Well, complicated answer. Ion, I don't beileve, is necessarily "junk" but it is low-end, to be sure. Headbanger was hitting close when he said that iTunes was "propriatary" and transforming everything to .m4a. Yes and no. Itunes gave up DMR (propriatary) as did most majors a few years back. Yes, still .m4a but not propriatary anymore. DMR is Digital Media Rights, btw. Likewise, Windows and THEIR format, .wma, had to follow suit or be snowed under by iTunes in selling music. No one uses DMR anymore is what I am trying to say. You can easily copy iTunes to WMA (Windows) in a few clicks.
Now then, the main point is more the comment I think (scratching my head) I made with regard to ripping to either format. Some are known as "lossy." They lose audio by compression. It cuts the highs and the lows (and some midrange). Thus, the "loss." They are trying to keep the bitrate low to keep the filesize small. However, it loses fidelity. No question. Look at the bitrates in which an MP3 is often released. 128? 256? Higher number the better but also the bigger file-size. Still, lower than the original.
I believe I mentioned it before but NO real trading sites accepts such "lossy" formats. There are strict rules against it and anything you upload will be banned if you choose to do so in "lossy" format. Again, look at Halford's site. He released his free music in various formats. MP3, AAC, and a few LOSSLESS formats (WMA now has one).
Hear no difference, good. What is your sound equipment, though? Play it on headphones or a two speaker / low-end system. Fine. Play it on a 6.1 (six speaker + 1 subwoofer) and I guarantee you'll hear a difference.
Not a rant against any lossy format and I hope it is not taken as such. If you are happy, you are happy. All that matters.You are NOT getting true fidelity if you can make sense of any of the above, though. [Show/Hide Quoted Message] (Quoting Message by Budred from Friday, May 14, 2010 4:56:35 AM)
Edited at: Friday, May 14, 2010 9:25:31 AM |
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