Re: Digital to Analog downloading Question ?

On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:39:25 -0700, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article <ftmbvt01n6t@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):

> "Sonnova" <sonnova@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:ftjge8023b4@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
>> But if you grew-up listening to tape and LP as I did, you
>> learn to listen around those obstacles because the music
>> is STILL there.
> 
> Sorta. I grew up on a steady diet of acoustical music, and I was never
that 
> happy with the LP format. I did like tape, particularly half-track at 7
1/2 
> or 15 ips.
> 
>> With MP3 and other lossy schemes, I find
>> that the music sounds like its been put in a blender and
>> reduced to mush.
> 
> Depends on the bitrate. In a earlier ****tion of this post that you
clipped, 
> you mentioned 128 bps, and that has always been sort of a hinge point.
Below 
> 128 kbps, music is often in trouble, and well above 128 kbps, music is
often 
> unhindered.
> 
>> Mush that has nasty artifacts riding on it. In other words I find that
I 
>> cannot listen around MP3
>> nastiness because the music ISN'T still there.
> 
> Like I said, try bitrates higher than 128 kbps, try other coders.
> 
>> While I
>> realize that it's possible for one to use a higher
>> bit-rate when one is ripping their own CDs, and at 320
>> kbps, MP3 doesn't sound all that bad, Apple is the
>> largest online music store in the world and they only
>> give one the option of 128 kbps.
> 
> Remember that the music business still nurtures hopes of selling you 
> physical media, even after you've downloaded the song. I see the choice
of 
> 128 kbps as being a commercial strategy to foster further sales.
> 
>> I always thought that
>> Sony's Mini-Disc compression scheme sounded much better
>> than MP3 and the downloads available on Sony's on-line
>> music store (now defunct) Sounded MUCH more listenable
>> than did the MP3s available from Apple and other on-line
>> music sources.
> 
> My recollection is that the basic historical MD format  was based on a
much 
> higher basic bitrate that 128 kbps. Of course Sony cut that down a lot
in 
> the later days. I believe that bit for bit, ATRAC can't hold a candle to
AAC 
> and really good MP3.
> 
>> And, finally,  I don't see what my tolerance for canned
>> music sins, whether they be analog or digital has to do
>> with my notion of "real music". Live music has none of
>> the drawbacks of recording and storage schemes past or
>> present.
> 
> However, there are as many different flavors of live music as there are 
> seats in the auditorium and on stage.
> 

Yet we can always tell live from canned - from any of those seats. That's
why 
live music played in real space is the one absolute reference in audio