a good deal...

... until you realize it's all ripped at 128kbps AAC. What's worse, DRM makes changing the file format impossible (no converting to mp3 for universality).

Overall, sound quality largely depends on the individual tracks. Some sound great, even heavily compressed and others... well, they sound like crap.

 

[sebascrub]

I'll admit, I have a couple of albums from iTunes, because I had bought the actual CD and it was copy-protected...

Anyways, sometimes I don't notice it at all if I'm not paying attention on my walks to school, but today I was listening to In Your Honor by the Foo Fighters, which I got from the iTMS and I could really tell that it was nastily compressed. I guess it varies from album to album, or maybe the CD itself is mastered hotly.

 

[hempcamp]

Definitely not good enough to be reference-quality.

Nevertheless, out of 400+ I have, I've never bought a track or album that sounded outright BAD except once: some Sublime album I mistakenly bought sounded just as bad when I compared it to the actual CD, it was clearly the original production that was poorly done.

I think it's incredibly useful when it comes to catchy pop tunes you otherwise wouldn't buy a CD for, or funny songs and dance music and stuff for occasions when you have non-audiophile friends around who want some entertainment. Also useful to buy full-length previews of certain tracks to sample -- 99 cents for a track is a good investment to see if you're actually going to like that $29.98 CD of Afro-Brazilian Hip Hop for example.

--Chris

 

[ca911]

hmm, i own a TON of itunes music store songs and since I got my HD 650s yesterday and have been listening since I posted this I am starting to notice that they aren't all that great of quality...

is there another online music store that is reference quality/suitable to listen to on my headphones?

 

[Digitalbath3737]

It's pretty poor quality.... I wouldn't buy anything in 128kbs. Plus add the drm crap they put on the music. It's better to buy used cds and rip them in better quality. Comes out cheaper and you can use them on more than just an iPod

 

[cantsleep]

quality headphone would be a waste

 

[ca911]

well I won't be buying any new music from them.. I guess I will have to suffer through the old quality of what I have bought over the last few years...

is there any high quality download sites? i like having the ability to buy a cd at 3am when I hear about it/am craving it..

 

[ckacosta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlendaleViper /img/forum/go_quote.gif ... until you realize it's all ripped at 128kbps AAC. What's worse, DRM makes changing the file format impossible (no converting to mp3 for universality).

It's not impossible, just inconvenient. You can burn the songs to audio CD, then rip the CD to whatever format you want. At this point, the songs are no longer copy protected.
It is bad quality though.

 

[hempcamp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ca911 /img/forum/go_quote.gif is there any high quality download sites? i like having the ability to buy a cd at 3am when I hear about it/am craving it..

I love magnatune.com. "Shareware" music -- you pay what you think it's worth (minimum $5 for an album, call me a cheapskate but I never pay the recommended $8 simply because I know I buy a lot more music from a lot more different artists at the lower price point).

You have a choice of format. I always get the FLAC or WAV and convert to Apple Lossless. We're not talking about well-known artists, but what is available there is really well recorded. Oh, and you can give it away to 3 others (feel free to give me something you get there for showing it to you

). No DRM.

A step up from 128kbps AAC is 192kbps VBR available from etunes.com. Pretty good subscription service, no DRM. More widely known artists and good selection of independent labels and early hits from popular artists (i.e. before an artist gets signed up to a major label).

Oh, there's another FLAC/WAV site that I can't remember... will edit when I find it. Not much good classical so I hardly ever shop there.

--Chris

 

[ca911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hempcamp /img/forum/go_quote.gif I love magnatune.com. "Shareware" music -- you pay what you think it's worth (minimum $5 for an album, call me a cheapskate but I never pay the recommended $8 simply because I know I buy a lot more music from a lot more different artists at the lower price point). You have a choice of format. I always get the FLAC or WAV and convert to Apple Lossless. We're not talking about well-known artists, but what is available there is really well recorded. Oh, and you can give it away to 3 others (feel free to give me something you get there for showing it to you ). No DRM. A step up from 128kbps AAC is 192kbps VBR available from etunes.com. Pretty good subscription service, no DRM. More widely known artists and good selection of independent labels and early hits from popular artists (i.e. before an artist gets signed up to a major label). Oh, there's another FLAC/WAV site that I can't remember... will edit when I find it. Not much good classical so I hardly ever shop there. --Chris

Thanks!! What is FLAC exactly? Is it better than WAV?

 

[m_memmory]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ca911 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks!! What is FLAC exactly? Is it better than WAV?

FLAC is a lossless codec (like Apple Lossless) so the sound is identical to WAV but takes up less space. Plus it has the added ability of being able to use tags so you know what music is what.

 

[BDub]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ckacosta /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's not impossible, just inconvenient. You can burn the songs to audio CD, then rip the CD to whatever format you want. At this point, the songs are no longer copy protected. It is bad quality though.

Or you could use QTFairUse6 or JHymn (depending on your iTunes version).

 

[Purgatos]

The guys at Apple sent me a survey recently saying that they wanted to learn more about how their customers felt about the service and I basically filled it out saying that I'd probably use it if they offered high quality/lossless downloads.

Hopefully a lot of other people said so too.