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If you can't hear difference between CD and Mp3

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  • September 7, 2011 at 9:30 am #6970
    Marc Andy Tilley
    Member

    Interesting and quite true to an extent, but he forgets nearly all people lose hearing exspecially high mid ranges , mostly after teenage years some sooner ie: concerts ipods raves etc i was a roadie for many years suffered hearing loss thru sound “damage” so even thou mp3 is a compression codec most people really wont notice that much difference @ 320, overdriving your equipment is worse imo : but all in all a good sales pitch dont you think ?

    September 7, 2011 at 9:51 am #1001601
    Pär Hessler
    Participant

    Marc Andy Tilley, post: 6965 wrote: Interesting and quite true to an extent, but he forgets nearly all people lose hearing exspecially high mid ranges , mostly after teenage years some sooner ie: concerts ipods raves etc i was a roadie for many years suffered hearing loss thru sound “damage” so even thou mp3 is a compression codec most people really wont notice that much difference @ 320, overdriving your equipment is worse imo : but all in all a good sales pitch dont you think ?

    I have tested my hearing a while ago and am happy to have hearing behind what normal people can hear (30-48Khz)
    But not so happy when people keeps telling me that there is no difference in sound from CD to MP3
    because I can really tell the difference. I have done blindtests.
    On my equipment (seen below) and my Genelec speakers I have at home I for one can hear a rather big difference.
    And MP3 takes away much in the lowest and highest overtones register if I recall it right (that is what I can hear)

    I agree it is a good sales pitch but on the other hand I do think that it is good products he sells.
    I woldn’t mind playing my sets on them.

    //DJ Hessler

    September 7, 2011 at 9:59 am #6974
    Marc Andy Tilley
    Member

    Me either cd is better than mp3, i managed to get hold of an originally pressing “cd” master early on the difference was suprising between that and the commercial release,,, paper cones i like my old wharfedales still keep going,,, i have old and new equipment many speaker setups personally i prefer older ones with a decent amp , yes mp3’s do sound different on them but in a club or concert im not sure ….

    September 7, 2011 at 4:42 pm #6995
    Emma Partnow
    Member

    Yes; an Efficient Sales Pitch for his Product; that is used in (from the Video’s Evidence) a Very Few Places in the World;
    I can Produce Tracks at 24 Bit and 96khz (and actually far Beyond this); however; I Don’t have the Hard Drive Space;
    If this Man; or Anybody for that matter; were Prepared to offer me for ‘Free’; Unlimited Terabytes of Space; then All my Productions would be at 32 Bit and 192khz; however; that isn’t going to happen; so I have to work with what I have;
    I would have liked to have heard the Figures for ‘Non-Digital’ (Analogue) Sound with regard to Bit Rate; to Compare its Quality to today’s Digital Sound; but these Figures were not Given; even though the Man had the Information;
    Regarding the Interview; yes; Cool; Regarding the Content; no; we are not All Made Of Money;
    Sometimes we have to look at Choice;
    If I have an Audience of 100 People who ‘All’ want to hear ‘French Kiss’; and I have the Following:
    1: A Scratched; Jumping; and basically Unplayable Vinyl Version
    2: A CD Version that the ‘Best’ CDJ on the Market Will Not Recognise (so; Unplayable)
    3: A 320 ‘Insane Quality’ MP3 that Plays Perfectly
    I Feel the Audience would be Very Accepting of the MP3 (to get the ‘Buzz’ they Require)

    September 9, 2011 at 8:35 am #7078
    Pär Hessler
    Participant

    Emma:

    The Bitrate for analouge is endless.
    A bit is a sample from the analogue sinuscurve.
    More info:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_bit_depth
    Anything Digital is sampled from analouge and has therfeore not as good sound as analouge.
    If you sing live or play an acustic instrument you can never reproduce that sound 100% with digital recording equipment.
    (not with analouge equipment either in reality but in theory you could)

    (That is why I think that CD sounds better than vinyl (in aDJ Setup)
    Direct Drive TTs has a motor that rumbles and that sund comes into the Mic (Pic up)
    The DJ needles has a lower frequence range than CDs and not sharp frequencerange.
    The sound gets colored with the DJ eqipment on TTs. Some people think it sounds better
    I do not like anything to colour the sound.)

