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| Thread ID: 142368 | 2016-06-21 02:38:00 | Do you buy digital music to download and where from | dugimodo (138) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1422180 | 2016-06-28 21:37:00 | Here's a challenge for anyone who thinks they can tell an MP3 from a CD if you're willing to give it a go and be honest. Get a collection of songs in both formats, listen to them through a quality pair of headphones, and get someone else to randomly play them so that you can't tell what you are listening to. You have a 50/50 chance of guessing so if you do significantly better than that congrats, your hearing and/or headphones are better than most peoples. At work work we often play music in a large work area. My mp3s (cbr 128) always sound dull and flat compared to someone else who plays their CD's. But yes at home on your computer it is hard to tell the difference. (I now try to get cbr 320) |
Digby (677) | ||
| 1422181 | 2016-06-28 21:38:00 | But the title of this thread is where do you buy your digital music from... NOT what is the best quality. |
Digby (677) | ||
| 1422182 | 2016-06-28 22:22:00 | True Digby but judging from the lack of suggestions I'm guessing buying music is not that common these days, and I did start out by saying I won't use iTunes. CBR 128 is too low quality and depending on the track can be very easy to detect so I'm not surprised you hear the difference. I used to use VBR 160 and adjust quality settings a bit back when I still cared about file size and found it a good compromise with file sizes nearly the same as CBR 128 but better sound quality. These days I see no reason for anyone to go below CBR 192 with storage as cheap as it is and the noticeable jump in quality. There are better codecs than MP3 but I like the Ubiquity of it so I just use higher bit rates to make up for it. My challenge was not about listening on a PC and not hearing the difference, I specifically said a good pair of headphones because that gives you the best chance of hearing it but I would hope a quality amp was the source as well. Honestly I am sure most people would struggle to hear the difference over 192kbps without Ideal listening conditions and high end Audio gear and even then in a blind test suspect many of those who claim they can would fail to do better than guesswork. Not that I'm saying there is no difference or that nobody can hear it, I just believe it's over stated and exaggerated by Audiophiles quite a lot. MP3 is definitely perfectly fine for the car or a portable player with average headphones etc. My Audio gear is a little above average but is certainly not up to Audiophile standards and I can't hear the difference. On the PC I use a 20W Class D T-amp and a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 bookshelf speakers, it has a very clean sound and is great for vocals. In the Lounge I have a fairly average 150W Pioneer 5.1 receiver connected to a full 5.1 set of Diamond 9 series speakers - it doesn't sound as good but it's mainly for movies and has a lot more powerful bass. |
dugimodo (138) | ||
| 1422183 | 2016-06-29 02:29:00 | I'm probably 90% streaming with different services. Don't bother diwnloading | plod (107) | ||
| 1422184 | 2016-06-30 07:57:00 | At work work we often play music in a large work area. My mp3s (cbr 128) always sound dull and flat compared to someone else who plays their CD's. But yes at home on your computer it is hard to tell the difference. (I now try to get cbr 320) I just prefer to store my music in a format that is uncompressed so that I can do whatever I want with it suit the device I'm using without continually loosing more and more of the recording. I chose my new car stereo because it plays Flac and cost less than most that only play MP3. My phone was chosen on cost the bonus is that it too plays Flac |
gary67 (56) | ||
| 1422185 | 2016-06-30 07:57:00 | Double Post for some weird reason | gary67 (56) | ||
| 1422186 | 2016-06-30 09:52:00 | I just prefer to store my music in a format that is uncompressed so that I can do whatever I want with it suit the device I'm using without continually loosing more and more of the recording. I chose my new car stereo because it plays Flac and cost less than most that only play MP3. My phone was chosen on cost the bonus is that it too plays Flac Good skills |
Digby (677) | ||
| 1422187 | 2016-06-30 09:54:00 | I'm probably 90% streaming with different services. Don't bother diwnloading I don't know how to diwnload. |
Digby (677) | ||
| 1422188 | 2016-06-30 10:18:00 | Browsing the other posts here, I feel like the odd one out at the party. My collection is almost exclusively classical and started with vinyl, then CD and now all digital. My favourite source is the site set up by Naxos, ClassicsOnline (www.ClassicsOnline.com). One attraction was their prices, although they recently went up-market and took the prices with them, but their catalogue is excellent and they can still be cheaper than buyng a CD. Options are to stream or purchase and download an album, which is what I usually do. Formats available are FLAC, ALAC, WAV, MP3 (320), though not all are necessarily available for a given album. If you use their download manager, the tracks are downloaded and neatly placed in a folder labelled with the album name - you also get the CD booklet as a PDF file. Some years ago I transferred all my vinyls to CD, and then the CDs to digital files. I haven't bought a CD in years. Copies of the entire collection are held on three separate hard drives, and I usually play it through a Western Digital WDTV box from a network drive into a Pioneer amp. It's much easier selecting what you want to play from a TV screen instead of scrabbling through shelves of CDs. The only down side to all this is that I have to do some re-arranging of the files and their tags to organise things the way I want them, but it's a routine job. |
Jayess64 (8703) | ||
| 1422189 | 2016-06-30 11:33:00 | I don't know how to diwnload.It's like downloading but cheaper | plod (107) | ||
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