How an MP3 works

[Hypnoz711]

My primary way of playing music on my new system is through my iPod, which usually sounds great except I had one question. I had heard that when you have a CD you have all the frequencies, but when you convert from CD to mp3 it cuts off the really high and really low frequencies from the song. Is this ruining the song for my system since my sub can go to 18 hz and my Kappa's scream the high end notes?

Any insight on how mp3 compression works and sound quality for a 128, 192, or VBR song on a high end system would be great.

Click to read more...

 

[CaliforniabOY5 10+ year member]

Ummm read THIS STICKY:

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114272

 

[patrick1202 10+ year member]

uh well notes after 20 hz is un audible to the human ear and when you do hear it it is only mechanical noise from the subs no im not sure about it cutting out freq but i heard it makes it a lower quality

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

There is a loss of data, however your average system isn't going to be of high enough fidelity to easily notice the difference and as soon as you start the engine it becomes basically impossible to tell the difference. Most music has very little information below 40hz (the bottom end of what radio can transmit) and not a lot above 15khz either (again a radio limitation and where most people's hearing begins to roll off).

 

[frikk 10+ year member]

You can also look into encoding mp3s at a higher bitrate, like 320. For my DJing needs this is all that I need - most people can hardly tell a difference above 256 though.

 

[Hypnoz711]

The sound getting cut off at the low end would be what I'm interested in. Since subs can go down to about 20hz, I'm curious how much if these low subwoofer frequencies are getting removed. I want the sub frequences in my songs to hit as hard as possible, and just want to make sure mp3 is able to go down that low.

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

The sound getting cut off at the low end would be what I'm interested in. Since subs can go down to about 20hz, I'm curious how much if these low subwoofer frequencies are getting removed.

The loss of low frequencies is a myth. The main loss is the high frequency extension.

192 and above does not really have an audible difference in a car. There is a noticeable coloration from lossless as you can see from the images in the sticky. This is pretty noticeable on a nice HT system and a quiet room.