A LAME encoded 128 cbr song will sound far better than the radio. However, it will also be clearly distinguishable from a lossless .wav file of the same song, so advertising it as "CD Quality" is nothing short of misleading.
I would think that Wal-Mart is selling WMA DRM, not MP3 format (the DRM can be easily stripped, by the way - JetAudio). M$ politics aside, WMA is a very good sounding codec. A ~64bit WMA VBR sounds just as good if not better than a MP3 128.. Although, WMA appears to produce more artifacts than I would like at higher bit rates. MP3Pro is DOA. It's not a format that has taken off and not worth investing in, imho. What frustrates me is *why* Wal-Mart would sell 128CBR. If they want to advertise "CD-Quality", move to 192VBR (not CBR) and rip the WMA file with 2-pass. At that point, most people cannot distinguish between it and a CD. Same goes for Ogg at a comparable rate and MP3 LAME Standard. And people might not like to hear this, but those three formats at those bit rates, if properly encoded, are indistinguable from each other to nearly every listener. I like Ogg, personally, but the problem is that Tremor, the Ogg decoder, is a terrible resource hog. While it and gapless playback have been integrated very nicerly in to Rio 20gb Karma (along with FLAC support), it will shave 2-3 hours off your battery life. The Xiph Foundation just don't appear to see Ogg on portable players as a priority. For the Wal-Marts of the world to rip at ~192VBR, it also doesn't cost them any more money to rip at this bit rate, with the exception of the extra bandwith cost. So, why stick with 128?? Paying 0.88 for a song is still very expensive, imho. Note: The Big 5 record companies are getting all the $, as the margins are very, very thin for these on-line retailers. Plus, they're not paying the distribution costs, manufacturing costs or having to pay a huge cut to the Bricks&Mortar. I don't know the numbers, but I'd guess they're making a killing on downloads, likely more than sellings CDs through B&MS's and are completely overcharging. What's new. In Canada, downloading has never been illegal and uploading seemed to get some protection a couple of weeks ago in a Federal court, although it's never technically been illegal here, either. So, maybe buying out of country might be a consideration. allofmp3.com is a Russian alternative (Russia is not signatory to the WTO TRIPPS agreements, so the Big Five don't have a legal leg to stand on, no matter what they say). That sites doesn't have DRM and allows you to pick your codec (WMA, MP3 LAME, Ogg, FLAC, you name it) and bit rate from their huge catalogue. R. On Friday 09 April 2004 7:56 am, Miark wrote: > Wal-Mart is selling songs at 88 cents a pop, which is a great > price, and advertising the songs as being "CD-quality". But when > I asked a rep, he said they're at 128 kbps. > > Is it me, or is that "CD quality" wording a total crock of > Shiite? I've used ogg for so long, I dunno how good the MP3Pro > format sounds. But last I listened, a 128 original MP3 sounded > much worse than even a good radio. Comments? > > Miark -- ~Rory
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