Originally Posted by bigaudiofanat

So I want to shed some light on the different formats out today. The fact of the matter is that almost everyone downloads illegally "I personally do not". But people do not see what they are missing out when they do this. When you download a mp3 or wma file from the internet, not only is the quality very poor but has gotten poorer than from the previous time it was downloaded. Now for some people this is fine. These format mp3 and wma are compressed audio. Weather you rip a cd or download from the web. These formats take the highs and the lows of them song and compress them to the bit rate that you have selected. There are many other formats as well but none as popular as the ones listed. For those that use itunes and buy your songs you are still either getting 128 or 256kbps, so your still compressed.

The standard for most programs is 128kbps than it goes up from there. A normal uncompressed song is around 1035kbps. So what I am getting at is the more compression the worse your music sounds. Now a simple way to get better music is look for better compression rates such as a 320kbps as appose to the standard 128. This will allow the highs and the lows to become more lively. But the best way to avoid compressed music is to buy your cd's. Now a lot of you at this point are saying HA ya but that is tons of money. Well not true, you can get almost any cd from amazon used for around 3 bucks. After getting the cd weather it be from the internet the store or that good friend, the next step is to rip it uncompressed.

For itunes users it is pretty simple just go into your setting and go to the rip tab and select apple lossless. For windows media users go into setting and select Flac or uncompressed. For whatever you use for ripping cd's there should be a setting for uncompressed.

All and all this may not be for everyone, some people do not mind compressed music. Also for people that are happy for thee factory stereo they will still hear a difference just not as much as a aftermarket system. People that just use mp3's for there ipod threw ear buds might not notice the difference unless using a more expensive set of ear buds. All and all I hope this has opened your eyes to a new kind of music. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.