Budding audiophile/vinyl questions

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

CD "quality" is a problem. The sampling rate 44.1 khz is too close to your hearing range. You may not be able to hear the high frequencies but they do affect the lower ones. This may be the "warmth" issue.

Another problem with CDs is the samples are made Right-Left-Right-... sequentially. Your ears are extremely sensitive to the timing of the sound waves hitting the different ears. This is how you locate the sound. Either the sampling rate needs to be a lot faster or it needs to be parallel somehow.

MP3s slaughter the sound information when it gets encoded.

Every time analog tracks are transferred something is lost. Once it is in digital format is will only change if it is converted to a different format. Excepting damage, of course.

i agree with all this, but 99% of people cannot pick up on this. most people cannot tell the different been and 320k mp3 and a CD.

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

CD "quality" is a problem. The sampling rate 44.1 khz is too close to your hearing range. You may not be able to hear the high frequencies but they do affect the lower ones. This may be the "warmth" issue.

Another problem with CDs is the samples are made Right-Left-Right-... sequentially. Your ears are extremely sensitive to the timing of the sound waves hitting the different ears. This is how you locate the sound. Either the sampling rate needs to be a lot faster or it needs to be parallel somehow.

MP3s slaughter the sound information when it gets encoded.

Every time analog tracks are transferred something is lost. Once it is in digital format is will only change if it is converted to a different format. Excepting damage, of course.

Originally Posted by kickerb

i agree with all this, but 99% of people cannot pick up on this. most people cannot tell the different been and 320k mp3 and a CD.

99% of the people who care to try, maybe even. 99% don't even care to try to hear the difference. Once you learn to hear the difference you can't unlearn it. Then age sets in.

+1 on the speakers being the most important component. That's what you are ultimately getting the sound from. It doesn't matter how good you kept the sound quality, going through the system, if it gets mangled by the speakers being sent to your ears.