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jmcdaniel_ee View Drop Down
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Points: 141 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: iTunes vs. Zune Marketplace
    Posted: December 05 2007 at 13:08
Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

As far as iTunes vs. Zune is concerned: Of course I choose neither ... the Napster Flat Rate is much better suited for people who want to listen to many different albums each month.
I second the Napster suggestion.  $15/month, unlimited downloads.  No Zappa or KC, Beatles or Led Zeppelin, but they have a good selection of other stuff.  I've downloaded some Anglagard, Can, Magma, Meshuggah, Popol Vuh, Sleepytime Gorilla M, Tangerine Dream, a ton of classic prog, post-rock, extreme metal, etc.  And that's not to mention other genres.  I can usually find about 75% of new music that I hear about on Napster.  Some MP3 players aren't compatable, though, which urks me why the IPod is so popular despite it's incompatability with flat rate unlimited download services.Ermm
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Points: 21138 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 01 2007 at 10:11
Originally posted by rileydog22 rileydog22 wrote:

LAME w/ VBR ftw.  


LAME w/VBR 64-320 joint stereo q=0! Cool
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Points: 865 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 01 2007 at 09:36
Originally posted by Fight Club Fight Club wrote:

Ah but you forgot about FLAC! For those who don't know it's a lossless audio encoder, so you're virtually losing no quality from that of a CD! Only problem is an entire album takes up about 300 MB of space...


When I ripped this double album, it took up 1 GB of space. But LAME V0(VBR with an average of ~245 kbps) works well for me, and LAME V2 is good enough for my mp3 player.
The scattered jigsaw of my redemption laid out before my eyes
Each piece as amorphous as the other - Each piece in its lack of shape a lie
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Points: 21138 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 01 2007 at 02:32
Originally posted by Tommydouglas Tommydouglas wrote:

I'm a Mac person, so I stick with iTunes. Let's face it, Mac is better in so many ways...but I digress ;). I'm impressed with the growing Insideout catalogue on iTunes--I'm discovering Flower Kings via the iTunes catalogue. I feel a bit better paying 10 bucks for a FK recording on iTunes then paying 20 bucks via Amazon.ca


And on eMusic.com you pay even less ... for high quality mp3s:

http://www.emusic.com/browse/l/b/-dbm/a/0-0/1400121863/0.html

Big%20smile


Edited by MikeEnRegalia - December 01 2007 at 02:33
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rileydog22 View Drop Down
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Points: 8844 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2007 at 17:39
LAME w/ VBR ftw.  

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Points: 21138 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2007 at 03:10
Originally posted by Fight Club Fight Club wrote:

Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:



SACD>DVD-Audio>CD>256kbit-mp3>Vinyl>128kbit-mp3>Tape>64kbit-mp3>Warped Vinyl

As far as iTunes vs. Zune is concerned: Of course I choose neither ... the Napster Flat Rate is much better suited for people who want to listen to many different albums each month.


Ah but you forgot about FLAC! For those who don't know it's a lossless audio encoder, so you're virtually losing no quality from that of a CD! Only problem is an entire album takes up about 300 MB of space...

Also not just bitrates determine the quality of an MP3 file. In all honesty a 128 kbps rip mp3 encoded with Lame would equal about that of a 160 kbps encoded with iTunes. Other things such as bit depth and mode make a difference too. Also if it's a transcode the quality will be lessened greatly!


About FLAC: I didn't mention it because its quality is exactly equal to CD ... it's a digital copy.

About mp3 encoders: Of course the best available encoder should be used ... LAME is the way to go!Big%20smile
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Points: 4097 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2007 at 02:59
Transcoding to FLAC would not make the quality significantly worse than it already is, in any situation, be it from MP3 or WAV! (Unless you're doing something wrong.)
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Points: 572 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2007 at 00:22
Originally posted by rileydog22 rileydog22 wrote:

Originally posted by Fight Club Fight Club wrote:



Also not just bitrates determine the quality of an MP3 file. In all honesty a 128 kbps rip mp3 encoded with FLAC would equal about that of a 160 kbps encoded with iTunes. Other things such as bit depth and mode make a difference too. Also if it's a transcode the quality will be lessened greatly!


Huh?  Regardless of whether it's in FLAC or MP3, once you've brought it down to 128 you've permanently lost part of the sound.  Converting it back to FLAC simply makes it take up more space, it doesn't improve the sound quality one bit. 


Lol... I wasn't talking about converting mp3 to FLAC, I meant ripping it to FLAC directly from the CD. MP3 to FLAC would be a transcode which would make the quality significantly worse than it already is.

