one of the old people (like myself) said: "I've tried re-downloading some of the bad songs, but alas, it's still distorted and makes it sound like my speakers are blown (they aren't.... YET). Any advice from you savvy audio techies?" Well, I can pretty much assure you that it's not yr soundcard. To confirm that, try playing a CD from yr cd-rom drive to see if it sounds distorted through yr speakers. As you said, you tried DL'ing the bad songs a second time and they still sounded the same, so that would indicate that it's the files themselves that are distorted. So now I will thrill you with my little speech about mp3's... There is a common misconception that an mp3 recorded at 128kbps is "near-CD quality." Well, it's about as near to CD quality as an old tape that's been sitting on the dashboard of yr car for a few months. To make an mp3 file smaller and therefore faster to download, the compression at 128 essentially cuts out the high end and the low end of the sound, omitting the bass and treble. Now for some songs you won't even notice all that much of a difference because songs with, say, acoustic guitar and voice only will not dip too far into the extreme high or low end. However, try listening to Stravinsky's Rites of Spring at 128, and you'll be missing half the orchestra. Therefore, the distorted digital sounds that you're hearing are the compression program's handiwork, trying to compensate for sounds outside of the aural range that is allowable at 128kbps. It's been noted that true CD quality sound is approximately 160kbps, although I've found 192 or 256 to be preferable in my own experience. This is why I have never ever used Napster. Sure, I might be missing some new music I've never heard before, but somehow new music is never in short supply for me, and I don't even rob college radio stations! So, long story short, it's not yr soundcard, it's probably the files themselves. The best way to find out is to play a CD through yr PC, and then download mp3's at different bitrates to determine if you can still hear the noises you've described. Good luck! these ears love clarity, *phiL* __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/
