Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems iTunes Plus

I have a mere 500 CDs and I can count on my hands the number of sleeve notes I have bothered to read.

I would like lossless ID tagged categorised music accessable anywhere in the house or on my MP3 player. Those CD thingies are just to fiddly for my fat old fingers .....

I find the David Chesky blog to be very interesting and not off point. I think its simply the money and its far less expensive to grab a kid off the street- set him up with some computers and let the mixing begin.

So I tried listening to Earth Wind and Fire's greatest hits. I used 2 CDs that I burned off my server.

CD #1 was a perfect bit for bit copy
CD #2 was CD #1 ripped to itunes at 256kps AAC at 44.1khz sampling, stereo. Then I took these files and created CD 2 which itunes recreated the PCM from the AAC files.

Playback was via Meridian 800 into the 861 via MHR and upsampled and I used Trifield. I popped in CD #2 first. You know what- it sounded pretty good! But CD#1 was, to me, noticeably better. The treble sounded clearer and cleaner- pardon me for using this tired expression, but as if a vail was lifted. There was more life to the sound and the imaging was better- the cymbals were crisper and the guitars jumped into the space better. The differences in the bass were not quite as noticeable and Im not so sure I detected them. Never the less disc #2 was not a sonic mess in terms of Trifield as I feared. Disc #1 did have more sonics into the room and I suspect it helped Trifield more but this was a more subtle difference than thought it would be.

Soooooooooooo---- IMHO while 256kps AAC might be fine for convenience - it ain't no "lossless" CD..............

best regards,
Jerry

very true - and it makes sense.

but at some point you'd have to eventually explain (prefferably with reputable scientific arguments) to the "dummy consumer" that he loses nothing by using ... lossy ...

just some nine years ago, the performace of the CD format was discussed looking upwards (NOT downwards) and quite scientifically I presume in papers such as this :
http://www.Meridian-audio.com/w_paper/Coding2.PDF

now, where do we really stand ? do we really care ?

these are questions that one can really only answer for himself. I am quite glad we can openly discuss them here, even if sad that we have found cause to do this.

Ill look it up later- I can re rip this disc as apple lossless just to see.

I suspect it will be that apple lossless is about 50% file size reduction from the original and the 256kps AAC would be about 50% of that - thats my guess- lets see if it pans out as true.

so true Dog- where we stand is I have to call you "Dawg" and listen to American Idol on MP3@96kps!

Although DVD-A sounds better than CD, as we know, so much depends on the mastering and in general, the typical CD played back through the M gear leaves me very satisfied. As we've seen with the Genesis releases, even lossy at higher resolutions can be convincing. I do have to say that I have not listened to the Yes Fragile DVD-A recently but I always thought it sounded wonderful.

best regards,
Jerry

I did some tests using AAC a while ago, using an old Apple Powerbook as a source feeding a 'Nail' based system (thankfully now sold!)

To start with, I imported several CDs onto the HD in Apple lossless format, then produced lossy versions in iTunes.

Using 128k MP3 there were obvious swishing and swirling artefacts during high frequency sounds such as cymbols.

Going to 128k AAC made a huge improvement, and I had to struggle to tell the difference from lossless. At 256k AAC (or above), it sounded perfect. I couldn't discern any degradation from lossless at all.

HD space is cheap. Save your audio files in a lossless format. Who knows, maybe your system or hearing will improve!

Even the illegal files comes in FLAC (lossless format preferred by geeks) now. With 500GB costing $100, it's plain foolish to store music for home use on high resolution systems like M. in lossy formats. Portable players like iPod is a different story, though. Lossless is impractical here. Takes too much valuable space and makes anti-shaking buffer less effective.

Thumbs down for iTunes and other online music shops who offer only lossy files. Bandwith is cheap, too. It won't take long to download a typical 2-300 MB lossless-packed album.

Ironically the illegal, closed music networks (who, with encrypted traffic and hidden IPs are relatively safe havens in comparison to the open torrent networks) offer far better quality, faster downloads and broader title range. No wonder the record business is bleeding big time.

All very well, but I have yet to find a single online music outlet for lossless music files, which I actually want to listen to !

(I have absolutely no interest in classical music).

We should not condem lossy codecs outright
Some MP3's can sound brilliant through a
great converter.

My friends file exchange (bit torrent) and
unearth the most amazing stuff.

This can then be sought out on CD.
Back catalogue is so rich now
Extra tracks
Good remaster
Good liner notes
Cheap as chips.

However who would ever buy a download of any nature?
DRM, lossy codec,no physical entity, a candle in the wind.

HD space, as noted is so cheap , no excuse for not ripping to lossless.
My 1000 cds have never befor been more accessible or more played.

Just listened to 'Way out West'Sonny Rollins and
Led Zep 1 both �4.99 from my local independant record shop.
Both creamy.

There never has been a better time to find music.

If we all were willing to be criminals (which we, of course, aren't) life would be much better.
The voluntary, non profit file sharing community (whose participants are outlaws, but if they are immoral is still open for discussion IMO) do 16/44 and even 24/96 FLAC for free, while the law abiding citizens pay dearly for lousy 128 kbps.
Choice is also much better on the closed, invites only circuits (at least one of the best known ones - no name given - have 1,6 million members, so how "closed" they are are also open to discussion) that it makes even iTunes "shelves" seem like a mere gas station.
If I am willing to break the law, I get titles unobtainable elsewhere for free. As a law abiding citizen I am tired of the record companies, who are not willing to give me what I am actually prepared to pay for. And very, very tempted to join the lawbreaking majority (according to statistics in countries like Sweden and Canada).
A society where the majority breaks the law has two choices: Put the population in jail or change the law.
My bet is that in 10 years we'll all be downloading legally (even back catalog) for free and the record business as we know it is dead. Musicians will release music to sell concert tickets. This flood of free floating bits and bytes can not be stopped.

Not available via iTunes; but this story promises not 256kbps music files but four times the bandwidth - at 1,100kbps via Windows Media Audio (WMA)...

http://www.stereophile.com/news/061107musicgiants/

Try Linn Records for 24/96 WMA and FLAC.