MP3 / WMA sound quality

[off_again]

Question for sound techies!!!

I recently swapped out my aging Philips standard fit head-unit for an all-singing-and-dancing Pioneer unit. It supports MP3/WMA/AAC and I have burned a few CD's to play on it. The only problem is the quality.

I have an extensive collection of MP3/WMA albums, either ripped from the originals or downloaded via Napster so the quality should be pretty good. The lowest I go to is 128Kbps sample rate, but most are 192Kbps. Most of the time I play them back on a Sony Vaio which has a rather smart sound card. Its got some fancy filtering software which dynamically changes the equaliser on the sound to match the source / type of music. Its a bit flash and makes everything sound rather nice.

Take a burned CD to the car and some albums are fantastic - Jamiroquai for example. Others just sound crap - Coldplay. Doesnt make sense. But I can actually adjust the music track using some rather natty software from Sony. Its not great, but I can boost up various frequencies while dropping others.

So, the question is - what frequency range does a typical 128/192Kbps MP3 or WMA file loose or ruin? I understand how the compression works, but I dont know where it looses out.

Any ideas?

[aldi]

I tend to find that the high frequencies become quite slushy in mp3/wma which you can hear in cymbals, drums, 's' sounds in the vocal etc. and you can't really hear whats going on any more when everythings going off at once. I never had much luck making it better with an EQ but maybe try dropping the high freq's rather than boosting them??

VBR mp3's are better, but to get closer to real CD quality on a good stereo you need to be up at least to 256-320 ish. Use a good encoder to make the mp3 in the first place too, LAME is good and free.

N

[tycho]

off_again said:

Others just sound crap - Coldplay.

That's your problem....

As has been said before, things like Jamiroquai are "busy" songs so the slight echo from cymbals(sp?) are drowned out, but Coldplay is quite quiet and almost a thin type of music, probably similar to Damien Rice etc which I find awful to listen to as MP3's.

[off_again]

Mmm, interesting - I will give that a try.... Thanks chaps.

[munky]

I'll second what has already been said - variable bit rate MP3 is great. I did some research a while back on some specialist forums, and there was a broad agreement that MP3 is better than WMA, something to do with WMA sounding overly "bright", which I took to mean exaggerated high frequencies. They also said that 'professional' MP3 encoders (not free) are better than the free or home use ones, but that Lame is very good indeed. I've not tried it BUT I have the Lame 3.96.1.zip installation file if you want me to email it to you

[beanbag]

It's very difficult to guage where you start losing out in terms of quality.

MP3 is actually 20 year old technology and unless absolutely necessary, I never use it anymore. In other words, it's outdated and cannot compare to the newer encoders emerging these days. However if you must use it, 160kbps is your absolute minimum. 192kbps is probably a better bet.

WMA doesn't really fare much better. When Microsoft claimed that a 64kbps was equal to a 128kbps MP3 file, people thought it was amazing....until they heard the audio file. Pure bull.....WMA is about equal to MP3 but with DRM (Digital Rights Management), built into it.

AAC is much newer technology to MP3 and about the same as WMA....but it's much much better. 128kbps will give you a quality audio file if encoded with a good AAC encoder, and 160kbps (what I use), will give you near CD quality music.

All in all, I'd use no other compression format than AAC at 160kbps or higher. Best software to use for this is Apple iTunes. (Quality piece of music management kit), and if you can, get an iPod, but then again, your Philips plays AAC so i'll let it off!

>> Edited by beanbag on Tuesday 11th October 13:12

[rushdriver]

I have Napster and download tracks and albums etc and they are saved as WMA files. But, how do I get them onto a CD though, I thought that they were 'trapped' in your PC for ever

John

[beanbag]

rushdriver said:

I have Napster and download tracks and albums etc and they are saved as WMA files. But, how do I get them onto a CD though, I thought that they were 'trapped' in your PC for ever John

I think Napster provides the software to do this. The nice thing is once they're on CD, re-rip the files and reconvert to AAC to put on any of your portable MP3 players!

[rushdriver]

beanbag said:

rushdriver said: I have Napster and download tracks and albums etc and they are saved as WMA files. But, how do I get them onto a CD though, I thought that they were 'trapped' in your PC for ever John I think Napster provides the software to do this. The nice thing is once they're on CD, re-rip the files and reconvert to AAC to put on any of your portable MP3 players!

OK, but is there a way of turning a WMA file into a MP3 file other than playing the entire song through something like Tunebite?

Cheers

John

[beanbag]

Sure.....if the file is protected, burn onto a CD and then re-rip.

Otherwise, use iTunes to batch convert all your WMA's to MP3 or better still, AAC.