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Goodyby mp3?


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I hadn't heard anything about this.  If mp3 is dead, what's next?

 

From AVSforums.com:


 

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Gizmodo reported yesterday that Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, developer of the MP3 audio data-compression system, has terminated the licensing program that allows companies to create MP3 encoders and decoders. This is probably not sad news for many audiophiles, who disdain the format’s lower audio quality compared with uncompressed CD quality. But there’s no doubt that MP3 fundamentally changed the face of music distribution, which makes it important in the history of our hobby.

 

As always, technology continues to improve, and MP3 has now been supplanted by better, more efficient codecs. According to a statement from Fraunhofer IIS, “Although there are more efficient audio codecs with advanced features available today, MP3 is still very popular amongst consumers. However, most state-of-the-art media services such as streaming or TV and radio broadcasting use modern ISO-MPEG codecs such as the AAC family or in the future MPEG-H. Those can deliver more features and a higher audio quality at much lower bitrates compared to MP3.”

 

http://www.avsforum.com/fraunhofer-iis-pulls-plug-mp3/

 

 

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This is big news since so many devices cater to mp3's.  Everyone has know for a long time that mp3's suffer in audio quality compared to FLAC or CD.  I have a feeling this format will not disappear over night.  I love playing mp3 files for guest because the ones I have are near lossless quality and most people can't tell if it is mp3 vs FLAC.  When the occasional person is right, they admit is was a lucky guess.   In truth, 99% of them are not pure mp3.  They are the ACC and VBR versions and are CD or studio quality files.  The nice thing about these type of files is that they deliver 99% of the quality as lossless and ues a 1/3 of the storage space.  I guess, we will have to stay tuned and see what comes out in the wash.

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Amazon and other hard copy music providers will have to sweeten the kicker of free download with purchase to a more suitable lossless format. Apple may have to get friendlier to other codecs as well.

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A friend on a different forum did an experiment a couple years ago where he sent out a CD to multiple people with 2 copies of 5 songs, one was Mp3 320 and the other FLAC. All songs were level matched and the CD was secured so no cheating. I didn't spend a lot of time scrutinizing the disc but honestly nothing jumped out at me as being obviously worse than the other, I was quite surprised actually.

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Of course then you get the types that say "oh, you can't hear the difference between 320 and FLAC? consider yourself one of the lucky ones". I've been a long time fan of the mp3s on my ipod for the sake of conveinence, although I did try to manage most of my files with 320. Due to running out of space on my 128gb Ipod and getting tired of carrying around that and my phone, I recently switched over to using Google play music. A free acount to upload up to 50K songs of your own choosing and as long as they have it in their library, it'll play it back at 320 for you (if it's not in their library, they use whatever bit rate your file is). I really liked Neil Young's Pono device idea (and his music for that matter), but I didn't jump on that train due to cost and not being able to justify the file format to storage capability ratio.

 

With capable internet speeds and memory (either hard drives or cloud based) being so cheap these days, do we need still need to compress or music file size or is it more capatibility issues at this point? Just don't forget to keep all your physical media stored in a cool....dry.... place :)

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10 minutes ago, haydukej said:

With capable internet speeds and memory (either hard drives or cloud based) being so cheap these days, do we need still need to compress or music size or is it more capatibility issues at this point? Just don't forget to keep all your physical media stored in a cool....dry.... place :)

I know with my system the high quality mp3's(ACC and VBR) are identical in quality to my FLAC files, otherwise I would not have them.  Even with the cheap TB hard drivers for storage, I would rather not not waste the hard drive space for something that I can't hear a difference in.  I do have upscaling up to 4X and for stereo playback 2 sabre 32 DAC's which does make a difference.  I don't pay much more for my Flac files than I do for the mp3's.  I no longer use HD tracks due to the price.  I am willing to pay on average $3 for a Flac album and $1.5 to 2.5 dollars for high quality mp3's.

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nothing really happens.  nothing will have to be trahed or converted, just no support or changes from the rights holders.  when has there been support or changes?  encoders, decoders and equipment will all continue to function as always.  this isnt really news...T

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On 5/16/2017 at 6:00 AM, jjptkd said:

A friend on a different forum did an experiment a couple years ago where he sent out a CD to multiple people with 2 copies of 5 songs, one was Mp3 320 and the other FLAC. All songs were level matched and the CD was secured so no cheating. I didn't spend a lot of time scrutinizing the disc but honestly nothing jumped out at me as being obviously worse than the other, I was quite surprised actually.

