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Mark Jay | 1 Jan 2005 07:16
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New Thread: Preferred Formats

All:

I was just wondering ... of those who read this list, what format / sample rate etc do you use and why? Speaking
for myself, I elected to rip everything to WAV as I use the ATs in fairly good home audio systems; I have a
separate drive to which I rip the content to MP3 at 192 (which I find to be a reasonable compromise between
fidelity and file size as well as manageable for portable devices). I elected WAV as ny de-facto standard
as I figured if I was going to archive my collection, given the affordability of drives (and getting more so
every year) I should stick with the best fidelity possible.

I only ask the question because I have read with some interest comments about the quality of the DACs in the AT
and I wonder how much of the grousing about them comes from playing back (heavily) compressed files and
expecting uncompressed results. I don't want to start a flame war...but to my ears...playing WAV files
using the on-board DACs is actually very good overall.

Just wondering...
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Michael Wagner | 1 Jan 2005 08:51
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Re: New Thread: Preferred Formats

At 01/01/2005 01:16 AM, you wrote:
>of those who read this list, what format / sample rate etc do you use and
>why?

MP3 320

Highest available MP3. Still good compression, good sound quality.

Michael

http://home.cogeco.ca/~michaelwagner/personal-page.htm
"All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die" Sheryl Crow
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P. Reid | 1 Jan 2005 10:26

Re: New Thread: Preferred Formats

MP3

320 VBR

Again highest possible...  I was tired of resampling. I had originally
sampled at 128 when HDD space was harder to come by.

Cheers for a safe, safe and happy 2005.
and prayers to those affected by the recent tragedy.
Philip
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Stan Abeln | 1 Jan 2005 16:57
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Re: New Thread: Preferred Formats

Mark Jay wrote:
>
> I was just wondering ... of those who read this list, what format / sample rate etc do you use and why?
Speaking for myself, I elected to rip everything to WAV as I use the ATs in fairly good home audio systems; I
have a separate drive to which I rip the content to MP3 at 192 (which I find to be a reasonable compromise
between fidelity and file size as well as manageable for portable devices). I elected WAV as ny de-facto
standard as I figured if I was going to archive my collection, given the affordability of drives (and
getting more so every year) I should stick with the best fidelity possible.
> I only ask the question because I have read with some interest comments about the quality of the DACs in the
AT and I wonder how much of the grousing about them comes from playing back (heavily) compressed files and
expecting uncompressed results. I don't want to start a flame war...but to my ears...playing WAV files
using the on-board DACs is actually very good overall.

format: MP3 for use with AudioTron,
         FLAC for backups.
sample rate: 44.1 KHz ;-)

Created using EAC and LAME --alt-preset standard (+/- 200 kbps).  Don't
use anything but EAC; if the rip isn't perfect, then bitrate doesn't
mean anything.

Also check out http://www.bestmp3guide.com/ and
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=28124.

Stan
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Kevin J. Brown | 1 Jan 2005 23:04
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Re: New Thread: Preferred Formats

Me too. MP3 320.  I used to rip at 160 when drive costs were higher, but
I'd say more than half my collection is at 320.

kjb

-----Original Message-----
From: Turtle Beach Audiotron User Forum
[mailto:AUDIOTRON <at> MAILLIST.VOYETRA.COM] On Behalf Of Michael Wagner
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 2:52 AM
To: AUDIOTRON <at> MAILLIST.VOYETRA.COM
Subject: Re: [AT] New Thread: Preferred Formats

At 01/01/2005 01:16 AM, you wrote:
>of those who read this list, what format / sample rate etc do you use
>and why?

MP3 320

Highest available MP3. Still good compression, good sound quality.

Michael

http://home.cogeco.ca/~michaelwagner/personal-page.htm
"All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die" Sheryl Crow
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Lester Mullert | 1 Jan 2005 23:15
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Re: New Thread: Preferred Formats

Mark-

I too debated over this.  In the end, I chose MP3s encoded at 192.  Like you
said, it's a middle of the road approach -- and in my mind -- you can't tell
the difference.  I've read thread after thread talking about this issue and
frankly, unless you've got super-sensitive hearing, one trully can't tell
the difference between the WAV and MP3 formats -- that's the naked-ear
bottom line.

Storgae will always be a problem -- no matter how cheap the storage becomes.
  I have a collection of over 40K songs -- imagine the tax on storage I
would have to pay if I encoded all of them on to WAV format!

Hope this helps.

