burning mp3's to cda format sounds better?

[Security Guy]

My coworker thinks that when he burns his mp3s to cd audio format, it'll sound better in his car because there will be less processing involved to play the track. Is this true? He burns all his mp3s to cd audio format even though his factory head unit can play mp3s and it annoys me that he think his factory head unit and stereo system in his car will make any difference in sound quality anyway.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

No it won't.

 

[rocadelpunk]

now way transcoding anything lossy will just result in more information lost.

I'm probably talking out of my ass, but maybe he's doing something with equalizer/volume so everything sounds louder and for him it sounds better.

 

[biggestmuff]

Psychoacoustic effect. It sounds better to him, because he believes what he's doing is better.

 

[keeleysam]

It could, depending on DAC and decoders, but it's most likely a placebo effect.

 

[BradAtWork]

Haha, your friend is an idiot.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX
No it won't.

 

[George P Burdell]

You can't create something from nothing.

 

[davestar]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
It could, depending on DAC and decoders, but it's most likely a placebo effect.

:thumbsup:

 

[Pepsei]

let's put a number on the 'quality'. let's say that his mp3's have a sound quality of 8.
no matter how he converts it. he will never 'improve' the quality to more than 8.

however, depending on his players,

an mp3 disc may play with a quality of LESS than 8, while cd audio format can do better than mp3 but will not get better than 8.

 

[loup garou]

Well, it's definitely POSSIBLE it could if his head unit uses some ungodly terrible decoder compared to the computer he's using to create audio cds. I mean think about it, people debate about which dvd player software produces the best picture and audio, but your input is always the same, a regular old dvd. I think it is highly unlikely there is any noticeable difference whatsoever and the guy is just an idiot though, as most coworkers tend to be.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

The only difference between an audio CD and an MP3 is that an MP3 has to be decompressed into PCM data by the codec, then that PCM data is streamed to the DAC in the soundcard for conversion to analogue signals, then those signals are passed through analogue amplification circuits. In an audio CD information is already put onto the disc as decompressed PCM data, IIRC (.cda is just a container, right?). If you streamed the PCM data after the mp3 codec decompression stage true and optical link into the CD player's optical-in (thus using it's DAC and analogue circuits), it'll sound exactly the same, save for jitter within the PC/mp3 player and optical connections, which I don't believe affects sound. Not for me anyway.