Listen to what gets lost when an MP3 is made

[o0OBillO0o]

According to the Wikipedia article: MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III,more commonly referred to as MP3, is an audio coding format for digital audio which uses a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio streaming or storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on most digital audio players.

Right we all (should) know by now what an MP3 is. Good or Bad it's worth understanding what happens to music, your music.

the Vox.com has a high level overview here: Listen to what gets lost when an MP3 is made - Vox

but if you like to dig- skip that & move to the juicy stuff. All done by Ryan MaGuire, a a Ph.D. student in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia Center for Computer Music. Here: The Ghost in the MP3

and his soundcloud account. here: https://soundcloud.com/magwhyr

My comments are: I grew up with MP3s and I know they aren't the best. Still, when Napster hit- I had what seemed like an unlimited amount of tracks downloadable at the press of a mouse button. Both Napster and MP3s helped my music discovery immensely and I am almost certain I wouldn't have the level of appreciation for music as I do today. Fast forward to now. I have tons of CDs and surprisingly some Vinyl records, both of which get me extremely close to the performance. It's good to know the limitations of MP3s, should I choose to shove 25K songs on my iPhone and hit the road.

Bill

[djwhog]

good info Bill thank you for the post sir

[bart]

It's quite amazing!

[radio times]

I'm happy with my Sony A10 on 256/320 kbps and it compares well to the AK's on full dsd. Not too many allowances have to be made, but then Sony are the world masters at Mp3

[o0OBillO0o]

The Sony NWZ-A10 looks good and it supports AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, HE-AAC, Linear PCM, MP3, WMA (Non-DRM).

Are you using MP3 or AAC?

[radio times]

Hi Bill, I'm just using, when I can, 320 Mp3. The sound really does reach the start of HD, and I would say 60-70% of dsd. It can't match a 120 or 240 but is not slumming it in comparison, and is does offer, in parts, some euphony. I'm very slow in me hi fi development, but I can't see it being matched at it's price. It is better as an iem dap, I'm using the Sony H3 iem and it's a perfect synergy. Could be a good beater Dap for AK owners.

[o0OBillO0o]

Originally Posted by radio times

Hi Bill, I'm just using, when I can, 320 Mp3. The sound really does reach the start of HD, and I would say 60-70% of dsd. It can't match a 120 or 240 but is not slumming it in comparison, and is does offer, in parts, some euphony. I'm very slow in me hi fi development, but I can't see it being matched at it's price. It is better as an iem dap, I'm using the Sony H3 iem and it's a perfect synergy. Could be a good beater Dap for AK owners.

Also if you listen to Rock, you're in luck- it's genre may lend itself to compression. http://www.audioaficionado.org/gener...ruly-rock.html

[radio times]

Yep, Rock stands out, as does original album Jazz. Opera and classical has some life, finally, and will do, at 320 and not a shade under, but you'd be best to hold on to your AK at top DSD here.

[scirica]

Interesting read Bill. Thanks for posting.

[Golucid]

Good Stuff!