Do Mp3's seem to be lesser quality that a store bought CD?

Question

I think they are stripped of their quality somehow I cant put a finger on it!

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

I am pretty sure that if something takes less space in memory that it is less in content! I really agree that mp3's stink as far as quality goes. I heard a classical song I know well in mp3 form and it sounds like 1/2 the orchestra is home sick or something!

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks! Interesting...

Answer 2

You are right the quality is reduced quite a bit, its just that most speakers and headphones don't really show it. I plugged my Ipod into a big soundsystem once and a medium quality mp3 sounded awful on it, the music was very flat and had little depth in the sound

The highest quality MP3 is actually about a third of the quality of the CD, its all down to the bit rate. MP3 can do a maximum of 320kbps while CD's are 900kbps or more.

if you want to keep the quality when ripping a CD use a lossless file type like FLAC, Apple lossless or WAV

That's one reason why i would rather buy the CD

Answer 3

It all depends on the quality (128, 256, 300, etc). If you want better sounding ones, then pay for the quality, most people get 128 because most people don't notice the difference, but I do.

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Answer 4

MP3 is a LOSSY compression scheme.
This means that to compress an audio file, MP3 encoder "throws away" part of audio information.
This explain why MP3 file appear as at lower quality...because they ARE at lower quality.
Anyway you have a number of options to improve them, if you have the original CD,encoding MP3 files to a higher quality level.
My advice is to use a good quality audio extraction software which lets you adjust MP3 encoder parameters (like FreeRIP http://www.freerip.com ) and set it to use Variable Bit Rate (VBR) compression mode.
VBR MP3 encoding is a technology that dynamically adjusts MP3 bitrate depending on the audio input complexity. This way the audio encoder would use a lower bitrate (=less quality) on silence or plain audio chunks, and a higher bitrate (=more quality) where audio input is more complex.

If you are not satisfied with this, the other option is to use FLAC. Flac is a lossless audio encoder: basically it compress audio input without throwing away information. Its compression rate is worse than MP3 one, but its quaily is the same of the input source. The drawback is that not all portable audio players can play FLAC encoded files.

Source(s):

http://www.audio-mp3-converter.com/faq/l…
http://www.freerip.com/frmmanual/tutoria…