Am I the only one who thinks this PC world article is a load of crap?

[Philippine Mango]

: Poo;
This article has to do with the arguement between lossy and lossless audio formats...

"Before you read the results of our tests, bear one thing in mind: The quality of compressed music is very much dependent on how you play it back. A compressed file will sound considerably different when played through a high-end sound card and headphones (such as those we used in our tests) than it will through a portable MP3 player with a pair of cheap earpieces. We did not test any portable players; our primary goal was to test the quality of the compression formats, rather than the quality of hardware."

Then later on it turns out they're using....

"The files were played back on a Dell system with a Pentium III-600 CPU, 128MB of RAM, and a CreativeLabs Sound Blaster Live Platinum sound card and its optional Live Drive component using Cakewalk Sonar, which allowed the testers to listen to the files side by side and to switch between them at will. The testers listened to the sound clips through Sony MDR-7506 headphones connected to the Live Drive headphone socket."

C'mon give me a break, sure creative makes great sound cards but a SB live isn't exactly 'high end' and those crappy sony headphones are definately not either..

 

[uhohs]

sound blaster live platinum.... high-end for music playback... ahahaha. comedy.

the MDR-7506 is basically a v6 with gold connectors if i remember correctly. so those are decent for sub $100 closed headphones.

 

[AStar617]

That article is 5 1/2 years old.

 

[uhohs]

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

ohsnaps pwnt

 

[scott916]

I can definitely see your point, but anyone who would spend more than the cost of the 7506's on purpose would already know they could tell the difference. It's an article geared more towards the "average joe", not an avid head-fi.com reader.

 

[secretanchitman]

my onboard sound is just fine thank you...but my mp3s are all 320kbps though.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

so is the OP.

 

[SmoochyTX]

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

OP should have had enough sense to realize it was an older article. There are several obvious clues:

PIII system
no mention of the iTunes store (which opened April 2003)
no mention of the 320 bit rate

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: uhohs
sound blaster live platinum.... high-end for music playback... ahahaha. comedy.

the MDR-7506 is basically a v6 with gold connectors if i remember correctly. so those are decent for sub $100 closed headphones.

Yeah, those aren't bad headphones at all, OP must have assumed they were just because they have the Sony name.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: uhohs

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

ohsnaps pwnt

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

so is the OP.

:laugh:

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: SmoochyTX

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

OP should have had enough sense to realize it was an older article. There are several obvious clues:

PIII system
no mention of the iTunes store (which opened April 2003)
no mention of the 320 bit rate

Why does the age of the article matter? MP3 format is still used and its much older than the article so your point is moot. Either way, had they used better equipment, the divide would have been larger than what was pointed out..

 

[SmoochyTX]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango

Originally posted by: SmoochyTX

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

OP should have had enough sense to realize it was an older article. There are several obvious clues:

PIII system
no mention of the iTunes store (which opened April 2003)
no mention of the 320 bit rate

Why does the age of the article matter? MP3 format is still used and its much older than the article so your point is moot. Either way, had they used better equipment, the divide would have been larger than what was pointed out..

Are you really that dense???

 

[uhohs]

yes because so many high-end consumer sound cards were available in 2001.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: SmoochyTX

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango

Originally posted by: SmoochyTX

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

OP should have had enough sense to realize it was an older article. There are several obvious clues:

PIII system
no mention of the iTunes store (which opened April 2003)
no mention of the 320 bit rate

Why does the age of the article matter? MP3 format is still used and its much older than the article so your point is moot. Either way, had they used better equipment, the divide would have been larger than what was pointed out..

Are you really that dense???

If you saw his other posts you would come to the only obvious conclusion:

Yes. Yes he is.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

so is the OP.

Hahaha, omg that was funny.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

I nominate this thread for 2007 pwnage of the year.


edit:

Originally posted by: uhohs
yes because so many high-end consumer sound cards were available in 2001.

An SB Live Platinum was a high-end consumer sound card in 2001.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

I nominate this thread for 2007 pwnage of the year.

:thumbsup:

Self pwnage is usually the best.

