MP3 is now reducing CD sound quality

[rfunk]

Everyone who listens to MP3s knows (or should know) that MP3 is a lossy medium; in order to get a file that's only about 10% the size of the uncompressed music, some frequencies are thrown out based on how well the human ear hears them. You just don't get as good a sound from MP3 as from the source CD.

But wait! It turns out that the sound

Comments

[duriyah]

That is very depressing.

It does remind me, though: I saw a woman talking on a payphone yesterday, outside a convenience store on the wrong side of the tracks. It was a scene notable for its rarity.

[surakofb5]

This is, well, I'm not sure appalling is a strong enough word.

I have some music on MP3, but I still mostly listen to CDs. For pop music, it may be okay to edit down to MP3 quality, but when I'm listening to an orchestra piece, I want to hear every nuance of the music.

[rfunk]

I'm sure that orchestral music still gets the better-quality treatment, since it's less likely to be listened to via iPod anyway.

MP3 players tend not to quite know what to do with the file tags appropriate for orchestral music, even when the tags are there. They have enough trouble with some of the more esoteric tags suitable for pop music.

ogg vorbis

[rfunk]

The iPod doesn't support Ogg, nor do most other hardware players, so I doubt it's affecting production at all.
(For the same reason, I still don't use ogg. The players I have are more likely to support WMA than ogg.)