Regards

Lester

>From: Stan Abeln <audiotron <at> XS4ALL.NL>
>Reply-To: Audiotron <at> MAILLIST.VOYETRA.COM
>To: AUDIOTRON <at> MAILLIST.VOYETRA.COM
>Subject: Re: [AT] New Thread: Preferred Formats
>Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 16:57:16 +0100
>
>Mark Jay wrote:
>>
>>I was just wondering ... of those who read this list, what format / sample
>>rate etc do you use and why? Speaking for myself, I elected to rip
>>everything to WAV as I use the ATs in fairly good home audio systems; I
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Lester Mullert | 1 Jan 2005 23:37
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New Thread: Front Panel Reset Button

I just finished taking the plunge and hacking the front panel of my AT to
exorcise it of the dreaded headphone plug and replace it with a "state of
the art" toggle switch that allows me to reset the AT without developing
carpel-tunnel by using the rear switch it comes with.

I realize this topic has been discussed in the past, however for someone
with marginal knowledge of electronics, I found this to be an EASY and
elemental hack any of us AT owners can do on a Saturday afternoon -- without
much knowledge.

I basically inserted an in-line toggle switch "on-off switch" on one of the
power feeds going from the rear switch to the main board.  Same concept as
the RESET switch on your PC.  I unscrewed the headphone jack and replaced it
with the new toggle switch -- fit like a glove.  Not knowing what would
happen if I unplugged the headphone cable all together, I chose to simply
use some electrical tape and fix it to the interior chassis -- AWAY from any
other power feeds -- hopefully eliminating some of that dreaded
line-feedback we've all encountered.

I searched far and wide on the Internet for a step-by-step walk thru, or
even pictures of what this hack would look like, to no avail.  If anyone
needs some more detail, I can slap some photos together and give you some
insight (parts and methods) of what I did.  It works like a charm -- more
importantly, I'm no longer bound to that darn switch in the back.

Regards,

Lester
(Continue reading)

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Peter G. Viscarola | 1 Jan 2005 23:39

Re: New Thread: Preferred Formats

> 
> I was just wondering ... of those who read this list, what 
> format / sample rate etc do you use and why?
>

MP3 via LAME present-insane (i.e. 320Kbps). Why? I say: "why not?" -- I
don't have super sensitive hearing (anymore) but CAN hear the difference
between 192Kbps and 320Kbps.  Lacking support for FLAC or some other
lossless scheme on ye olde a-t, I've wound-up happy at preset-insane...
Which is probably fitting.

P
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Lester Mullert | 2 Jan 2005 00:00
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Re: Open source firmware?

I'm with you Mike -- WMA's are crap -- and the whole lincense deal is crap
too.  I wind up purchaising my music online, burning it and ripping the cd's
back into my collection.  All to rid myself of the WMA licensing nightmare.

For crying out loud, I'm purchasing my music, the least they can do is let
me take it on my portable player without licensing hassles!

>From: Michael Wagner <michael <at> THEWAGNERS.CA>
>Reply-To: Audiotron <at> MAILLIST.VOYETRA.COM
>To: AUDIOTRON <at> MAILLIST.VOYETRA.COM
>Subject: Re: [AT] Open source firmware?
>Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 17:27:51 -0500
>
>At 31/12/2004 05:08 PM, you wrote:
>
>>fees paid to microsoft to allow them to use WMA in all its forms.
>
>I could live without WMA :-)
>
>Michael
>
>http://home.cogeco.ca/~michaelwagner/personal-page.htm
>"All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die" Sheryl Crow
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Kimmo Suominen | 2 Jan 2005 00:58
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Re: New Thread: Preferred Formats

> I was just wondering ... of those who read this list, what
> format / sample rate etc do you use and why?

192 kbps MP3, normalized per album:

    lame -k -h -ms -b192 --nogap
    normalize -b -a -12dbFS

Playback mostly using mserv to automatically select tracks, streamed
using IceS, mstream and icecast to the AT (as a private radio station
on Turtle Radio).

    http://www.mserv.org/
    http://kimmo.suominen.com/gwradio/#mstream
    http://www.icecast.org/ices.php
    http://www.icecast.org/

The streaming station is probably the most enojoyed application I've run
on my computers.  It is also remarkably stable -- it never needs any
tweaking.  All I need to do is press the preset key on the AT remote and
I'm listening to a non-stop mix of my favorite tunes.

Happy New Year!

Regards,
+ Kim
--
<A HREF="http://kimmo.suominen.com/">Kimmo Suominen</A>
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Gmane