
04-27-2020, 02:35 AM
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Location: Lawton, OK
138 posts, read 62,514 times
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in electronic music playback equipment whether for home, personal headset or automobile?
Are digital audio files in MP3 capable of yielding such quality?
Take a grand pipe organ in a cathedral. The best audio equipment, I think, can make organ recordings sound as close to live as possible.
Live classical or church pipe organ music is the gold standard for judging audio reproduction.
Last edited by JohnPBailey; 04-27-2020 at 02:50 AM..
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04-27-2020, 04:21 AM
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3,671 posts, read 904,660 times
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I have not done the sound quality test in several years but I noticed MP3 classical music was not nearly as good as uncompressed CD. I had done an MP3 download of a piece and then saw an inexpensive used CD that I bought. So I have continued collecting CDs. I have heard that high-resolution downloads, in 24-bit format is better than even the 16-bit CD version, but I have not done it. One easy test is dynamic range. In a live classical performance the range can be very high- a symphony orchestra playing Romantic music may have a dynamic range of as much as 108 dB and CDs can get about 96 db.
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04-27-2020, 06:39 AM
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Last edited by thecoalman; 04-27-2020 at 06:54 AM..
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04-27-2020, 08:49 AM
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Status:
"Welcome back America!"
(set 7 days ago)
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Location: Mars City
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The original post hints at recording and playback; two very different worlds. Most of us don't get involved with the recording aspect, but it usually boils down to digital recording with high-end microphones.
Playback, for the rest of us, involves a system that can accurately reproduce the recordings with minimal loss and distortion. That includes a system that can reproduce the full range of audible frequencies, and doesn't introduce errors or changes to the sound.
Then there's also the acoustics of the room, etc. There's a lot more to it than most of us know of or will admit to.
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04-27-2020, 09:46 AM
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13,469 posts, read 6,642,987 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thoreau424
The original post hints at recording and playback; two very different worlds. Most of us don't get involved with the recording aspect, but it usually boils down to digital recording with high-end microphones.
Playback, for the rest of us, involves a system that can accurately reproduce the recordings with minimal loss and distortion. That includes a system that can reproduce the full range of audible frequencies, and doesn't introduce errors or changes to the sound.
Then there's also the acoustics of the room, etc. There's a lot more to it than most of us know of or will admit to.
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Agreed. There is recording, then down sampling, then playback.
You can have a pristine recording, $10000 worth of playback equipment but a 128Kbps MP3 will still sound lousy.
As OP is asking low-end questions (best receiver under $200, etc.) then I’d say that for $500 worth of equipment at least 256 or 320 will do. Uncompressed 16/44.1 FLAC might sound even better, but hard to tell. I doubt hi-res will be different.
Here’s a good test -
https://thenextweb.com/plugged/2018/...ossless-music/
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04-27-2020, 10:02 AM
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Location: Cleveland, Ohio
12,982 posts, read 15,088,742 times
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I think that's where this discussion should be heading: rip quality.
I always rip (convert) my CD's into 320bit MP3. Surprised Mark even mentioned 256.
@John When you convert CD's into whatever format you want the highest level of that format. An 'audiophile' would use a lossless format like FLAC or LOSSLESS WMA. These are the best quality files. However these files are 5 times larger then MP3's, so that's the tradeoff.
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04-27-2020, 10:07 AM
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Location: (six-cent-dix-sept)
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i guess flac ?
with storage and transfer rates being measured in gb these days (instead of mb), whats the point of .mp3 ?
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04-27-2020, 11:12 AM
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Location: Lawton, OK
138 posts, read 62,514 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thoreau424
The original post hints at recording and playback; two very different worlds. Most of us don't get involved with the recording aspect, but it usually boils down to digital recording with high-end microphones.
Playback, for the rest of us, involves a system that can accurately reproduce the recordings with minimal loss and distortion. That includes a system that can reproduce the full range of audible frequencies, and doesn't introduce errors or changes to the sound.
Then there's also the acoustics of the room, etc. There's a lot more to it than most of us know of or will admit to.
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I believe still one must have a superior recording for superior playback to be possible. An organ recital made with a cheap mono cassette recorder won't sound spectacular even on a $10K home stereo. Consider the source too.
When I was talking about recording, I was talking about commercial recording, the record producers. Yes, many consumers are concerned with how well their home equipment can play back their commercially-recorded material.
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04-27-2020, 11:18 AM
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1,969 posts, read 659,829 times
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Everything matters in the audio chain - from what microphones the recording engineer uses to how the mastering engineer lays down, mixes, eq's (or NOT) the tracks as well as if it gets brick walled or not, all the way to the audio system, the room, and how critical one's ear is.
Alexa playing Adele while folding laundry will never be audiophile quality.
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04-27-2020, 11:19 AM
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Location: Lawton, OK
138 posts, read 62,514 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stanley-88888888
i guess flac ?
with storage and transfer rates being measured in gb these days (instead of mb), whats the point of .mp3 ?
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Most digital music is sold and downloaded these days as MP3. Economics, maybe. Some audio playback equipment and/or audio apps can't handle uncompressed audio files as WAV and LIMITED storage space ON PORTABLE DEVICES is also a consideration.
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