Quote:
Originally Posted by madcorgi
OK, help out with this question, which, I realize, will expose the true depth of my ignorance of matters audio. I have heard passing reference from audiophiles that iPods are lousy source devices for music. Why? Isn't digital digital?
My favorite source of true sound is my guitar, but alas, not everyone agrees.  |
Not all digital music is the same. Sound quality, as I understand it, depends on the digital sampling rate used in the compression of the music. Songs can be converted to AAC and MPEG3 in different levels of compression. The more a song is compressed, the lower the sampling rate, and the lesser quality of music.
Sounds travels in smooth waves. Digitizing unsmooths the wave. So instead of a smooth sine wave, music is translated into a bunch of flat plateaus that attempt to follow the smooth sine wave. (Think a bar graph with all the bars pushed together). The greater the sampling rate, (and the lower the compression), the smaller width these plateaus are, and thus, the digital 'wave' can follow the smooth wave more closely.
I recenbtly got an Apple TV, and wirelessly connect my iPad to it, which is connected to my Onkyo home system via TOSlink (digital fiber optic audio cable). I use Pandora internet radio a lot, and find it's near CD quailty sound is acceptable for the music I listen to (solo piano, some new age and classical, trance, lots of electronica music, and some rock) When I rip a CD to my iPad, I will turn up the sampling rate to near CD quzlity to get less 'drop outs' in the music, though my ears probably can't discern the difference.
While my Onkyo system is not a very high end system, I found that by balancing the sound through the 8 speakers (it is a 7.1 system), I can enjoy the quality of the sound without blasting the speakers. Quality should always preceed quantity (in this case, volume).
I also ran speakers to my kitchen, and my deck outside. Next up will be the bedrooms and garage.
-Z-man