Old cassettes sound great

[DBMaster]

Whatever sounds the best TO you is the best FOR you. In the end, most won't recall an the little quality nuances. They will remember the music and lyrics. Surely, some of you have fond memories of hearing things on old car radios that weren't even stereo, or on your little transistor radios. I remember thinking the first pre-recorded 8-track tape I bought was the greatest sounding thing ever.

I don't miss vinyl at all. By the late 80's most of the vinyl LP's I bought had scratchy and popping sound right out of the shrink wrap. If I was missing things I couldn't detect when I switched to CD's I didn't care because everything just sounded clean.

Remember when they told us that CD's would deteriorate over time and that within ten years we'd have to trash the ones we bought? I still have my 1980's CD's and they are fine.

 

[horse123]

I'm extremely annoyed by the fact that CDs are going away because there's no longer a source of lossless audio that I know of. All the Amazon MP3 downloads or whatever are AT BEST 256k. I can't stand anything less than 320. That's why I always buy the CD then rip it to my computer with Foobar then copy the files to my phone.

 

[DBMaster]

Apparently I'm not that picky. I rip my CD's at 128K. But, this is why I still like to buy CD's, especially used CD's. You can rip at your choice of quality.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: horse123
I'm extremely annoyed by the fact that CDs are going away because there's no longer a source of lossless audio that I know of. All the Amazon MP3 downloads or whatever are AT BEST 256k. I can't stand anything less than 320.

I think HDtracks sells music in lossless format. Here are some other suggestions:

http://blog.coppertino.com/post/133989603458/10-best-sources-to-download-lossless-music

My own ears can't tell the difference between 256 and 320 kbps, but my age probably has something to do with it. I'm happy encoding to MP3 VBR2 format which is variable. It can spike up to 320 kbps when the content requires it, but averages around 200 kbps overall.

 

[DriveHard]

Originally Posted By: dave123
Originally Posted By: horse123
Nothing sounds better than CD quality audio played through extremely high quality speakers.

Now excuse me while I put on my flame proof suit
Along with a high quality DAC preamp and amplifier I agree


I couldn't agree more!
I grew up with vinyl, 8-track, and then cassettes...they all sucked. Cracking, popping, hissing, all kinds of noises that the original artist didn't want you to hear. With a well recorded CD, that is all gone...you hear the music EXACTLY as the artist and mixer want you to hear it.

The hard part is finding a CD that is well recorded and mixed...with the trend in LOUDER LOUDER LOUDER, it is getting so hard to find anything that is decent. That and the transition to all digital media is making it very hard to find a CD worth buying anymore.

With a good CD, you can sit in my listening room and point to each artist...hear every detail of the instrument, point to the individual drums and cymbals...it truly is like you are there at the concert! I could never get that with any other media less than a CD, Super CD, DVD, or Blue-ray.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Apparently I'm not that picky. I rip my CD's at 128K.

128 kbps with a modern encoder is actually not too bad for casual on-the-go listening. Even the latest iterations of MP3 codecs do a decent (relative term, obviously) job at this bitrate (compared to some 20 years ago), although personally I'd go with AAC or ogg vorbis if I had to rip to 128 kbps.

 

[Nate1979]

Here is a pretty interesting exchange on NRP Science Friday on Vinyl vs CD:

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/10/146697658/why-vinyl-sounds-better-than-cd-or-not

 

[DBMaster]

I use WMA. A very long time ago I got a Creative Labs digital music player that worked with MP3 and WMA. At the time, I wanted the simplest way to rip, which was to use Windows Media Player, already on my computer. Everything I read at the time stated that there wasn't much difference, or that WMA had a slight edge. Current versions of WMP rip MP3's, but at the time WMP only ripped WMA. So, the majority of my digital stuff is 128K WMA. Obviously, it's not difficult to rip to MP3 instead, but as the previous post states, for casual listening it makes little difference. My use is occasional streaming to the car stereo via Bluetooth, or occasional listening at airports or in flight with cheap earbuds. Sounds good enough to me. I'm no audiophile.

 

[Alfred_B]

Originally Posted By: Nate1979
Here is a pretty interesting exchange on NRP Science Friday on Vinyl vs CD:

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/10/146697658/why-vinyl-sounds-better-than-cd-or-not


I'm glad they mentioned the loudening of the music -- as a distorted input.

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted By: horse123
I'm extremely annoyed by the fact that CDs are going away because there's no longer a source of lossless audio that I know of. All the Amazon MP3 downloads or whatever are AT BEST 256k. I can't stand anything less than 320. That's why I always buy the CD then rip it to my computer with Foobar then copy the files to my phone.
Tidal has lossless streaming. There is also an emerging tech called MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) that is suppose to be great. I don't know much about it. I don't think CDs are going anywhere.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: horse123
I can't stand anything less than 320.


Google Play Music, I think, is 320. I upload my FLAC files there and am pretty sure they come back down the interweb pipes at 320. There are settings in the mobile app to reduce that rate in order to save bandwidth (and if you're using mobile data you're likely using ear buds anyhow, in which case a lesser bitrate might be entirely acceptable); but the web-based player and the mobile app on WiFi are at full bore. If you choose to download your uploaded files, you download the same file you uploaded (in my case, FLAC).