Do people prefer the sound of mp3's?

It's all about the equipment

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SoundInMotionDJ
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Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 8:27 pm

Do people prefer the sound of mp3's?

#1 Post by SoundInMotionDJ » Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:55 am

A very interesting article about the rising preference for the sound of an mp3 among young(er) people.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/03/the-si ... music.html

And another that takes a decidedly less optimistic view...

http://i.gizmodo.com/5166649/ipods-and- ... oyed-music

--Stan Graves

Toon Town Dave
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Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2002 2:52 pm
Location: Saskatoon, Canada

#2 Post by Toon Town Dave » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:33 pm

Given the way a lot of young people listen to music (bass cranked way up) in tandem with stereo equipment marketing that promotes strong bass and a general preference for music with heavy bass, it's more that people just don't care to notice the difference. Both articles suggest listeners are willing to trade quality for convenience and low cost.

I'm not sure I agree that the artifacts of iPod/MP3 quality/compression are desirable. Given that a lot of popular music is created with electronic instruments (keyboards/synthesizers, electric guitars/bass, drum machines, etc.), perhaps its the artificial nature that is familiar. I can almost always tell a synthesized piano from a real one but many people insist they can't tell a difference.

The one thing I disagree with is the second article claiming that it will be the downfall of music. The fact that a lot of listeners are content with generational loss of dubbing audio tape and that AM radio is only 10kHz bandwidth and FM radio/TV audio is 15kHz so the benchmark of is already relatively low.

Surreal
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Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

#3 Post by Surreal » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:47 pm

Has anyone ever listed to satellite radio? I've never heard it myself, but wiki says it's 128 kbps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM_Satellite_Radio

SoundInMotionDJ
Posts: 154
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 8:27 pm

#4 Post by SoundInMotionDJ » Fri Mar 20, 2009 8:13 am

Surreal wrote:Has anyone ever listed to satellite radio? I've never heard it myself, but wiki says it's 128 kbps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM_Satellite_Radio
I have listened to XM. It is certainly better than FM, and not as good as a CD. But, it was in someone else's car...so I was not accustomed to their car stereo anyway. It was difficult to make any more detailed judgments.

Even the HD radio stations in my area are only broadcasting music that is 128kbps quality. The HD signal can certainly carry more information, they are choosing not to use that (for whatever reason). Even so, it is still noticeably better than FM.

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