> >I also think it's a good idea to remind people this should all be
> >about enjoying music and not fidelity for its own sake.
>
> I completely agree with you.
Of course.. but, at least for me, part of what makes listening to music
enjoyable is hearing the subtle harmonics of real acoustic instruments,
played by real humans, in the natural reverb of a real studio. Audio
compression, unlike any other audio tradeoff (the quality of the amp,
speakers, speaker cables, etc..), tends to affect that "liveness" in a way
very difficult to describe, and for me, can definitely poorly impact my
listening experience. As such, I'd prefer to do some very careful listening
tests myself, get an idea of what the best approach is to compress my music
(whether with MP3 or MD), find something that I'm happy with, and then sit
back to enjoy the music without having to worry about it again. While I'm
normally very forgiving as to stereo setups, and am perfectly happy
listening to music on just about any decent headphones or speakers, there's
something about digital compression that really rubs me the wrong way if
it's not done right, and unfortunately for me, it really does hurt my
listening experience.
This is what I'm trying to figure out right now with MD.. Unfortunately, I
didn't do those blind listening tests this weekend, but thanks to Guy
Churchill's suggestions, I have a much better idea of how to do this. The
quality of one's headphones and speakers definitely makes a difference for
picking up subtle differences, though of course, one might argue that if
you're only ever going to listen though cheap "earbuds", then it doesn't
matter all that much what you do, right? Anyway, to maximize any possible
differences, I'm going to test both with my AKG K-301's through my Mackie
1202-VLZ Pro mixer (as Guy suggested the Sony headphone amp might not be the
greatest), as well as by connecting the Sony line outs directly to my
Klipsch THX-certified multimedia speakers (the best speakers I have in the
apartment). If I have time, I might also try doing some listening tests
with the Sharp, to see if the problem might lie more in the ATRAC DEcoder or
DAC than in the encoder.
I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks for your interest, and your fine
skeptical commentary. I agree that for 99% of people it won't make much
difference, and I'll admit I was a bit harsh in comparing MD to 128kbps MP3
with a bad encoder, though I'll say from some samples I've heard, the Sharp
still doesn't sound much different than 128kbps MP3 with a *good* encoder,
which is still lower than what I believe the Sony sounds like (though,
again, without blind listening tests, I'll accept the possibility that this
could just be in my head right now!).
-Jake
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