for winamp ppl, what Preset you guys uses...

[andylawcc]

i am really confused with them, but this is the generalization I got:

if I rip .wav with the winamp's encoder, most songs will sound better with Pop or Live Preset,

while if I rip .wav wih AudioCatalyst's encoder, most songs will sound better with Rock Preset,

and its better to turn off Preset when playing with a CD...

 

[Jumpem]

Full base and treble.

 

[spamboy]

Totally flat, no EQ at all. When you run your sound card into your stereo with Bose Acoustimass speakers, no EQ is needed. They rock right out of the box!

 

[AncientPC]

I have an SB Live! + ACS 54 speakers and to me, it really depends on the genre of mp3 I'm playing. I mean, it all depends on what type of music you're playing, right? For some songs you want to emphasize the bass and treble, or maybe just the bass a little bit, etc . . .

 

[DaveJ]

Winamp has an EQ? I agree with Spamboy - totally flat with no EQ at all... Grado Labs SR60 headphones + Philips Acoustic Edge = pure bliss...

Dave

 

[andylawcc]

well, its kinda annoying to switch EQ song by song... with crap MP3.... EQ is like a must...
most .wav or CD can without EQ...

I have a pair of crap generic speakers, and Sennhesier 545... (my pride)

 

[bigbootydaddy]

full treble and bass

 

[polar]

Full bass

 

[geno]

EQs make all the difference IMO. Even great sounding headphones can benefit from a custom EQ. As much as the headphones bring out the sound, the EQ can give better definition. I have my EQ geared towards bass and treble, like most everyone else

 

[divinemartyr]

<< Totally flat, no EQ at all. When you run your sound card into your stereo with Bose Acoustimass speakers, no EQ is needed. They rock right out of the box! >>



No highs no lows, must be Bose! I can't remember the last time I heard something as thin and cold as Bose speakers. Sorry to rain on your parade spamboy, but I really think you'd change your opinion of these speakers if you'd auditioned B&amp;W speakers in your home, or something similar.

As far as winamp presets, anytime you use an EQ, you are attempting to equalize the sound levels to make it sound good, the problem is you also introduce another place for there to be distortion. The EQ in winamp is digital and will only make your music sound worse. If you really want to make winamp sound better, download the MAD Plugin for Winamp.

This will make your winamp sound a LOT better.

You also were talking about ripping wav files from CD. If you truly want cd-quality wav files with no degradation whatsoever use Extract Audio Copy (EAC) to make your files. Anything else has the possibility of introducing artifacts. If EAC doesn't work on your machine, you more than likely need to install an aspi layer. (This would be on win2k and NT systems most likely) You can grab ForceASPI v1.7 and ASPIchk from here.

Also some great recommended reading on properly encoding mp3's for archival quality files smaller than 192kbps, definitely read this page.

That page has some of the best info you'll find on the net regarding cd-quality mp3's. Once you are using decent speakers, the MAD plugin, and have cd-quality mp3's, you shouldn't have to use ANY equalization.

dm

 

[andylawcc]

oh... great info... thanks very much divine...

must whip out my BA 4800 now...

 

[prodigy]

Full treble &amp; bass, unless I'm listening to classical then I have it flat.

Sounds pretty good w/ my Promedias.

 

[divinemartyr]

andylawcc

If you truly do use some of the methods I've described, I guarantee without question, that you will be thoroughly impressed. Please let me know how it goes, I'm always curious as to people's reactions once they hear true QUALITY sound.

The BA4800's will definitely allow you to hear a lot of these differences.

dm

 

[loup garou]

Thanks for the info, divinemartyr, I'm trying out the MAD plugin now. Just a note, in order to get it to work, I had to move the in_mp3.dll out of Winamp's plugins directory (as noted in the MAD readme as an alternative). So far it sounds pretty good. Before, when using Winamp's EQ, I got distortion with most settings. With MAD, no distortion, but the playback is a bit lower. Nothing a turn of the volume knob doesn't fix though. Oh yeah, I'm using BA Digital Media Theater speaks and a cheapo Yamaha XG-based soundcard (soon to be replaced).

 

[divinemartyr]

<< Oh yeah, I'm using BA Digital Media Theater speaks and a cheapo Yamaha XG-based soundcard (soon to be replaced). >>



I own one of the Yamaha AW744 cards (the AW744Pro by AOpen) and it's an AWESOME card. Please don't replace your poor old yamaha with a SB Live! card. You'll only be doing yourself an injustice! Pick up one of the newer yamaha's like mine, a philips acoustic edge, or a turtle beach santa cruz!

You're welcome for the information. It's certainly helped me out and all I want to do is pass the information along. MAD's decoding is awesome. I also moved the in_mp3.dll file out of the plugin directory.

dm

 

[loup garou]

Really? hmm...I got mine for like 12 bucks from buy.com. It's also an AOpen. I forget which model. I bought it for another system, but I never got the card for my system, so I threw it in. I want to replace it, because as far as I can tell, its not very Win2k-friendly. Every once in awhile when I'm listening to mp3s or watching a vid or anything involving a sound, the sound will stop, then the last milliseconds of the sound will loop quickly. No lockups or anything, but I have to restart to get sound (other than the buzz of the looped sound). As far as I can tell it's the sound card, because when I replace it with my roomate's SBLive, I can't get it to fsck up.

 

[divinemartyr]

<< Really? hmm...I got mine for like 12 bucks from buy.com. It's also an AOpen. I forget which model. I bought it for another system, but I never got the card for my system, so I threw it in. I want to replace it, because as far as I can tell, its not very Win2k-friendly >>



Consider replacing it with the AOPen AW744 series of cards, my AW744 Pro was very Win2k compatible, I didn't even have to use the driver CD, win2k was able to recognize it right away. Even with Win98se I had to use the driver CD but I've recently upgraded to 2k. I couldn't be happier with this soundcard. Low signal-to-noise ratio, no annoying hiss like the SB Live! cards, and it's cheaper! I bought mine from ComputerGate as they have it for $25.95 plus shipping of about $7. Don't waste your extra money for the SB Live!, you'd only be buying an inferior product for more money.

dm

 

[TuffGuy]

full bass and treble

 

[BoberFett]

Rock