Hooked Up The iPod Today. . .

[FalconEddy]

Playing all 320kbps 'lightly' encoded mp3 files I made last week from classical, smooth jazz, and new age albums. There's still some upper frequency info missing from them; but, at a ratio of 6.6:1 it's the highest quality straight mp3
encode available in SoundForge.

Listening on the Vintage Room system.

It's ok, but I miss not having a remote control to mute the iPod when calls come in, and the ability to skip and search from across the room.

. . Falcon

[bunty]

In my experience, the encoder used makes as much (or more) of a difference as the bitrate. The consensus seems to be that LAME is the best, especially using certain built-in settings. If you're interested, i recommend the forums over at hydrogenaudio.org. They take their audio compression - heresy around these parts - quite seriously and do blinded listening tests and all that.

As an aside, i don't think we should shun MP3 the way we do. If we want our hobby to be picked up by the next generation, they need to see that tubes are compatible with their technology.

[sorenj07]

MP3 is good but for a relatively minor change from 320kbps size, why not just use FLAC or APE?

[Negotiableterms]

Moving this thread to the iPod forum... unless I missed something and you've got the new tube iPod!

[Fisherdude]

All my iTunes/iPod music is ripped at 320 kbps AAC, and I really love it.

[FalconEddy]

MP3 is good but for a relatively minor change from 320kbps size, why not just use FLAC or APE?

Simple. Because FLAC and APE are not widely accepted 'industry standard' supported methods of encoding. ProTools, SoundForge, SADiE, Sonic Solutions do not currently support this type of encoding. There are far too many methods of encoding out there, with even more reasons/opinions why ABC is better than XYZ.

In my line of work it's always best to keep it simple for the masses.

. . Falcon