Five ways to make digital music sing
Neil Young says the tech industry doesn't care as much about music quality as it should.
Perhaps that's because the average iPod-toting iTunes customer doesn't give a second thought to whether the digital file of the latest single they just bought is uncompressed or lossless.
Young told a bunch of tech luminaries gathered for an industry conference as much on Wednesday: "People's understanding has been skewed by MP3s and convenience. It's important to get music out there...but not at the expense of quality."
He's not the only one who feels that way. Grammy-award-winning producer T-Bone Burnett (who says audio nowadays is so degraded it's akin to viewing "a Xerox of a Polaroid of a photograph of a painting") is spearheading CODE, a new high-definition audio format distributed on a DVD.
CODE gives the music consumer options, by including many different formats, including 24-bit/96-kHz WAV files, uncompressed 16-bit/44.1kHz files, AAC, and MP3 on a single disc. What Burnett has done is show consumers that there are options, more than perhaps they are aware.
Young and Burnett are certainly vocal, but aren't the only people dissatisfied with the listening experience offered by today's cheap, one-off music downloads. So we checked in with our own resident audiophile, Steve Guttenberg, who writes at CNET Blog Network's Audiophiliac. Here are his suggestions for hearing music the way it's meant to be heard.
*Listen. Well, sure, that's the point right? But Guttenberg means really listen, as in, don't have it playing in the background while you're filling in spreadsheets at work, or scrubbing your shower. Once you do, you'll actually notice how much is missing from a compressed MP3 file.
"People who actually put on music and listen--whatever form it's in--they hear more because they're giving it their undivided attention," he said. "Once people really listen, they care about (sound quality) more. Whether you're listening to an iPod or $20,000 turntable, it doesn't really matter. But that's sort of the beginning of everything."
(Credit: CNET)*Download quality file formats. Now that you can get music players with 160GB of storage, file size isn't really a huge issue anymore. MP3 files are generally regarded as the lowest-quality music file since the audio uses a lossy compression process to make the files smaller, meaning some of the data is left out, like higher frequencies.
Luckily there are alternatives: Apple lossless for iPods compresses the files, but losslessly (which means it sounds exactly like uncompressed, but is actually compressed, Guttenberg says); AAC, which is a lossy compression encoding process, but is generally accepted as better than MP3; or OGG (no, no relation to me), which is another lossy compressed file format, but is open source and is known for its higher fidelity. And then there are WAV files, which are completely uncompressed and sound exactly how they're "supposed to," according to Guttenberg.
*Buy used CDs. Though CDs probably aren't Neil Young-approved, it's a vastly better quality experience than MP3s. Plus, it's kind of a deal, Guttenberg says. "It's cheaper than buying iTunes (songs) and certainly sounds a million times better."
*Think outside the iPod. Though there's nothing wrong with Apple's portable music player, it's not the only device out there. Besides other brands of players, you could get super pro and go with a set of turntables. And you don't have to spend a ton. There are USB-equipped turntables that go for around $100--cheaper than most iPods.
*Listen to it live. If the other options still aren't getting it done, you can always go see your favorite act in person. But Rule No. 1 still applies: Actually listen. A lot of people "talk because they're used to music being in the background, they don't just shut up and listen to it."
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica.
For the record - lossless = no loss of sound quality from the original CD. Period. It doesn't matter if the codec is lossy or not because the codec being used is using compression when rendering losslessly.
Here's what people can do to improve sound quality:
1. Stop using MP3.
2. Don't use compression i.e. regardless of the codec you must rip losslessly or there is degredation.
3. spend your money on a really good set of speakers and then spend a lot of time gettigng the pracement correct.
4. Use a decent DAC. - analog out from a computer sounds bad and picks up ambient noise.
The reality is that as more and more components have because digital there is less and less to tinker with i.e. you are getting the signal as it was recorded, without and color, until it hits your speakers.
Here's what not to spend money on:
1. speaker cable - it has been proven time and time again that using the correct gauge of decently insulated wire is all that matters.
2. Expensive interconnect cables - see point #1
3. Expensive DACs. - generally speaking all good DACs are using the same components. If you are paying more, you are paying for looks.
You wrote:
>> 2. Don't use compression i.e. regardless of the codec you must rip losslessly or there is degredation.
Anyone can "rip" a CD - that's just pulling data off the disk. There's no such thing as ripping losslessly.
"Compression" usually refers to 2 things - file size and audio quality. For file size, one can compress and still be lossless (different than a ZIP file really). For audio quality, once compressed data is lost and quality is degraded.
The original article was right in its usage of the terms.
CD quality is good enough, as long as the CD is well mastered, and the DA's and analog path in your player are good. Most of the people who can hear the difference between a record and a CD, are either hearing artifacts from the record, or know that it's a CD and suffer from the placebo effect. 99++ percent of people would not be able to tell the difference between source material and a properly mastered CD. MP3 on the other hand... Well, I find 320kbps, vbr is usually tolerable, but some songs can still be pretty nasty.
If you choose wire with braids of braids of braids, you end up with many functional gauges of wire, making it so that many frequencies of AC (audio) can travel with similar low resistance. This both improves the amount of power that actually makes it to the speaker, and makes it so that the frequencies are evenly distributed so that you do not have loss at certain notches.
About speakerwire, we have just read the tips by Blow and I completely agree with his point of view. Time and again I have been listening to various speaker wires and inter connects if you use good (for speakers that means thick enough) copper wire that's all there is to it.
Your ideas about higher frequencies travelling on the outside of the cable are all theoretical, in practical audio applications there is no so called 'skin effect' below 50 khz.
The type of braid or even more magical the used material for a speaker cable does not do anything perceivable for the final sound.
