[highflyinLS]

ok, im curious here. does anyone here have an mp3 player hooked up to their car? i have one, and i love the features of it. it can hold up to 150 cds worth of music at 128 kps, and i can find whatever i want to listen to in no time. now i've read articles saying there is "very little differece" between the quality of mp3s and the quality of cds. but i notice i huge differece, not just on this mp3 player but on almost all cds i burn from music i download(i know it's illegal). anybody else have an opinion on this?

 

[MorningZ]

in my ears, 192k sounds as good as CD quality.. 128 doesn't..

but its going to big time vary between person to person

 

[highflyinLS]

i think you're right, 128 definately doesn't but 192 is CLOSE. i'm just listening really closely right now, b/c i just got my mp3 player hooked up to my car. now i have to make a decision, do i accept the difference, slight as it may be and continue to get music for free, or do i buy cds.... hmmmmm.....

 

[Leo7677]

Yeah it all depends on what bitrate your mp3s are encoded at. Personally I use 320k (vbr) when I rip my music cds to mp3s - the files are a little larger but the sound quality does not degrade.

 

[cheezthis]

Ahh...now we're talking my field of study, sort of...

Most people cannot tell the difference from 160 on up. However, it really depends on what music you're listening to. You can normally hear the difference in such things as cymbals and what live sound recording engineers call "air" or space. You also might the notice freq. balance is not accurate; i.e., the lows and highs seem a bit more present than they were on the cd. A lot of it depends on which program was used to create the mp3 in the first place.

For me, I can only tell the difference between something above 192k when I compare it to the original version usually. Go with what sounds best to you.

 

[NeoSilverTeg]

MP3 ROCKS! I just bought a panasonic head unit and it rules. It's got the CD TEXT that displays everything from artist to title, album, folder name, file name, the frequencey and bit rate. You can hold like you said anywhere from 140 to 220 MP3's versus 15 or so on a regular CD. just be sure your mp3 are at least 160, but 192 is preferable.

by the way, it's a Panasonic CQ-DFX572U if you wanted to know my model. I got it for $300. Has more features like sub outs, full EQ, different displays, card remote.

 

[MorningZ]

just for the record.. "CD Text" is a cd-format thing, not an mp3 thing...

CD Text allows the record company or a person who makes there own music CD's to add track text to the CD

It takes a burner that can do it (Sony's, Teac's, HP, some others), software that can do it (Nero, CDRwin, Adaptec), and a CD player that can play it (Sony, Alpine, Panasonic, etc)

here's some info

 

[Shadowhunter]

I have over 50 gigs of mp3's and I havent bought a cd in around 6 years. Gotta love the internet and all of it's great piracy outlets.

 

[MorningZ]

lol, thats like me, except i have purchased 2 CD's just because i couldn't find them anywhere

i am looking at one of the two right now collecting dust because first thing i did was rip it, then reburn to audio CD complete with CD Text on it (i cannot live w/o this feature, lol)...

so my Ocean's 11 soundtrack just became a drink coaster

and 50 gigs in 6 years? thats it?? lol

 

[red69viper]

Hey not for nothing but a cd is recorded and played back at 1440 kps, so even 192 or 320 is not even close to cd quality. If you listen to the difference with a quality audio system, you can definielty tell the difference. But for a normal stock to low end car audio system there is virtually no difference. My suggestion is try to play at a minimum of 192kps though.

 

[kevinca]

I have a pretty good ear and I can rarely tell the difference when the CD is ripped at 192 or above. The guy that said that 320 is nowhere close does not understand that MP3 is an algorithm.

If that were applicable to MP3's then WMA files ripped at 64 would sound horrid, but they do not. MP3 is an algorithm that is optimized for those low bit rates. It is at the SAME quality as CDs at 320.

Also, make sure you turn Multi-pass on, and error correction on when you're ripping. It might take 5 minutes onger to rip a cd but you won't regret. Always rip using CBR also not VBR, b/c their are quite a few devices that will freak out a little by VBR ripped music.