what is your best method for playing music
06-13-08, 11:00 PM
#16
At the risk of further thread hijacking, or diversion anyway, I wanted to clarify something. All lossless encodings are just that, lossless. The AIFF files on a CD, WAV, and compressed lossless formats such as FLAC or ALAC (Apple lossless) are essentially bit-for-bit identical (of course the compressed versions need to be expanded for that to be strictly true) and so are capable of sounding exactly the same. Differences then become a matter of what happens after the bits are read in terms of converting, amplification, etc. Lexofreak has a professional view that they all suck compared to what can be produced in the studio, and he's absolutely right. After all, it's a 20+ year-old format. Anybody got any 20 year old PC's around?
So, as far as what we can realistically get in our Lexi, the hierarchy of sound would be from best to worst:
DVD-Audio>CD>256kbit MP3>128kbit MP3
I would put iPod, even with ALAC encoding via lineout thru the AUX input, toward the right, certainly lower quality than a CD. Same for XM radio, FM radio, and iPod via an FM transmitter is off the chart to the right.
So, as far as what we can realistically get in our Lexi, the hierarchy of sound would be from best to worst:
DVD-Audio>CD>256kbit MP3>128kbit MP3
I would put iPod, even with ALAC encoding via lineout thru the AUX input, toward the right, certainly lower quality than a CD. Same for XM radio, FM radio, and iPod via an FM transmitter is off the chart to the right.
06-14-08, 12:29 AM
#17
Pole Position
Luxo's talked about this subject at length in the past, and having experimented with an Ipod a bit myself, I agree wholeheartedly. I've tried to port my Ipod through the ML system, and it's a waste of time - like scratching a blackboard with your nails. It doesn't do justice to the system one bit.
I use the Ipod on a small Teac table top radio - the one they sell at Costco, and it gives an OK sound. I've tried it in a rental car with a Belkin adapter, and it's fine as well. Where it falls down is when the RMS output is high, a sub-woofer is used or the sound reproduction equipment is of a reasonably high quality. And, that is what the ML system is, and it clearly reveals the flaws in an Ipod's recording quality. It is a toy after all...
If you LS has ML, leave your Ipod at home.
I use the Ipod on a small Teac table top radio - the one they sell at Costco, and it gives an OK sound. I've tried it in a rental car with a Belkin adapter, and it's fine as well. Where it falls down is when the RMS output is high, a sub-woofer is used or the sound reproduction equipment is of a reasonably high quality. And, that is what the ML system is, and it clearly reveals the flaws in an Ipod's recording quality. It is a toy after all...
If you LS has ML, leave your Ipod at home.
06-14-08, 12:37 PM
#18
^^ I couldn't have said it better 
Putting on terms we all can understand, listening to digital music (compressed or not) will never be equal to listening to the real thing which at its source is well... analog.
On a plus side note though, like LAMark noted, we're listening digital music which is 20 year old technology and I can only see great improvements ahead of us because as the resolution increases, so does the preceived "bass" and "treeble" and such - which for the masses is "quality".
Blu-ray disk and Super Audio CDs (SACD) can (and I hope will) become standards and we will look at regular CDs like we see vinyl records today.
Putting on terms we all can understand, listening to digital music (compressed or not) will never be equal to listening to the real thing which at its source is well... analog.
On a plus side note though, like LAMark noted, we're listening digital music which is 20 year old technology and I can only see great improvements ahead of us because as the resolution increases, so does the preceived "bass" and "treeble" and such - which for the masses is "quality".
Blu-ray disk and Super Audio CDs (SACD) can (and I hope will) become standards and we will look at regular CDs like we see vinyl records today.
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