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Legal music downloads - sound quality?


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Old 08-08-2005, 13:40
Inkblot
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It's said that the sound quality of iTunes Music Store tracks is better than you can get using iTunes at the same bit rate on a home computer. iTMS tracks do sound pretty good at 128k AAC. So do all the legal download operations sound better at the same bit rate than home-made MP3s (or whatever)?

I've just tried out TuneTribe and their files are "at least" 192k MP3 and don't have any DRM. Sound is good, plenty of bass but seems a little less crisp than iTMS. Be interested to find out if there is a similar variation between the major download operators.
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Old 08-08-2005, 13:50
t1mmyb
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iTMS use master tapes to make their AAC files; if I rip a CD using AAC, it's already gone Recording -> Master -> CD -> AAC. iTMS just leaves out the CD step, so it's bound to be better.
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Old 11-08-2005, 22:29
AcerBen
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I'm always impressed by the quality of the files from iTunes... much nicer than any of the WMAs I've downloaded
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Old 11-08-2005, 23:23
luvsnail
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Originally Posted by AcerBen
I'm always impressed by the quality of the files from iTunes... much nicer than any of the WMAs I've downloaded
Yep, I'll agree with this. The AAC files I've heard from iTunes are way better than the WMAs I got from Napster.

They're still a long way short of CD-quality though, so I don't think they're worth the money they're asking for them.
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Old 11-08-2005, 23:49
dslrocks
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As I have said in the past, if the samples are anything to go by (AAC 128kbps) then no, the sound quality isn't stunning. Might be reasonable for listening on your iPod on the Tube on your cheap pair of earphones, but for anything else, no.

iTMS use master tapes to make their AAC files; if I rip a CD using AAC, it's already gone Recording -> Master -> CD -> AAC. iTMS just leaves out the CD step, so it's bound to be better.
I think the encoding from masters thing is more marketing parlance than anything else. It's a bit pointless to get the masters and then encode to a compressed, clipped 128kbps AAC DRM-laced file, isn't it? OK perhaps if you did it to a AIFF/Wave file, then the "quality" would still be there as there would be no lossy compression and so loss of quality - if they did that then I would be more inclined to purchase it.

You're pretty much taking a good sounding copy and making it lower quality, much like when you're doing from a CD to your AAC file.

OK, by doing it from the masters you might get a pop free, click free copy than you would with a CD, but if you use some decent software/look after your CDs (i.e. don't scratch them to hell and back) and have a good quality CD drive to extract your waves from a CD and then encode them to AAC, I don't see the perceived benefit from encoding it from the masters.

They're still a long way short of CD-quality though, so I don't think they're worth the money they're asking for them.
Agreed.

I think all this crap of distributing DRM laced lossily compressed files and selling them for a buck really shows how the record companies can get away with sell less for more if people just blindly accept it.

Then again, people will willingly pay £3 upwards for a 10-30 second compressed mono sample of a song to use as a "ringtone". As someone once said to me, for every product, there's always a mug out there who'll buy it.
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Old 11-08-2005, 23:51
Pingu
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Despite what dslrocks says I think the iTMS files sound brilliant - even on my hi-fi.
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Old 12-08-2005, 11:30
princesslizzie
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I find iTunes quality excellent, I've had no problems.
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Old 15-08-2005, 18:47
AcerBen
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I cannot understand why kids will spend £3 on a ringtone but won't buy a £2 CD single. Weird.
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Old 15-08-2005, 20:59
Daveoc64
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Originally Posted by AcerBen
I cannot understand why kids will spend £3 on a ringtone but won't buy a £2 CD single. Weird.
Because CDs are not cool.

Most sensible people see that £0.79 is a good price for the songs that they want, instead of some overpriced CD with a load of junk on it.
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Old 15-08-2005, 22:03
Pingu
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Originally Posted by AcerBen
I cannot understand why kids will spend £3 on a ringtone but won't buy a £2 CD single. Weird.
Because most kids probably don't know what they're paying for ringtones.
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