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redhotdj

Its 5 O'clock somewhere
Mar 21, 2008
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Richfield Springs n.y.
question i ask of you all, i have heard and read that the higher the kbps the better the sound is. The reason i ask is i have transferred a song from a CD to my external hard drive and it was 125 kbps and when taken the same song from spotify its at 225 kbps and to me they sound the same. Is there a difference and do they sound better?
 
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To a point. There probably is a difference between 128K and current standards of 320Kbps .. but a lot depends on what you're playing it through. On a HiFi setup, you can probably hear the differences in many songs pretty easily. On a PA system, less so. Early CDs that I ripped to 128K (and worse at 64K), have been reripped to 320K (or wave - no compression) in all cases.
 
it seems odd and strange that i can get a better kbps from spotify than a store bought cd. Makes you ask if it has better sound then i should get them there then buying from a store
 
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it seems odd and strange that i can get a better kbps from spotify than a store bought cd. Makes you ask if it has better sound then i should get them there then buying from a store
No .. CD native is close to 1500Kbs.
 
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Additionally, several of the Spotify versions are not the same as the radio / album version. They could even be the same artist and the same song, different recording.
 
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Additionally, several of the Spotify versions are not the same as the radio / album version. They could even be the same artist and the same song, different recording.
I see that with a bunch of older recordings .. I guess it's one way for an artist to get a bigger piece of the pie .. but most are inferior to the original.
 
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question i ask of you all, i have heard and read that the higher the kbps the better the sound is. The reason i ask is i have transferred a song from a CD to my external hard drive and it was 125 kbps and when taken the same song from spotify its at 225 kbps and to me they sound the same. Is there a difference and do they sound better?

The simple reality is - No, you're not likely to detect any significant difference. If you could, MP3 would not be the distribution standard we have today. If something sounds "better" than it was probably encoded from better quality source material.

That being said, the nature of any given track has to be accounted for in the chosen bit rate because of the way the algorithm works. (Some software will analyze a track prior to selecting an optimum bit rate.) If file size and storage are a priority one pays greater attention to bit rates for certain types of recordings to avoid discernible loss at smaller file sizes. Using a higher bit rate eliminates this extra step at the expense of file size and storage capacity. Extremely high bit rates can tax software and devices. Lower bit rates require less processing power and enable many more and cheaper playback options.

Spotify bit rates probably balance fast retail exchange and quality of a user's experience against piracy concerns. The bit rate is quickly and easily distributed, suitable for personal use, but makes poor source material for certain unauthorized uses.

Professional touring consoles with USB and DAW capabilities typically play only .WAV files, not MP3. They have ample processing capability and are often feeding venue sound systems or studio reference monitors. Today's DJ systems are almost entirely MP3 based. It's just not useful when talking about bit rates or loss-less files to be comparing $30,000 consoles to $900-$2,000 DJ controllers.

If something doesn't sound right on your system - consider the source material and encoder first. Then, try a higher bit rate using a reliable high quality source.
 
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first the song sound very good to me i cant tell the difference from 125kbps to 320 they both sound the same
At 330K, you have 2-2.5x the number of signal samples per second. This is more of an issue with a signal with lots of dynamics (kick drum, cymbals, etc.) .. on a quality system, if you listen to them side by side, you'll normally hear the one with higher quantization (the 330K sampling) sound more natural. If you listen through a PA speaker, or to music that has a less complex signal, or through older ears, you might not be able to tell a difference, but there is one between 125K and 330K for many/most songs.
 
I think you can tell the difference if you are listening for it, side by side, especially with headphones

I don't believe anyone can hear it in a venue with ambient noise and notice a lower bit rate.
 
maybe i am just old school i have 2 laptops 1 is a backup, 5 external hard drives for the music and a keep music on cd's for a backup also. In the beginning when i went from cd's to computer i some how lost 6000 songs and at that time i had no back up i learned from that point on have backup
 
question i ask of you all, i have heard and read that the higher the kbps the better the sound is. The reason i ask is i have transferred a song from a CD to my external hard drive and it was 125 kbps and when taken the same song from spotify its at 225 kbps and to me they sound the same. Is there a difference and do they sound better?

I just want to make sure we clarify this.. when you transfer a file from a CD to a computer, you are ripping it. The settings and software you use to extract that file from the CD is what your destination file will be. So in this case, it sounds like your software was set up to rip your CDs at 125 versus a higher bitrate that could have been selected. It's not necessarily an indicator of the file quality on the original CD itself.
 
they may not be in separate locations but do have many external hard drives, when i do a show i always have 2 drives with me
Separate locations addresses COOP - Continuity Of Operations. Having all your backups in the same physical location will be disastrous in the event of a fire, flood or other.