Sound Quality/Volume with MP3s

[sungwei 10+ year member]

Do you guys have to turn up the volume a bit when you play MP3s? I noticed that the output on non-compressed files play lounder and cleaner than MP3s but I want to be sure that it's not just my system. I get considerably less bass on some MP3s than I do on wavs/regular CDs. The mids and highs differ by volume a bit, but the bass is much lower on some MP3s. I have to turn up the bass on my HU to +5 or more and turn the cross over to max whereas on regular CDs I'm at 0 on HU and -3 on crossover. Is this normal to varie this much?

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[kingpin_jeffie 10+ year member]

If your using low bitrate mp3's then, yes this is totally normal. personally i dont use anything lower than 190.

 

[ViperGuy 10+ year member]

most of my mp3's are 192 and I dont notice any change in volume but anything under 160 sounds like crap

 

[sungwei 10+ year member]

Hmm, I'm not sure what these are at. I don't think as high as 192 though. It doesn't sound like crap, but I'll put it this way: for normal CD/wav. files I play at 24-25 and it is loud and clear and for mp3s I have to play at 27-28 to get the same volume, but the bass is weak and it's not quite as clear.

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

I don't have any problems - 90% of my mp3s are 128k with some 160s and 192s here and there. Then again, I play my stuff directly off my rio karma mp3 player into the aux in. the real test - just expand the mp3 to wav, don't do anything and THEN compare.

 

[AsK 5109 10+ year member]

192 is the way to go, 320 if u have the time and if you can find it

 

[Scorpion 10+ year member]

My entire library of MP3 music is 320 kps. I have had no trouble with music qaulity. The only good thing I can do with my music is rerecord to add bass and some treble.

 

[iLL-Faded 10+ year member]

i usally download 192,320 or higher it dosnt matter since i have cable and it downloads preety fast

 

[idiot 10+ year member]

Personally, I hear little difference in quality anywhere between 220 to 320 kbit, when properly encoded. And that's something that hasn't been mentioned here; the bitrate is not the only consideration, as the encoder used can greatly affect sound quality, as well. Currently, I believe, LAME is the best MP3 encoder, with very little difference in audio quality from a CD, at high bitrates (according to this comparison).

When encoding a track, the volume can either be raised or lowered. So if you downloaded these MP3's and did not make them yourself, it's possible that the volume settings were changed, leading to a variation between MP3 and CD audio. If you really want to test your system's MP3 ability, encode some yourself.

 

[Casserole 10+ year member]

if you're going for SQ and your d/l MP3's off the net you might as well give up now. i dont care how high of a bit rate they are, 99% of the MP3's you can find are not anywhere near as good as ones you rip off of an original CD and encode yourself. you get what you pay for //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/suave.gif.858fc102f7646e678ee8af7e1fbc41d1.gif (or what your friend paid for & you borrowed)

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

I prefer the fraunhofer encoder over lame.

 

[drjjg 10+ year member]

I prefer WMA compression when ripping cds, it's much better than MP3.

If I do need to use MP3, I always try to get 192kbps+.

 

[adam71 5,000+ posts]

if you're going for SQ and your d/l MP3's off the net you might as well give up now. i dont care how high of a bit rate they are, 99% of the MP3's you can find are not anywhere near as good as ones you rip off of an original CD and encode yourself. you get what you pay for //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/suave.gif.858fc102f7646e678ee8af7e1fbc41d1.gif (or what your friend paid for & you borrowed)

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/handclap.gif.0c301076f534e244f0460706894f19e0.gif

Well said, getting SQ from a downloaded MP3 is like getting blood from a stone.

I think "idiot" makes a strong point too.

Adam

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

^ the irony....

 

[limitkid7 5,000+ posts]

if you're going for SQ and your d/l MP3's off the net you might as well give up now. i dont care how high of a bit rate they are, 99% of the MP3's you can find are not anywhere near as good as ones you rip off of an original CD and encode yourself. you get what you pay for //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/suave.gif.858fc102f7646e678ee8af7e1fbc41d1.gif (or what your friend paid for & you borrowed)

i thought sq was subjective