The Old Git Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Having studied this site for some weeks I have just registered, and I'm pleased to become a member of such a worthy movement! I've been HiFi mad for 50 years and am just getting into the world of d/a conversion having just bought a DACmagic to enable better quality USB replay of my iTunes library. (Sony Vaio/DACmagic/Arcam bi-amp of KEF Q7's)As a result I have been busy rebuilding my library in flac format. The question I bring to all you audiophile sages is:- Is Mp3HD any good? I've read that it is a 'lossless' format, which will enable space saving (approx 50%) on my hard drive. I understand that audio quality is equivalent to a CD (eg: exact copy) Your comments would be greatly appreciated.... Link to comment
Teresa Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 I would stick with FLAC or Apple Lossless for lossless compressed formats since MP3HD has very little support. It came out two years ago and is a hybrid format, regular MP3 lossy plus MP3 lossless in a single file. Your computer or portable device has to be "MP3HD" compatible to play the lossless part otherwise it plays the MP3 lossy. Very few devices play MP3HD, and quite frankly except for very old portable players which only did MP3 it is unnecessary as modern portables usually play WAV, AIFF and one of the lossless compressed formats and most now also at resolutions up to 24 bit 48kHz. In short there is no need for a hybrid format such as MP3HD as there is no longer a need for MP3 to exist at all, especially the lossy version. All of my music files are in Apple Lossless which my iPod plays perfectly and for music files higher than 24/48 I use XLT to convert them to 24/48. More on MP3HD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3HD I have dementia. I save all my posts in a text file I call Forums. I do a search in that file to find out what I said or did in the past. I still love music. Teresa Link to comment
blaine78 Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 seeing as you have a PC, stick with FLAC, but if you only intend to use itunes, then ALAC as itunes doesn't support FLAC. FLAC/ALAC is lossless (exact copy) like MP3HD, but with much wider support. in fact, you could say MP3HD is dead. Roon | Metrum Acoustics Ambre Streamer & Onyx NOS DAC | Nakamichi BX-300 | Technics SL-1210GAE & Ortofon 2M Black | Yamaha T-7 McIntosh MA352 | JBL L82 Classic | Inakustik Interconnects & Speaker Cabling | IsoTek Power Management Link to comment
The Old Git Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 Many thanks for the advice Teresa/Blaine. Will follow the ALAC route as quite a few files are already of that type. Happy listening Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now