Mobility Site - View Single Post

03-19-07, 11:57 PM

I don't use iTunes but I can address the allofmp3 vrs ripped CD's part of your question. The sound quality will not depend on the site itself but rather on the way the music is encoded. Very briefly music can be encoded as lossless (flac, shn) or lossy (mp3). Lossless encodes the music note for note as it is on the CD. Lossy compresses the music somewhat in order to create a smaller file for portable players. Depending on how much the music is compressed (this is called bitrate), the quality of your equipment, and the quality of your hearing you may or may not be able to hear the difference between a compressed and a uncompressed file. The same applies to how much compression is applied to the music file you download. At a certain point most people can not hear the difference between music compressed to say a 320 bitrate and the original CD. Below that it depends on your ears and your equipment. So the question you are asking is not site dependant but rather how the music is compressed. Allofmp3 for instance allows downloads of different bitrates - the larger files (higher bitrates) will have better music quailty than the lower bitrates. If you rip the CD yourself using proper technique you can chose what bitrate is best for you. This will probably produce the best quality music for your particular setup and hearing. For more information you can look over at http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=28124.

Hope this helps.

03-19-07, 11:57 PM	#3 (permalink)
ya1950 Guest Posts: n/a	I don't use iTunes but I can address the allofmp3 vrs ripped CD's part of your question. The sound quality will not depend on the site itself but rather on the way the music is encoded. Very briefly music can be encoded as lossless (flac, shn) or lossy (mp3). Lossless encodes the music note for note as it is on the CD. Lossy compresses the music somewhat in order to create a smaller file for portable players. Depending on how much the music is compressed (this is called bitrate), the quality of your equipment, and the quality of your hearing you may or may not be able to hear the difference between a compressed and a uncompressed file. The same applies to how much compression is applied to the music file you download. At a certain point most people can not hear the difference between music compressed to say a 320 bitrate and the original CD. Below that it depends on your ears and your equipment. So the question you are asking is not site dependant but rather how the music is compressed. Allofmp3 for instance allows downloads of different bitrates - the larger files (higher bitrates) will have better music quailty than the lower bitrates. If you rip the CD yourself using proper technique you can chose what bitrate is best for you. This will probably produce the best quality music for your particular setup and hearing. For more information you can look over at http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=28124. Hope this helps.