----- Original Message -----
> >Everything that I record on my Sharp831, using a digital optical
> >connection to my Marantz CD6000OSE from a good quality CD source
> >sounds NOTICEABLY fake with clearly audible compression artifacts.
> >Yes, the quality of MP3 -encoded audio can vary greatly ... but good
> >quality MP3 audio DOES sound better than everything I personally
> >record on my Sharp831.
>
> No offense Dave (seriously), but you either aren't using your 831
> correctly, or you're not doing any sort of scientific comparison (i.e.
> you're listening on different equipment and/or there are other factors
> affecting the sound). The highest quality MP3 still doesn't sound as good
> as a digital copy of an MD.
OK . Here's the test I did and it's inCREDibly simple
Granted it isn't particularly scientific, but that doesn't mean it should be
debunked instantly.
1. Put a blank MD in your Sharp831 recorder
2. Connect the optical digital IN on the 831 to the optical digital OUT of
the CD player
3. Put in a good CD with lots of dynamics, quiet bits, and high frequencies,
and if possible a little
background noise. Something recorded live rather than overproduced, so
something like A Minor Forest,
Do Make Say Think or Mogwai, rather than Future Sound Of London
4. Set to Rec-Pause and monitor to the audio coming out of the CD player
source
5. Record the track onto minidisc
6. Play the track back.
Which factors change? As far as I can see only:
1- Whether the audio is direct from the source CD or from the MD copy
2- Whether the 831 is postprocessing the MD audio differently than
Rec-Pause monitoring
I can rule out 2 because:
I did the same test on a friend's Aiwa player and the differences (whilst
still there) were less pronounced,
and then I played that MiniDisc on my 831 player and did a blind A/B/X test
to compare it with the one I recorded on my 831. Guess what? My 831 lost
every time.
The 831 adds a layer of sparkly, burbling high frequencies to quiet passages
and high frequencies .. in fact, if you record anything with a slight amount
of background noise onto the 831 the background noise just sounds crazy and
artificial like a load of bubbles bursting instead of dull white noise.
DON'T come back at me by saying 'You should get a better CD collection if
all the tracks have background hiss' because I'll just tell you where to go.
That's my CDs, and the 831 cannot encode them as well as a Aiwa model at
half the price, or a Sony deck, or ...
> NO!! YOU ARE WRONG! because what you state below is a subjective statement
that
> has no meaning in reality. If you hear digital artifacts so clearly with
the MD
> copy, something is wrong with your CD player or recorder. Sounds like a
it may
> be a bad ADC.
My CD player is fine, thankyou. No really. What, you actually think a CD
player uses an ADC between the audio source and the digital optical output?
Are you mad?
And hey, I get exactly the same results no matter what CD drive I use, or
whether I use the optical output on my SBLive Live Drive II, or if I use
conventional analogue in, or ... No, please believe me, I have tried SO MANY
different sources. What, they're all broken?
> >The quality of ATRAC compression can vary greatly. Both MP3 encoders
> >and ATRAC encoders have improved since their inception such that
> >almost any modern MP3-encoded file will sound better than a MiniDisc
> >recorded using a version of Atrac that is a couple of generations
> >old.
Larry said:
> I don't know that that is a fact! Comparing equal versions (same chipset
should product consistent results.)
Well duh. I was talking about *different* chipsets. I.e. Sharp ATRAC vs.
Sony ATRAC.
Dan said:
> MD's recorded on a Sharp MS-702 (two to three years old) still sound
> significantly better than the best MP3 encoding of today. You're welcome
> to come over to my place and do a scientific comparison ;-)
Can I? Do you live in the UK?
> Seriously, though, I'm currently reviewing a new PC receiver with USB and
> Digital connections. I've been comparing high-quality MP3s played on my
> computer with MDs of the same music played via analog-out (I don't
> currently have an MD player with digital out, so I can't test that).
I would be interested to see more details of this hardware.
I hope in your testing you didn't confuse 'high-quality MP3s' with
'high-bitrate MP3s'!
dave
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