    If you have a CD that the best CDJ on the marked does not read then the CD is either in a very bad condition or
    the Denon CDJ needs service because some stupid DJ has got it to drink Coca Cola 😉

    And Yes a 320 CBR MP3 will proberbly satisfy your croud but that does not change the fact that the sound on a CD is clearly hearable better than on an MP3 320!

    //DJ Hessler

    September 9, 2011 at 8:59 am #7082
    Marc Andy Tilley
    Member

    Emma use EAC remaster your unplayable CD to spec, it should play :]

    September 9, 2011 at 6:08 pm #1001634
    Phil Morse
    Keymaster

    I’m not with the audiophiles here: you have to be pragmatic. Dance music happens in loud places, where a lot of the noise is not from the speakers! Plus there’s source quality, kit quality, speaker positioning etc to consider. I personally think “good enough” is, well, good enough. The wrong tunes through a Funktion 1 are still wrong.

    Maybe my ears are just getting old, because dont’ get me wrong – I love great sound as much as the next man. But to tell me I am not getting the full “spiritual experience” because I’m not listening to a WAV through a Funktion 1 doesn’t wash with me.

    September 13, 2011 at 5:45 pm #7369
    Colin Brown
    Participant

    Some time ago I conducted a blind test amongst a fairly large sample of sound engineers, 192kbps MP3 vs WAV. Many of them were convinced that they would easily be able to tell which was which.

    Results were conclusive – they couldn’t tell the difference.

    Funktion one make some good products but in my opinion there is more marketing hype than science in that video.

    Of course, there IS a difference between MP3 and WAV, but if you are concerned about sound quality, it should not be at the top of your list of things to be worrying about.

    Personally, I choose WAV when I can, but I don’t worry if I can only get a track as a good quality, first generation MP3. I think people who condemn MP3’s as inadequate don’t really understand the physics of audio.

    September 24, 2011 at 10:26 am #7799
    Phil Morse
    Keymaster

    Agreed, Colin. It’s snake oil basically.

    September 24, 2011 at 2:25 pm #7836
    Arbite
    Member

    Colin Brown, post: 7364 wrote: Some time ago I conducted a blind test amongst a fairly large sample of sound engineers, 192kbps MP3 vs WAV. Many of them were convinced that they would easily be able to tell which was which.
    Results were conclusive – they couldn’t tell the difference.

    Thats surprising. I find it reasonably easy to pick out the difference between 128/192 vs lossless depending on the genre. It is much harder with EDM that has far higher bass volume over the frequency range. However, sounds in the high frequency are radically different when listening WAV/Analogue sources, and when listening to classical the difference is prevelant. Distortion in instruments such as cymbols and guitar is surprisingly easy to hear.

    Don’t listen to me though, my portable listening rig costs about as much as most mid range midi controllers.

    September 24, 2011 at 3:18 pm #7841
    U31
    Member

    When i was young and daft, i used to be an Audiophile
    Arcam everything.
    Gold interconnects
    Oxygen free screened cables
    Bi wire amps
    Speakers set to the millimetre a certain distance from their surroundings

    Then i had kids and sold the lot and bought the Aiwa that still sits in front of me today, with the exception of the TDL monitors because i blew up the old speakers doing tone tests

    When i bought the Aiwa and the sound was almost indistinguishable from kit 5 times more expensive i realised a fool and their money are soon parted 😀
    For the slight difference it was in NO way worth the extra money
    For the record my right ear is well above my age average in tone tests, and my left is only a few Hz down which the doctor puts down to in my 20’s, gunfire without ear defenders and also the loud straight cut gearboxes and race exhausts in the track day cars i had then.

    Nothin’ to to with hanging of the speaker rig at Wigan Pier for all those years then eh? lol

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