Do MP3s add extra distortion to music?

[gplanet]

I've noticed in listening to MP3s...either downloaded off the internet usually 128-192kbps, or ripped myself to VBR 320 w/ LAME encoder...that there seems to be distortion added into the track at high and low frequencys. The kind of crackling distortion you hear when you have a blown speaker. It's really bad to listen to.

I'm listening on Sennheiser HD600s, and a Hercules Game Theater XP outputting to a homemade amplifier. I get the same distortion from the headphone output of the XP though but it isn't as apparant due to worse sound reproduction

 

[pulse8]

I've never heard anything of the sort from mp3s I've ripped myself.

 

[gplanet]

there was a whole batch of MP3s i ripped at 320 w/ LAME and some of those had it excessively...i could even hear it with my computer speakers at times. these have it the worst but a lot of MP3s from the 'net have it too.

 

[Insidious]

any method of compression is, by default removing information from the data stream.

so no, you aren't adding distortion, but you are taking pieces of the music away.

this sampled version is then re-created when you play it by filtering, which interpolates between
the sample points that were retained.

However, I think you might want to check your system out a bit. Usually, the loss of information is not
audible unless you are on a really slow sampling rate.

I rip to 160 kbps and don't hear anything wrong when I re-play. (bear in mind my speakers are not
terribly fancy and my ears are old)

 

[CubicZirconia]

Yeah, the distortion shouldn't be that bad. I wouldn't think mp3's should be noticably distorted at all if they are at a decent sampling rate.

 

[RudeBoie]

I notice it from time to time with mp3's but rarely.

 

[areohbe]

only distortion i really hear is either supposed to be there (love the hiss and pops from vinyl rips) or that airy sound you hear when the bitrate isn't high enough. anything over 160 is usually good to me

 

[erikiksaz]

You don't happen to use the MAD encoder, or any other resolution-altering program, right? if you do, you might want to check that it's set under 16bit, and not 8bit.

 

[DaiShan]

I started getting horrible distortion on my gtxp, really bad crackling, not clear at all, the bass sounded aweful, I un-installed my gtxp from device manager and rebooted and let windows find it again and reinstalled teh drivers, this fixed the problem.

 

[Hossenfeffer]

<< The kind of crackling distortion you hear when you have a blown speaker. It's really bad to listen to. >>

If you're encoding at 320 and hearing distortion, you're either extremely anal or something's up with your configuration software/hardware.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<< Yeah, the distortion shouldn't be that bad. I wouldn't think mp3's should be noticably distorted at all if they are at a decent sampling rate. >>


in general everyone encodes at 44khz, i dont think sampling rate is the issue.

 

[Insidious]

Nyquist says you must sample at twice the encoding rate with an IDEAL filter to prevent aliasing in the frequency domain
when re-constructing the signal. Real life filters are obviously not ideal and you should use a higher sampling rate. But in this
case, you are 4X plus so I agree, I don't think the problem is in your sampling rate either. Check your sound card installation.

 

[tweakmm]

it might be your soundcard


edit:
Hell, I'm almost sure it's your soundcard
try playing a CD on your comp and see how it sounds, it's probably gonna sound the same

 

[gplanet]

the distortion may be coming from the Game Theater XP then...since it only happens when the volume gets louder. But it also happens when I am not using the headphone output.

Does this mean that the Game Theater XP is amplifying the signal somewhat even if i am using an external amplifier (well, i guess it has to? what are line-outs? up to 1V, 600mW or something?)

I was thinking of going into the Game Theater XP soundcard or break-out box and upgrading it...I could do that as a project and make an article if it turns out well i know it uses cheap components

edit: also there would be no reason that i couldn't create my own improved breakout box. I'd just have to know what each pin on the input cable is for. it wouldn't be cheap though; computer components parts are expensive in low quantity. A SIMM slot on a motherboard is like $50 if you try to buy 1

 

[Insidious]

You are getting several pieces of advise recommending uninstalling your soundcard and software, boot without it
and then re-install it..........

any particular reason you are not trying this?

 

[gplanet]

because it's not that important to me to go into my minicube computer and take out the power supply and CD-ROM drive to take out a PCI card and then hope i can get the game theater working again in XP =)

it could also be a problem with the board itself. or the breakout box. maybe bad capacitor?

 

[Ultima]

Anytime you're gonna play on high quality equipment, I recommend you rip to OGG format and not MP3. Winamp can play them, too (with the Nullsoft Ogg plugin), and the quality is better at the same bitrate.

 

[SmirnoffIsTasty]

lol, maybe it's the HOME MADE receiver?

 

[DaLeroy]

<< because it's not that important to me to go into my minicube computer and take out the power supply and CD-ROM drive to take out a PCI card and then hope i can get the game theater working again in XP =)

it could also be a problem with the board itself. or the breakout box. maybe bad capacitor? >>



Just reinstall the drivers, without removing the card. It's not that hard!

 

[gplanet]

smirnoff didn't i say that it occurs with both the output of the game theater xp?

the "home made" headphone amp doesn't distort when connected to a cd player

 

[CocaCola5]

Its mainly because PCs memory is shared. In a ideal world, all sound cards would have its own buffer memory to hold a mp3.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

<< Anytime you're gonna play on high quality equipment, I recommend you rip to OGG format and not MP3. Winamp can play them, too (with the Nullsoft Ogg plugin), and the quality is better at the same bitrate. >>

Use Monkey's Audio if you are going to play on "high quality" 'quipment. It's totallly lossless it's averages a 2:1 compression rate though

 

[PliotronX]

What program are you using to play the files? Not all decoders are created equal (interesting info).

 

[BooneRebel]

<< because it's not that important to me to go into my minicube computer and take out the power supply and CD-ROM drive to take out a PCI card and then hope i can get the game theater working again in XP =)

it could also be a problem with the board itself. or the breakout box. maybe bad capacitor? >>

You're not willing to remove the power supply in order to pull the card, but you're all set to start soldering components onto the soundcard? Makes sense to me!