OH i just realized I worded that wrong. I meant encoded with LAME. My bad!
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Points: 8844 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2007 at 20:33
Originally posted by Fight Club Fight Club wrote:



Also not just bitrates determine the quality of an MP3 file. In all honesty a 128 kbps rip mp3 encoded with FLAC would equal about that of a 160 kbps encoded with iTunes. Other things such as bit depth and mode make a difference too. Also if it's a transcode the quality will be lessened greatly!


Huh?  Regardless of whether it's in FLAC or MP3, once you've brought it down to 128 you've permanently lost part of the sound.  Converting it back to FLAC simply makes it take up more space, it doesn't improve the sound quality one bit. 

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Points: 572 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2007 at 16:11
Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

Originally posted by explodingjosh explodingjosh wrote:

My opinion on formats of music that you pay for:

HDCD>DVD-Audio>SACD>CD>Vinyl>Tape>8 Track Tape>Sheet music>Warped Vinyl>AAC file=mp3 file

...to give you an idea of where I'm coming fromSmile


... the land of preconceptions?Wink

mp3 and other "lossy" formats come in many different qualities ... if you take mp3 256kbit for example, there have been many listening tests which showed that it was almost impossible to tell them apart from the real source (CD).

So this is how I see it:

SACD>DVD-Audio>CD>256kbit-mp3>Vinyl>128kbit-mp3>Tape>64kbit-mp3>Warped Vinyl

As far as iTunes vs. Zune is concerned: Of course I choose neither ... the Napster Flat Rate is much better suited for people who want to listen to many different albums each month.


Ah but you forgot about FLAC! For those who don't know it's a lossless audio encoder, so you're virtually losing no quality from that of a CD! Only problem is an entire album takes up about 300 MB of space...

Also not just bitrates determine the quality of an MP3 file. In all honesty a 128 kbps rip mp3 encoded with Lame would equal about that of a 160 kbps encoded with iTunes. Other things such as bit depth and mode make a difference too. Also if it's a transcode the quality will be lessened greatly!


Edited by Fight Club - November 30 2007 at 00:22
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Points: 129 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2007 at 00:19
iTunes has a lot of modern prog, but hardly any older stuff
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Points: 21138 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 16 2007 at 03:07
Originally posted by explodingjosh explodingjosh wrote:

My opinion on formats of music that you pay for:

HDCD>DVD-Audio>SACD>CD>Vinyl>Tape>8 Track Tape>Sheet music>Warped Vinyl>AAC file=mp3 file

...to give you an idea of where I'm coming fromSmile


... the land of preconceptions?Wink

mp3 and other "lossy" formats come in many different qualities ... if you take mp3 256kbit for example, there have been many listening tests which showed that it was almost impossible to tell them apart from the real source (CD).

So this is how I see it:

SACD>DVD-Audio>CD>256kbit-mp3>Vinyl>128kbit-mp3>Tape>64kbit-mp3>Warped Vinyl

As far as iTunes vs. Zune is concerned: Of course I choose neither ... the Napster Flat Rate is much better suited for people who want to listen to many different albums each month.
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Points: 71 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 16 2007 at 02:01
I'm a Mac person, so I stick with iTunes. Let's face it, Mac is better in so many ways...but I digress ;). I'm impressed with the growing Insideout catalogue on iTunes--I'm discovering Flower Kings via the iTunes catalogue. I feel a bit better paying 10 bucks for a FK recording on iTunes then paying 20 bucks via Amazon.ca
"I'm not really spiritual, just religious."
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Ghandi 2 View Drop Down
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Points: 1494 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 16 2007 at 00:58
emusic and napster absolutely sexually assault both. Death to DRM!

Edited by Ghandi 2 - November 16 2007 at 00:58
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Points: 507 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2007 at 22:55
LOL
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puma View Drop Down
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Points: 484 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2007 at 21:02
Just buy CDs. They give you a chance to leave your damn house
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Points: 2779 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2007 at 20:10
iTunes doesn't have any KC or Zappa either. And they only have a few PT albums... and they don't have the full Close to the Edge album... and they screwed Dream Theater over. gah.
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Points: 507 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2007 at 19:12
My opinion on formats of music that you pay for:

HDCD>DVD-Audio>SACD>CD>Vinyl>Tape>8 Track Tape>Sheet music>Warped Vinyl>AAC file=mp3 file

...to give you an idea of where I'm coming fromSmile
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Points: 1049 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2007 at 19:04
  for a small code they charge too much which I won't pay. 
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Points: 507 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2007 at 18:34
Darn.... well I guess technically the same thing could be said about a CD..... but you get the actual tactile CD, booklet with lyrics/information and artwork, also.

Edited by explodingjosh - November 15 2007 at 18:35
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