 

[SmoochyTX]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
: Poo;
This article has to do with the arguement between lossy and lossless audio formats...

"Before you read the results of our tests, bear one thing in mind: The quality of compressed music is very much dependent on how you play it back. A compressed file will sound considerably different when played through a high-end sound card and headphones (such as those we used in our tests) than it will through a portable MP3 player with a pair of cheap earpieces. We did not test any portable players; our primary goal was to test the quality of the compression formats, rather than the quality of hardware."

Then later on it turns out they're using....

"The files were played back on a Dell system with a Pentium III-600 CPU, 128MB of RAM, and a CreativeLabs Sound Blaster Live Platinum sound card and its optional Live Drive component using Cakewalk Sonar, which allowed the testers to listen to the files side by side and to switch between them at will. The testers listened to the sound clips through Sony MDR-7506 headphones connected to the Live Drive headphone socket."

C'mon give me a break, sure creative makes great sound cards but a SB live isn't exactly 'high end' and those crappy sony headphones are definately not either..

In a quoting kinda mood. :music:

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

I nominate this thread for 2007 pwnage of the year.


edit:

Originally posted by: uhohs
yes because so many high-end consumer sound cards were available in 2001.

An SB Live Platinum was a high-end consumer sound card in 2001.

They didn't say consumer high end, they said high end, I'm pretty sure there are other audio hardware companies that produce sound cards much higher end than the SB Live... Anyways I was trying to emphasize the fact that they were using Sony Headphones more than anything else...

 

[Vic]

What's wrong with Sony headphones?

PC World is a magazine for consumers, not professionals, so I don't think anyone is going to mistake what they meant by high-end.

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango

Anyways I was trying to emphasize the fact that they were using Sony Headphones more than anything else...

Because it has the sony name on it, it's automatically crap, right? :roll:

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
: Poo;
This article has to do with the arguement between lossy and lossless audio formats...

"Before you read the results of our tests, bear one thing in mind: The quality of compressed music is very much dependent on how you play it back. A compressed file will sound considerably different when played through a high-end sound card and headphones (such as those we used in our tests) than it will through a portable MP3 player with a pair of cheap earpieces. We did not test any portable players; our primary goal was to test the quality of the compression formats, rather than the quality of hardware."

Then later on it turns out they're using....

"The files were played back on a Dell system with a Pentium III-600 CPU, 128MB of RAM, and a CreativeLabs Sound Blaster Live Platinum sound card and its optional Live Drive component using Cakewalk Sonar, which allowed the testers to listen to the files side by side and to switch between them at will. The testers listened to the sound clips through Sony MDR-7506 headphones connected to the Live Drive headphone socket."

C'mon give me a break, sure creative makes great sound cards but a SB live isn't exactly 'high end' and those crappy sony headphones are definately not either..

Some Creative SB cards are OK -- that one is not -- especially in the upsampling department (44.1 --> 48KHz). that definitely skewed the results.

 

[SmoochyTX]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango

Originally posted by: Vic
An SB Live Platinum was a high-end consumer sound card in 2001.

They didn't say consumer high end, they said high end, I'm pretty sure there are other audio hardware companies that produce sound cards much higher end than the SB Live... Anyways I was trying to emphasize the fact that they were using Sony Headphones more than anything else...

Why don't you go back in time then (October 2001) and suggest a better sound card and headphones for them then? LOL

And quoting from the article, "...our primary goal was to test the quality of the compression formats, rather than the quality of hardware."

 

[TecHNooB]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: AStar617
That article is 5 1/2 years old.

I nominate this thread for 2007 pwnage of the year.


edit:

Originally posted by: uhohs
yes because so many high-end consumer sound cards were available in 2001.

An SB Live Platinum was a high-end consumer sound card in 2001.

They didn't say consumer high end, they said high end, I'm pretty sure there are other audio hardware companies that produce sound cards much higher end than the SB Live... Anyways I was trying to emphasize the fact that they were using Sony Headphones more than anything else...

The article was written in 2001.. that was before all the Sony hate.