Re bit rate of mp3. The problem is not the frequency response its phase and
possitional information I find that suffers.
The very fast rates over 300 kbits second can be very good, but by the time
you get to that resolution you are not really saving much over a lossless
codec.
I can clearly hear 128kbits sec swizzling on complex sounds and acoustic
environments. it reveales itself because its really regular and fast, a bit
like the phase jitter you got on some cassette machines as the tape weaved a
little.

192 is not bad, but still a bit muddled on a very good recording. The
problem is today that one gets to feel that somewhere in the production of
content, digital bit rates have been compromised or maybe converted from one
format to another and not very well, making the end result less good than it
could have been.
I also suspect that some distribution systems also tends toward lossy or
severely error corrected systems of squeezing more down the pipe so to
speak.

We are never told of course so people think what they are hearing iswhat
they are going to hear in real life.
I can remember being shocked at the clarity and dynamics of, for examply,
The James Last Orchestra when I went to a concert with my Mother once.
You could really hear percussion and everything else where it actually was
no kind of defocussing cos it was in front of you.
Of course electronic instruments can be distorted and of course distortion
is part of some music deliberately, but its when the recording medium
intervenes that things get very awkward. The over use of the digital pitch
enhancers and digital auto double track is irking me a lot.
They use it imappropriately like on a recent concert by Carole King where
half the sound that appeals is that she rasps slides and croks. You don't
want it to sound pure after all its called emotion!

Sorry these things wind me up.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
Remember, if you don't like where I post
or what I say, you don't have to
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"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
In message , Brian-Gaff
writes:
Well, I still do as you say, tough I have to say mp3s are pretty naff
compared to a good CD or vinyl recording. There are lossless codecs now
and

I disagree. _Low bitrate_ mp3 are pretty naff; given enough bits, they can
be indistinguishable from the original to _most_ listeners, especially
older ones who've lost their upper frequencies (and also depending on the
equipment used). What an acceptable bitrate _is_ is of course a source of
endless debate, and also - if carefully chosen - dependent on source
material. (I have some 1950s mono material [early Tom Lehrer] that is fine
at 32k; encoded at lower sample rate, and mono. I have other material
[1980s pop for example] that I can still hear the _odd_ artefact at 96k. I
very much doubt there is much material - or ears or equipment - that could
tell 320k mp3 from the original.)

together with cheap storage, many find home servers the way to go. I'm not
so sure as although formats change the problem is that data on a drive can
be totally lost very easily.

Yes. Needs to be backed up - in the cloud, on another drive, or on optical
media. For audio only, you can get many hours on even a CD, and days -
possibly even weeks - on DVD, then BluRay. (Though I'd say for backup
only.)

I'm thinking tat at the moment, DAB tuners exist and most can cope with
DAB+, so may be valid. The sad part is that the quality and station
choice
on DAB is looking more like a replacementfor medium wave these days as its
mostly mono and compressed.

Agreed (though it depends on what you're listening to; speech is probably
OK most of the time).

Not that it's relevant to the original enquirer, but are there DAB add-ons
for computers? Many years ago I had an FM tuner card, then there was of
course the original Psion (I think it was) Wavemaster, a
futuristic-looking blue thing that received DAB and plugged into a USB
socket. Is anything similar still made? (I've just had a look, and there
aren't _any_ wavemasters on ebay! Either I've remembered the name wrong,
or they've all either failed or are being kept by those who have them.)

Other sources. I'd suggest a decent computer to get internet content,
rather than an internet radio as feeds change so often its a real pain to
set it up anew after its suddenly been moved. Freeview, and to some extent

Yes, though the resetting may be more difficult for Brian than some, since
electronics manufacturers do seem to persistently refuse to cater properly
to the VH. But it is still a good point - setting up such devices isn't
trivial.

Freesat is often a reasonable source of good quality, and at least radio 4
extra on Freeview is in stereo, unlike DAB, but for how long one wonders.

I don't _think_ it will go anytime soon, though you can never tell.

A relatvly cheap pvr or set top box is all you need, but steer clear of
the
really cheap ones as if you want analogue out I often find that they are a
bit lacking on bass and plugging things in and out definitely affects
levels
elsewhere. Seems to be no buffering. DVD and blue ray players can be good
as
they play cds and mp3 cds as well, and its often the case that audio
visual
devices can play content on sd cards and ramsticks too.

All good points (and interesting about cheap STBs, though I wouldn't have
thought the levels will be a problem for a setup where you, er, set it up
and leave it).

If you are into mp3 players or apple devices then obviously some kind of
input for those is handy as well.

Yes, it's always good to have an extra analogue input or two (and possibly
digital one, though there are still few such sources).

Marantz do some nice recorders that sound quite good working on ram
sticks, but not cheap.

There are quite a lot of solid-state recorders around. Olympus do a range
of qualities (mainly to internal RAM).

I still keep the ability to use cassettes with dbx and dolby, and I'd like
to also have reel to reel as well and of course having a computer as part
of
the system does mean one can make digital media out of analogue recordings
too.
Brian

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Thankfully, I know where the bodies are buried (the abandoned Television
Centre, in the /Blue Peter/ Garden), ... - Eddie Mair, RT 2015/4/25 to 5/1