Have our ears become tuned to lossy compression music?

[echarcha]

Today I asked about which site is best to buy music online for a couple of albums I want.

This set me thinking. In earlier days we used to buy CDs. I dont know about you, but CD sound is still much better and sounds full over the best sampled MP3 version. Offcourse, MP3 is a lossy compression and data is lost in compression.

However, what I started thinking is that today MP3 has become defacto. So are we slowly training our ears and senses to enjoy music which does not have the complete spectrum of notes?

[echarcha]

When I was in school, we used to listen to LP records on a record player. I still have many old Hindi movie records in India in my house. I remember the Amar Akbar Anthony record which was a Red colored disc!

Though the sound was 'scratchy' compared to CDs, the typical scratching sound before a song began had a rhtym of its own.

Then came CDs and it was an amazing treat to the ears. So we progressed from scratchy LPs to pure and perfect CDs. And now back to music with missing notes and beats?

[Charchila]

I disagree... maybe you've had bad luck on the quality of MP3s, but if it is ripped properly at higher bitrates, you can have a better sound quality on MP3s than CDs.

Like you said, MP3 is a lossy compression. A typical music file on a CD could be as big as 50 mb, while most MP3s were around 5 mb at <100 kbps. Recently, the MP3 sizes have gone up due to better technology that allows you to rip files at over 300 kbps with almost lossless compression and extraordinary sound quality.

So it is possible to get a high quality MP3s that, in my opinion, sound a lot better than CDs.

[echarcha]

Originally Posted by Charchila

I disagree... maybe you've had bad luck on the quality of MP3s, but if it is ripped properly at higher bitrates, you can have a better sound quality on MP3s than CDs.

Like you said, MP3 is a lossy compression. A typical music file on a CD could be as big as 50 mb, while most MP3s were around 5 mb at <100 kbps. Recently, the MP3 sizes have gone up due to better technology that allows you to rip files at over 300 kbps with almost lossless compression and extraordinary sound quality.

So it is possible to get a high quality MP3s that, in my opinion, sound a lot better than CDs.

You are technically wrong on the fact that MP3 will be better quality than the CD. Dont you understand that the MP3 format 'discards' data to give you the reduced file size?

However high the rate of sampling, the CD has a a higher rate of sampling and also the amount of data.

[chitrala]

well, mere kaan to jyada phark pakad nahi paate. ek point ke baad CD, LPs, Mcs, MP3s all sound same. I cant differentiate between a cd and mp3 ripped at say 128kbps. waise bhi, i'm not a great music buff, so mp3s do 4 me.