Why mp3s suck

Why mp3s suck.

I hate mp3, and this post will tell you why.

DO NOT read this post if you have a large collection of mp3s, enjoy listening to them and can’t hear any problems with them, because it’ll ruin them for you !

There’s been plenty written on how mp3 works, and why lossy compression sounds worse than uncompressed audio in general. My aim here is to demonstrate how mp3 sounds bad, for all the people who keep telling me there’s no difference.

I’m going to give you clear guidelines and examples on what to listen for and the negative effects of mp3, but there’s no going back – once you can hear the problems, you’ll never stop hearing them.

This isn’t limited to audiophiles, or “golden ears”, by the way – in my opinion anyone can hear this stuff, with a few pointers.

So seriously, unless you’re prepared to start using Ogg Vorbis, FLAC or AAC – stop reading now !

Still here ? Good.

First, I need to make this clear – I have nothing against lossy audio or data compression in itself – I do most of my casual listening on an iPod, using 128kbps AAC files – they sound fine. Not as good as the original CDs, obviously, but OK. And yes, I’m well aware that AAC is just a more advanced version of mp3. But the fact is that mp3 has fundamental limitations – even at higher bitrates.

Next – I’m also a pragmatist. mp3 is a temporary phenomenon, just like AM radio, cassettes and CDs. In the long run, none of those have killed music, and neither will mp3, or lossy compression in general. So, why the rant ?

Because people keep saying mp3 sounds great, or “indistinguishable from CD” and it’s just not true.

mp3 isn’t good enough

It doesn’t matter what encoder you use, it doesn’t matter what settings you use or what pre-processing you apply – mp3 just doesn’t cut it. AAC and later, more sophisticated encoders use more advanced encoding methods, and sound better to varying degrees, but mp3 just FAILs.

How does it fail ? That depends a little on the encoder being used, but some of my own pet hates include:

· mp3 sizzle – the artificial, unnatural swirling metallic noises that sound like someone’s added chime bars to everything, or there’s a mosquito buzzing in your ear. Some people actually say we prefer these noises in mp3s – but the research says bullshizzle !

· Added distortion – Yet another side effect of the so-called Loudness Wars. mp3 encoders rarely include any headroom for the encoding process itself, so the added processing pushes the music even further over the limits, generating inter-sample peaks and adding even more distortion in the process

· Flat, two-dimensional sound mp3 works by throwing away musical information that we supposedly can’t hear – up to 90% of the original information, at 128kbps. That means all the subtle, delicate stuff, like ambience, space and realism. So a lush, three-dimension original is reduced to a flat, cardboard replica of itself

· Mushiness All but the very best mp3 encodes just sound fuzzy, muddled and – well, mushy !

Source: IAN SHEPHERD

Let me run to the rack where I stored my original CD’s … mp3s na delete saa hi
https://media.giphy.com/media/11SBkFCLA0qDgk/giphy.gif

hi @WuTang

Ile SQNY ya @Electronics4u huwa inacheza hadi mp1 na iko fwain…

shida ni kuwa only private trackers have vast collections which are well organised na joining them requires invites plus interviews, not forgetting the seeding laws… fuckkkkkkkkk

My big penis agrees with you.

MP3 really sucks…nikitaka audio mi hudownload m4a

Problem ya .wav files ni expensive storage space. You will need to purchase not less than 1 terabyte of hard disk.

What I wonder is that since videos dont have audio in .wav format, but .mp2, shall we say that their audio is of poor quality?

Y
Tafuta flac files hizo ndo Ziko juu

Buzzzz:rolleyes::eek:

Vobris… Opus

Kweli, MP3s do really suck, sijui mbona wanaendelea kutusukumia, they need to pull the plug on MP3 and make M4a the standard audio format because the sound quality is far superior to MP3.

m4a ni dope I agree

We grew up listening to crackly vinyl, home-dubbed cassette tapes and poorly mastered CDs. Nobody died.

Having said that, I have the habit of downloading FLAC, 24/96, HDAC or whatever fancy audiiphile format from R%&£#@ker.org using Tixati (never uTorrent!), which I immediately convert into constant 320 Bps Mp3 on Foobar2000.

That works for me.

Why not get a reliable 320kbps uploader with good quality instead of converting?

Majority of videos have AC3 or AAC formats

Yeah am pretty sure something is lost during conversion

Ng’ombe, WuTang ni wewe