bitrate

[Culprit]

with mp3s is the bitrate the quality of the sound??...if so how good is 128kbps....is that good quality?
thx

[phunkdust]

bitrate does refer to the quality of the sound (you also have to factor in things like what compression system you're using)

basically the higher the bitrate of the mp3, the less compressed the sound is, so it's higher quality...

128kbit is said to be cd quality, but in most cases it isnt... you can get away with it in most cases, but with good headphones or speakers you can hear the difference

160kbit or 192kbit will give you much better (and pretty much indecernible difference to CD) quality sound...

[Rik_]

Originally posted by phunkdust
128kbit is said to be cd quality

I really want to slap the marketers that came up with that bollocks! X(
But apart from that, 128 is what I'd think to be the bare minimum for listening (but I'm forced to stick with that 'cause my mp3 player wont support VBR :| )
But if you can get higher bitrate without compromise (eg download times or hdd space) then go for it!

[polarbear]

128 kilo-bits / second?

and here am I thinking 88.2 kilobytes / second isn't enough.

get a MP3 player that plays back AIFF files.

[rotationallogic]

192 isnt really cd quality, allthough i can only tell the difference on my studio monitors.

[Vital]

Technically no MP3 is going to be CD quality though so it just depends on how much you're willing to sacrifice.

[djneo]

I've played 128kbps mp3's on a club system, sounds fine.

[polarbear]

I once played cassettes of material on club systems. (this is going back - transformers in Brisbane)

sounded fine.

so therefore is cassette just as good as MP3?

hang on. maybe it's the club systems that are the limiting factor here.

MP3's are great in ANY situation where storage space is an issue.
If storage space isn't an issue, then save full bandwidth files.

[polarbear]

at 16bit 44.1kHz

80GB = >100 (~110) CD's at full bandwidth = ~$240 = ~$2/CD

it also = ~130 track HOURS of 16bit, and 90 track HOURS of 24 bit.

AND you don't have to wait for the file to encode. just capture and store full CD (or more) bandwidth.

why are we even talking about MP3???

it's useful on the INTERNET and in CAR CD PLAYERS and in WALKMANS (well, Rio et al) and on LAPTOPS

otherwise....if you're serious about your music and the fidelity of your recordings.....

[driload]

the 128 = cd thing is indeed marketting.

128 became defacto standard due to bandwidth issues

now with the cable headz pushing up their status quo's bandwidth 196 has become the norm, though its not odd to find a lot of mp3's online as high as 256 and so on



with blank cds costing less then 40 cents a unit in bundles of 100, and recently i got 1000 for less then 29 cents a unit, theres no reason to be worrying about lower encoded bitrates

ps, as a rule of thumb, go as high as you must, try not to resample and keep it stereo if its stereo, mono if its mono

theres no point making a 22.2 8 bit mono file into a 44.1 stereo 256 mp3



i feel dirty even talking about mp3... for fucks sake its 2002, hard drives are dirt cheap, optical storage mediums are ubiquitous so why thehell dont we have unrestricted high bandwidth communication systems cheap and for all

and yes thats a rhetoric whinge so pay it no mind. how wrong i was when i was in year 5 and the teacher made us write what we thought we'd have in 2001

everyone went the Jetsons flying car route but i was entertaining the spatial anomalies (ie, The Doctor's "Tardis" insides) and optical transfer streams (dad was an engineer devising sensors and things for the mines and navy... we were making lasers and stuff at home to scare the neighbours.... ie red lights in through their windows at night etc)

DIE MP3 DIE! even atrac compression is better! why arent we using MD discs for data :(


have a nice day

[phunkdust]

well i only have 20gig on my notebook, so i have to keep all my music as mp3... the idea of anything else is absurd...

dri, yeah atrac is less lossy, but thats an audio compression codec. MDs only have about 200mb of useable space anyway, and the read/write speed isnt too good...

if you want high capacity and portability, 3inch CDRW are the bomb.

[Culprit]

when i download mp3s they r all 128kbps....whats the go?