Windows turn audio cd into ape??

Damn right

I play .mp3 over my system and to me, it sounds amazing. I (still) havnt got that DAC yet but i will soon (promise!) I've played the .mp3 of "Greenday - Jesus of Suburbia (VBR)" and then the same song from CD and to me, it sounds the same- I'm putting it down to having a £12 soundcard, and no DAC. Wouldnt mind converting my 5,000+Mp3s but since its already compressed to Mp3 there isnt much point because i wont gain anything- will i?

Mike

 

IMO good Vinyl sounds better then CD, and one other thing, the price of that piece of plastic is too high, that's why i have downloaded almost 50 GB of great music from great bands complete discographys.
Because i spend a lot of time in front of computer and i like listen to music at the same time, i found a good soundcard and now i have a great sound - not the best sound - coming from my PC. I also have my turntable plugged in my PC with a good preamp and i have a great sound also from Vinyl.
I wonder now if i ever bought another CD again...at this price?! I don't think so...
Sorry about my english

 

If you really want to hear you analogue vinyl at its best dont put it through a digital soundcard

 

Okay, so on the one hand you're going on about buying vinyl, then complaing that cd prices are too high...and then you're boasting that sound quality is brilliant yet you're prepared to download shedloads of terribly low bitrate MP3s?

<A88>

 

Hey dom,
i know what you mean.
I have another system in my living room with my beautiful Thorens TD 160 and a DIY Tube amp. with RCA's and Telefunken NOS Valves.

Hey A88,
I only bought Vinyl from time to time, because i have more than 2000 LP's.
Concerning mp3, i'm a big fan now because they are almost free.
I don't have "that" great sound but if you have a good soundcard a Tube buffer and a good amp. i'm sure you get a good mp3 sound.

 

Forgot you where the musical fidelity guy.

http://www.theanalogdept.com/thorens_td_160_dept_.htm might be interesting to you if you have a td 160

 

nevermind

 

i know the thread went off on a tangent, but colonel sanders i would like to see a reply just to see if i was misunderstanding your post too

 

Hey dom,
tanks for the site.

 

Well dom_ - Based upon my own personal tests, I can not tell any difference between 128Kb/s MP3s and wave files from a CD. I have tried encoding at many, many different bit-rates, lower and higher, even VBR. 128Kbps is infact the minimum I will encode my audio files, I have a need to store files as small as possible (CD based MP3 player in car. . .).

CDs are fine- but for compressed audio, my number one choice (and not based on quality alone. . .) is still MP3.

I take listening to my music very seriously, thats why I do have quite a few pretty nice setups. I know there are better setups, I also know that what I have are not bad at all. I do believe there is a certain level of quality high enough that when you try to improve the quality any more, the cost of the equipment increasses exponentially. Yes, I could spend a lot more cash, but I don't believe the difference in quality between a $1000 vs $500 system is anywhere near as big as the difference between a $500 vs $20. I know this because on accident, I acutally purchased a 30-watt Altec-Lansing 2.1 speaker system from Wal-mart. It had a massive 3inch "sub-woofer" that produced floor shaking bass. . . I should have read the box more closely.

L J

 

See now i could hear the difference between 128 and cd on a mates logitech speaker system using an audigy sound card as could he!

Now you say you get diminishing returns on more expensive equipment. But i would suggest the limit for this is much much higher than $500/£300. You should really spend and upgrade because in 6 months time you wont be saying there is no real difference between a system costing twice as much.

 

Em, I compared $1000-500 against $500-20. In your opinion, where do you think the price for diminishing returns starts to kick in?

Well, I will say I just ripped a file from a CD (Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the jungle), kept a copy as a wave, then used LAME to encode that wave as an MP3. Playing all 3 files back on PC- I simply can not hear anything different. Perhaps I do need a better sound card? But that would also change the sound of the MP3s. . .

L J

 

See i would consider 50k+ the point of diminishing returns.
But i have heard lots of expensive systems, so i know what you can achieve.

Things that will affect the quality of a played back mp3's are the bitrate, if you have asio installed or not, soundcard or digital/usb then dac, amplifier, speakers, how the speakers are mounted if they are shelf mounts, cables between it all, mains noise, the positioning of the speakers, the room your in etc etc.
So many different variables.

 

I'll agree those variables are true, but the same variables effect the playback of the CD.

L J

 

Ok some will only affect the mp3 playback. Such as dac/sound card etc.
But if your amp isnt delivering all the detail available you will wont be able to hear the difference because it will make your cds as bad as your mp3's.

 

You two still at it? The thread's answered, we want to shut for the night. Go home.