A local "medium end" audio store habitually would ask MP3 fans to bring in a favorite and compare it to a CD, SACD, DVD-A, if the store happened to have the same recording on one of those formats.  They played them back on a system that used Paradigm speakers, NAD electronics, OPPO disc player, and whatever MP3 front end the store had (I didn't notice).  The MP3 fans were often surprised at how much better the other formats sounded, particularly in the high frequencies.  This was in about 2010 -- 2011.

 

I remember in the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 manual of about 2003 there being a warning that MP3 files may not deliver as high a quality as other formats -- this in a very modest, inexpensive, but respectable, Medium Fi device!

 

 

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1 hour ago, garyrc said:

The MP3 fans were often surprised at how much better the other formats sounded, particularly in the high frequencies.  This was in about 2010 -- 2011.

 

I remember in the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 manual of about 2003 there being a warning that MP3 files may not deliver as high a quality as other formats -- this in a very modest, inexpensive, but respectable, Medium Fi device!

 

 

I just wonder what bit rate the Mp3's were-- When I first got an I-pod years ago and started collecting Mp3's most of my files were 128 and they seemed fine through my earbuds. Later on when I got serious with my home stereo set up I had to immediately delete all of those old 128 files as they were just awful. I've found that 256-320 are very close to regular CD quality, at least for casual listening.

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I'm in no way trying to defend Mp3's, just pointing out that there are different levels of quality in compression. I download most of my music and it seems like not too long ago it was hard to find FLAC files, almost everything was compressed. Today you can find almost anything in FLAC and as pointed out in above posts hard-drives have really come down in price making storage less of an issue. I'll just say that when searching for music FLAC is my first choice, if its not available 320 Mp3 works for me.

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7 minutes ago, jjptkd said:

I just wonder what bit rate the Mp3's were-- When I first got an I-pod years ago and started collecting Mp3's most of my files were 128 and they seemed fine through my earbuds. Later on when I got serious with my home stereo set up I had to immediately delete all of those old 128 files as they were just awful. I've found that 256-320 are very close to regular CD quality, at least for casual listening.

The history of mp3's even goes back to 64 bit rate.  When talking about mp3's, one has to know the quality of the files.  The 256 ACC and VBR files do very well with the Hi's.

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Not bad for a hack. Chopped up code of another. Never will forget my first experience with an mp3 and then the 4 days of downloading 4 songs on a dial up modem and another 2 before figuring out how to play them, of course widows 3.1 media player couldnt open it.  Then the 2 day downloading winamp pre1.0. "Wow," I thought. "I can fit 50 songs on this hard drive that's awesome!"

It was a definitive impact on our history, on our technology and was a deep impact on modern life allowing access to diverse music genre's quickly and easily. Yeah that sound quality is missing and is noticeable especially with high end audio equipment. I started to rip at higher bit rates but makes up for only 10-15% of my collection and thats not included the various hard disk failures. A majority if not all mainstream music is passed through digital filters, auto-tune and who knows what else is decreasing in frequency range anyway. Which in turn reducing the frequency range humans pick up. Is it because of mp3's, maybe a driver involved but not the only. It will be a long time before mp3's will go the way of the Dodo.

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On 5/17/2017 at 3:24 PM, jjptkd said:

I just wonder what bit rate the Mp3's were-- When I first got an I-pod years ago and started collecting Mp3's most of my files were 128 and they seemed fine through my earbuds. Later on when I got serious with my home stereo set up I had to immediately delete all of those old 128 files as they were just awful. I've found that 256-320 are very close to regular CD quality, at least for casual listening.

Some earbuds and some cheap headphones veil the details (high frequency roll off), and/or, through coloration, guild the lily.

 

256-320 may be very close to CD, but why create a format that is a step down, even if it is a tiny step?

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9 hours ago, garyrc said:

256-320 may be very close to CD, but why create a format that is a step down, even if it is a tiny step?

 

In this day and age with fast internet speeds and huge storage capacity, relatively cheap hard drives I see no reason except for use on maybe a mobile device like an I-pod or phone? If I had it my way all my files would be CD quality but last I checked (and its been a few years now since I built my library) not everything was available in FLAC.

  

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11 hours ago, garyrc said:

Some earbuds and some cheap headphones veil the details (high frequency roll off), and/or, through coloration, guild the lily.

 

my sony's are good to 100k... ( 4-100,000Hz )

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