CD vs. MP3 vs. WMA

[Ray_C]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here has done some blind comparisons of very high quality compressed music vs the originals off the cds.

I had my car broken into a couple years ago and the cd deck was stolen along with the original which was still in it. From that I learned to backup all my original cds, and keep copies in my car in case it gets stolen, damaged, etc.

I also keep a copy of all my cds in MP3 form on my computer encoded at 320kbps. I have also gotten pretty much hooked on buying music through iTunes and Musicmatch. I have no problem paying for the music I listen to, I just disagree with paying $20+ for a regular cd when DVD-A is around $25-$30. $5 to $10 for an album online is much more reasonable IMO.

The tracks off of iTunes is encoded in 128kbps MPEG-4, and Musicmatch is 160kbps WMA.

Has anyone actually heard a difference between the original CD and cds converted from 128kbps MP4, 160kbps WMA, and 320kbps MP3?

My Ascend / Hsu speakers should get here on tuesday, I was wondering if the albums I purchased online wouldn't sound right with such accurate speakers.

Cheers,
Ray

[Nicholas Mosher]

DVD-A is around $25-$30
I haven't paid more than $20 for a DVD-A/SACD disc.
Human voices, distortion in higher frequencies, and background clarity/depth have been some of the problems I've found with MP3s.

[curtis]

I have found that with a good encoder, such as LAME, at a higher bitrate, I use 256b/sec, that the quality of MP3's are very good...most people will not be able to immediately hear the difference. For me, the biggest noticeable difference is depth. If I want endless music while I am doing stuff around the house.....I use my MP3 library.

Also have to remember that the quality of the playback device is important...just like the quality of DACs when playing CDs/DVD-As/SACDs. This is something that many people overlook. I use the DACs on my pre/pro to convert the PCM stream. It makes a world of difference when compared to my iPod.

The stuff that is downloadable via iTunes though does not sound good to me, as well as music ripped through iTunes.

I use CDex with the latest LAME dll.

Most of my DVD-As and SACDs have been under $20 as well.