itunes quality

[b@man]

i have 'purchased' (shock) 2 albums this year from msn music, El Presidente which came down at 192kbps VBR and McAlmont & Butler which came down at 128kbps CBR.

I have also downloaded individual tracks from MSN Music and they were ALL 128kbps.

If the people concerned want us to PAY for downloads then they bloody well better sought out their quality first. I'm not paying for downloads ever again...too risky, i dont want to wait for an album to download ever again just for it to be 128kbps.

Make the quality 192 / 256 / 320kbps then we'll be talking. until then...

That`s what i exactly meant when i was speaking of paying for downloading the Stupid remixes.

[!]

The only difference I could tell was the higher the bitrate the louder the track was...I never lost any quality, 128 IMO is a normal quality!

Any lower than that and the track starts to sound dodgy tho

[Tenlow]

It also depends on the compressing format used. 128kbs AAC for example is better compared to 128kbs MP3. I think AAC is what is used when buying songs on the iTunes music store right ?

[bookshopboy]

If PSB chose to have an official download store on their new website, then it will be powered by www.7digital.com.

Most of their downloads are 192 kbs.

[Pacific707]

iTunes quality is Great sometimes better than CD depending on the source. Some iTunes songs are encoded from the master. iTunes is AAC/MP4 at 128kbps

AAC sample frequencies can range from 8kHz to 96kHz
MP3 sample frequencies can range from 16kHz to 48kHz
CD Redbook is 44.1 kHZ

Because if the advanced algorithm of AAC the same file can be at a lower kbps and sound better than mp3. 128 AAC can be better than 192 mp3

Any time you encode from a CD into AAC or MP3 you lose quality because it is lossy compression even when you take a 128 and change it to 320 you lose quality because it is put through the compression algorithm again.
There is the exception of AAC lossless then the kbps is around 750

Basically what i am saying is that iTunes is good quality and 95% of the population cant tell the difference from iTunes and CD. And even if you could you would need a REALLY expensive stereo to expose the flaws of each but then you're probably enjoying all your songs on vinyl.

[Young Offender]

how can I copy mp3s in my computer to my Ipod, Ive copied full cds to my Ipod but thhere are no instructions in the booklet for mp3's?

Thanks

[stew]

The only difference I could tell was the higher the bitrate the louder the track was...I never lost any quality, 128 IMO is a normal quality!

Any lower than that and the track starts to sound dodgy tho

i noticed that!!!

[DominoDancing]

It depends on your equipment. I can hear the difference between a 128 and a 192 kbps MP3 pretty good, especially if I listen to the cymbals. With headphones I sometimes hear a difference between a 192 kbps MP3 and it's CD source, but that doesn't happen very often and only if I really try to hear something (could be imagination then, couldn't it?). So if 128 kbps AAC sounds as good as 192 kbps MP3 I'm happy with it, although I agree that when you pay for it, you should be able to download it in a lossless format.

[Oznerol]

Just noticed how far we need good quality in our music now...years back, when the cassette was a usual format, I felt more than happy when I bought every PSB album or single released that way...the poor quality never was a problem then...I paid for that with a smile in my face, even when the sound quality was worst than a good 128kbps mp3..and now, many of us can´t enjoy anything under the 128kbps...