Closing your curtains or replacing a carpet in your room does a lot more than al this wire hocus pocus.
Sincerely yours
Frits van Heekesen
Many so-called audiophiles talk of listening to music live for a real experience. This doesn't apply to many forms of music common to your typical iPod user. Your typical pop music concert is overly loud, poorly mixed and has nothing to do with audio accuracy. For classical music, live is great but I doubt they represent a large percentage of the iPod generation.
Many so-called audiophiles talk of listening to music live for a real experience. This doesn't apply to many forms of music common to your typical iPod user. Your typical pop music concert is overly loud, poorly mixed and has nothing to do with audio accuracy. For classical music, live is great but I doubt they represent a large percentage of the iPod generation.
LPCM isn't "compressed" but it isn't encoded exactly either. PCM fills the entire sine wave with data even if some of the data isn't needed.
Actual encoding, even in lossless, uses a compression algorithm and uses bits where necessary. Using a lossy codec in lossless causes NO degredation of the original recording.
Live music is fun, don't get me wrong, but it is not the route to awesome audio fidelity.
When? As soon as ego started to matter. Movie Theaters are doing this too. I'm trying to get my hands on a decent decibel meter to bring to the next movie with me- but even the dialogue is painful now.
Loud != good.
As to grissomb's coment, I was in an IMAX theater the other weekend to see Dark Knight, and I think they had bass shakers on the seats. The sound wasn't too loud, but the obvious shaking of my seat from one side (I think the closest was mounted on the rail between the guy to my left and me,) and it was rather distracting and uncomfortable. Very cheezy effect.
Seriously, quality of the content is the opinion of the listener. Quality of the sound is somewhat absolute (warm overtones and such are defects that some like, but generally clipping, noise and artifacting aren't appreciated by anyone.)
Bad quality in the sound is distracting and it's irritating. But you're right, great sound is nothing without great content.
Everything today has been processed to the point that the average song is now a constant, noisy assault on your ears. The only dynamic range in a CD today is what you hear between the time you hit the 'play' button and the point when the music begins.
How are we supposed to convince people to invest in quality speakers/headphones or 160GB, lossless-friendly iPods when the original recording sounds like crap?
And why, in 2008, are we still being forced to choose between lossless OR a la carte singles? Why can't we have both?
I buy iTunes if I have to but I usually try to find the song on Amazon. If I like 2-3 songs on a CD, or I know the artist, I buy the CD, usually used. And then I have a decent concert DVD collection...
Either way, Neil Young is looking PAST the actual problem. It's not really that people don't care, it's that people don't have the music to care enough about. Music has lost it's luster. It's shine is gone. There are few bands out there that the average consumer actually cares about. The industry has gotten greedy, promoting every flash in the pan they can to get a buck. Sure, they lose money on most acts, but they still don't build like they used to
Plus, the majority of people listen to their music on computer speakers. I mixed an album of my own on studio speakers and broken Sony Headphones. I spent 5 minutes on each song when I got my monitors and whoa, what a difference.
Part of it is the "wanna-knows" figure spending money and looking at glossy adds qualifies them to to think they are audiophiles and the trade rags boolster that ego based notion. Then like everyone has a cake hole - they have an opinion that they get all mouthy about.
The market panders to them and they swallow it, perpetuating myths.
Cable is a big point - as long as the metal is good quality copper and at least 14 guage u can pretty well run any distance with any system 4 - 8 ohm any rms except extreme high end/pro or lengths over several hundred feet. And then Monster thinks they can make a sub LOL. The mark up is high and this garbage so every retailer/installer/salesperson will fob it off on you. Frankly - lamp cord is the right quality, comes on big spools and is about a 1/10 as expensive as the garbage they try to sell you.
Speakers are one of the biggest screws put to the consumers and the fangurls abound so don't be mislead. Any good reseller will offer up a comparison in their listening rooms and won't have an excuse, as well as being able to give you a little verbal tutorial at the same time explaining, demonstrating and analyzing the best options and price point for you. You will be very surprised at how mediocre the supposed high end stuff is compared to more reasonable brands. Bring your own audio media and enjoy taking the time to invesatigate and experience various offerings going back as many times as you need.
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by cyberDJ-2038765336053745013836
July 29, 2008 5:59 PM PDT
- I've always had fun noting that, in the 21st century, Apple has replaced Sony and the "full service" provider for our music.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (28 Comments)Music today is typically created on a Mac, edited with a Mac, and then purchased and played back most likely with an Apple product.
That is why I love the irony that it's an Apple product on the consumer end of the spectrum that is killing the potential quality of the Apple product on the creative end of the spectrum.
And nobody, outside of the readers of this column, cares.
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Here's how I roll:
1. I buy the CD.
a) Downloads only happen when that is the only way the song is available.
i) I demand the highest quality download the service provides.
ii) Yes, I pay extra to download a WAV file if that option is available.
2. I rip that CD in as a .WAV file. Storage is cheap so stop killing your music just so you can save some space.
a) Lossless codecs are still proprietary despite their sound quality.
b) Despite its uncompressed size, WAVs are DRM-free, platform agnostic and (with exception)
player agnostic.
3. On my computer, I have a $200 sound card feeding a $1200 pair of Mackie studio monitors.
4. For mobile purposes:
a) In my car:
i) I transfer those WAV files to 32 GB jump drive. My car head unit will read directly from jump
drives. No iPod foolishness or CDs here.
b) My Sandisk media player:
i) I listen to WAV files here as well.
ii) I use a $150 pair of Etymotic ear buds. They are essentially ear plugs with high-quality
transducers in them. Again, no iPod BS.
My digital music sings.