mp3

[Henk]

Hello,

I bought a mp3-player this afternoon, a Cowon. It should be a good player, but I compared it with an audio cd and cd-player and it was much more worse.

Can mp3 deliver the same quality as audio-cd, probably with a good (external) sound card? Because it's a digital format, it could be the case that one has to have good hardware too. Or is mp3 just inferior?

Henk

[MN Dave]

Hello,

I bought a mp3-player this afternoon, a Cowon. It should be a good player, but I compared it with an audio cd and cd-player and it was much more worse.

Can mp3 deliver the same quality as audio-cd, probably with a good (external) sound card? Because it's a digital format, it could be the case that one has to have good hardware too. Or is mp3 just inferior?

Henk

Depends on the kbps of the music file.

[Opus106]

MP3 is a lossy format, so technically it's an inferior set of bits when compared with a pressed CD for audio quality. Unless you are an aurally hallucinating (!) audiophile or someone with an irrational necessity for lossless-but-compressed formats, like yours truly, you should be fine with 32 kbps.



P.S. Beyond the first sentence I was just kidding. I think we have a thread or two about this topic in the nether regions of GMG.

[MN Dave]

MP3 is a lossy format, so technically it's an inferior set of bits when compared with a pressed CD for audio quality. Unless you are an aurally hallucinating (!) audiophile or someone with an irrational necessity for lossless-but-compressed formats, like yours truly, you should be fine with 32 kbps.



P.S. Beyond the first sentence I was just kidding. I think we have a thread or two about this topic in the nether regions of GMG.

32??!!!!

[Gurn Blanston]

32??!!!!

I know he meant 320, but damn, that caught ME short too!  

[MN Dave]

I know he meant 320, but damn, that caught ME short too!  

I knew it too. Shhh... 

[Opus106]

32??!!!!

Yes. It's right next to 31.

[MN Dave]

Yes. It's right next to 31.

32 kbps. Imagine.

[Opus106]

No, I meant thirty-two, and I meant it as a joke. Don't you people ever read post scripts?

[MN Dave]

No, I meant thirty-two, and I meant it as a joke. Don't you people ever read post scripts?

Oh. Ha-ha. Very amusing. 

[karlhenning]

No, I meant thirty-two, and I meant it as a joke. Don't you people ever read post scripts?

You mean, the nether part of the posts?

[Opus106]

You mean, the nether part of the posts?

Indeed. You're sharp, M. Henning.

[MN Dave]

Henk is as confused as ever now. Wait till the audiophiles get here. 

[sospiro]

I think really good head/ear phones make a difference. I've got a Creative Zen which wasn't very expensive but my earphones are these.

I walk to work and back each day and needed some good noise cancelling phones. Not cheap but oh so worth it.

[karlhenning]

I think really good head/ear phones make a difference. I've got a Creative Zen which wasn't very expensive but my earphones are these.

I walk to work and back each day and needed some good noise cancelling phones. Not cheap but oh so worth it.

I need noise-cancelling listening gear.

The idea of in-ear phones cancelling noise, has boggled my brain, Annie.

[DavidW]

Hello,

I bought a mp3-player this afternoon, a Cowon. It should be a good player, but I compared it with an audio cd and cd-player and it was much more worse.

Can mp3 deliver the same quality as audio-cd, probably with a good (external) sound card? Because it's a digital format, it could be the case that one has to have good hardware too. Or is mp3 just inferior?

Henk

The amp the Cowon's use have a steep bass roll off.  They try to hide it with some artificial bass effects but ultimately it sounds tinny.  Even though you bought an mp3 player, Cowon players also support flac, so you don't have to bother yourself with the question of is it mp3?

[Henk]

My question is rather: do digital formats need a high standard sound card? Sounds assumable I think.

The difference in quality between mp3 and audio-cd is really big. Audio sounds much better.

Regarding to flac: Emusic , which I use, only applies mp3.

I will check it out (external sound card) at a professional audio store.

[DavidW]

My question is rather: do digital formats need a high standard sound card? Sounds assumable I think.

No, even cheap dacs are transparent.  What you get with better sound cards is lower noise floor, lower harmonic distortion and more power.  This doesn't really have anything to do with the dac.

The difference in quality between mp3 and audio-cd is really big. Audio sounds much better.

No, you're just responding to differences in amp.  Try ABX using foobar on lame V0 mp3 and wav, you will most likely do no better than random guessing.

Regarding to flac: Emusic , which I use, only applies mp3.

You can rip your own cds you know!

I will check it out (external sound card) at a professional audio store.

That's too soon IMO.  Honestly it sounds like money is burning a hole in your wallet, you don't have a good reason right now to buy a sound card.  I think that you should hold off and get a handle on what is really bugging you about the sq, because I can tell you that you do not have a clue what's really bugging you, because it's not mp3.  You really should do alot more listening to make an informed purchase instead of randomly purchasing something that might or might not alleviate your problem.

[drogulus]

My question is rather: do digital formats need a high standard sound card? Sounds assumable I think.

     Are you asking if you need a high end sound card to make mp3s sound good? There's no special kind of card for mp3s. A card that produces good sound will make everything sound as good as it can given the limits of your system (amp, speakers, phones).

     One use for a good sound card is digitizing analog signals at 24 bits. I have a few LPs that were "needle dropped", copied to 24/96. For such a task you might want an expensive sound card to do the encoding. Other than that, though, the best solution is a good built-in card like the Realtek HD Audio series which many inexpensive PCs have.

     David is giving you good advice. Before you buy something you should try to find out what's causing the sound difference between your mp3s and CDs. Try this: Make a CD from the bad sounding mp3s. Does it sound bad through your CD player? If not, does it sound bad on your PC? You have to find the cause of the bad sound.

[Henk]

David, Drogulus,

I checked some things. First I made an ogg-file of a track of one of my cd's. Then I compared the sound of the audio-cd and the ogg-file. Therefore I connected my mp3-player to the amp, so the sound came from the same speakers as the audio-cd. The difference was again big. The audio-cd gives a much fuller and deeper sound. So I made a flac-file of the same track and again the same difference in sound.

A friend told me that mp3 is of lesser quality then audio-cd, I think not because it's compressed, but because it's digital and this requires a more professional hardware.

Henk