MP3 Bad sound quality

viprjrgirl · Dec 5, 2007

Randoo-N-CJ said:
May I ask, are you saying your MP3 player did not have a volume control that you couldn't find or just that it didn't help any?

It did not help, then I went and adjusted the bass on the actual mp3 player, and that just made it worse. I also tried those pre set settings like "Classical" "pop" "rock" and anything else they had in there.

Randoo-N-CJ · Dec 5, 2007

viprjrgirl said:
It did not help, then I went and adjusted the bass on the actual mp3 player, and that just made it worse. I also tried those pre set settings like "Classical" "pop" "rock" and anything else they had in there.

Have you tried listening to those songs on a set of headphones and if you did, was it clear sounding to you?
You know your stereo (and speakers) is good because other music sources are clear.
If you know that the unit is good (after the headphones test) then I would say it's the settings *somewhere* that are causing the problem. (sorry, I don't buy the cable thing. Unless you can wiggle it and cause the problem to go in and out, I'd say the cable is ok.)
If your unit sounds goofy through the headphones then your MP3 player is the culprit.
If it's the settings, try to set everything as neutral as possible; no extra bass, mid-range or treble, and no boost from anywhere.

Oh...another test. Can you take your MP3 player to someones ELSE'S car and try it? That could tell you a LOT.
Good luck, ma'am. I hope ya find it!

Tony1911 · Dec 5, 2007

On encoding

Sorry to go off-topic a bit (as if that's ever stopped me! Hah!

), but just in case it comes handy to someone:

Personally, I rip everything at 320kbps. I know that the common wisdom claims that 192kbps is good enough, but I did a test - ripped the same song with both bitrates and listened to them one after the other - and there is a most definite loss of quality that at least I could hear. (Test setup was a Blaupunkt MP72 head unit and Infinity reference series loudspeakers in a Ford Puma.)

320kbps had an audible loss of quality compared to the original CD too, but without a subwoofer at least it seemed to be good enough that in a moving vehicle it hasn't bugged me. We'll see what happens once I get my Patriot with the BA system.

Anyways, I've always felt that storage space was cheap enough these days that I should sacrifice as little sound quality as possible. I'd rather have a little bit less music with better quality than a lot of stuff where I can't hear everything because of poor quality encoding. And with iPods and such that have 80GB hard drives, storage space becomes even less of an issue. (Personally, I don't even have 80GB of music files ripped from CD's or downloaded with permission.)

kidblue · Dec 5, 2007

Tony1911 said:
Sorry to go off-topic a bit (as if that's ever stopped me! Hah! ), but just in case it comes handy to someone:

Personally, I rip everything at 320kbps. I know that the common wisdom claims that 192kbps is good enough, but I did a test - ripped the same song with both bitrates and listened to them one after the other - and there is a most definite loss of quality that at least I could hear. (Test setup was a Blaupunkt MP72 head unit and Infinity reference series loudspeakers in a Ford Puma.)

Anyways, I've always felt that storage space was cheap enough these days that I should sacrifice as little sound quality as possible. I'd rather have a little bit less music with better quality than a lot of stuff where I can't hear everything because of poor quality encoding. And with iPods and such that have 80GB hard drives, storage space becomes even less of an issue. (Personally, I don't even have 80GB of music files ripped from CD's or downloaded with permission.)

ABSOLUTELY. People generally don't realize that the MP3 (or AAC for Apple users) is a COMPRESSED FORMAT. The nature of MP3 is to save space in exchange for quality. AIFF/WAV/Basic CD-quality is also a compressed format, so by encoding an MP3, you're basically compressing something that's already been compressed. It's a slippery slope indeed.

I recommend using a VBR (Variable Bite Rate) regardless of whether you like to use a higher or lower general bit rate. It will use a basic "level" of bit rate and then go slightly higher or lower as the music quality dictates. The VBR can take the edge off some tracks and really improve others and most encoding software (iTunes, WinAMP) are smart enough to figure out the difference.

As for going as high as 320kbps - With such huge file sizes, why not just go all-out and use a loss-less format like AIFF, OGG or FLAC?

Belveder · Dec 5, 2007

Tony1911 said:
Sorry to go off-topic a bit (as if that's ever stopped me! Hah! ), but just in case it comes handy to someone:

Personally, I rip everything at 320kbps. I know that the common wisdom claims that 192kbps is good enough, but I did a test - ripped the same song with both bitrates and listened to them one after the other - and there is a most definite loss of quality that at least I could hear. (Test setup was a Blaupunkt MP72 head unit and Infinity reference series loudspeakers in a Ford Puma.)

320kbps had an audible loss of quality compared to the original CD too, but without a subwoofer at least it seemed to be good enough that in a moving vehicle it hasn't bugged me. We'll see what happens once I get my Patriot with the BA system.

Anyways, I've always felt that storage space was cheap enough these days that I should sacrifice as little sound quality as possible. I'd rather have a little bit less music with better quality than a lot of stuff where I can't hear everything because of poor quality encoding. And with iPods and such that have 80GB hard drives, storage space becomes even less of an issue. (Personally, I don't even have 80GB of music files ripped from CD's or downloaded with permission.)

I have to admitt that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 192 bitrate MP3 and the original CD track.Maybe if I listened to it on a very high end audio equipment.I have talked to some DJs and they play lots of MP3 and they say it would be very difficult .

kidblue · Dec 6, 2007

Either way, that mediocre AUX jack saves everyone from the horrendous performance of FM transmitters. I'm in the middle of Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA and couldn't ever get a clear signal. Even when I've been out in the boondocks it's degraded everything to "radio quality".

Tony1911 · Dec 6, 2007

kidblue said:
As for going as high as 320kbps - With such huge file sizes, why not just go all-out and use a loss-less format like AIFF, OGG or FLAC?

"Huge"? Hardly. Like I said, storage space is cheap these days. Also, I was under the impression that Ogg Vorbis is a lossy compression format too? Just better at it than mp3.

As for the "why use mp3 at all", there is a very simple answer - compatibility. There aren't all that many head units and other devices that support the more exotic formats, compared to mp3. But hey, if you have a good idea on how to make a Patriot understand a better format than mp3, I'm all ears.

Belveder said:
I have to admitt that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 192 bitrate MP3 and the original CD track.Maybe if I listened to it on a very high end audio equipment.I have talked to some DJs and they play lots of MP3 and they say it would be very difficult .

In my experience it doesn't take a very high end equipment at all. As for the DJ's, well, that's quite a different environment. Sure, in a club it would be difficult to tell the difference. Lots of people, noise, PA audio instead of hardware designed to play music to just you... Quite a different situation than, say, sitting in a stopped car in a traffic jam.

cadavev · Dec 6, 2007

i have a cheap radio shack cable and my older 8gb nano and never have any issues the sound quality is very good.

Rends · Dec 6, 2007

Guess it´s either the cable or the mp3 player output level/signal quality

MP3 Bad sound quality

viprjrgirl

Randoo-N-CJ

Tony1911

kidblue

Belveder

kidblue

Tony1911

cadavev

Rends

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