My MP3 collection

Okay, I need to dispense with the title of this blog first. My MP3 collection is actually a WMA collection. This means that I will not be using an iPod, which doesn't bother me since I cannot afford one. Why did I choose WMA over MP3? It is my opinion that a 64k-bitrate WMA sounds nearly as fine as a 128k-bitrate MP3. This should surprise you if you knew my audio-phile tendencies and what I have written below. (On the other hand, the 64k MP3 sounded worse than FM radio, though.) So, in order to fit my entire collection in 1/2 the space, I have gone with a proprietary format. I am also betting that Microsoft is not going away.

It was a hard decision, because I could tell the difference, but I have almost 4,000 music files. Some day I may be re-ripping my CD collection. But those CDs aren't going anywhere. I guess it was a compromise that I am still surprised I was willing to deal with.

Lately I have considered ripping from my LPs. If I do, I will probably store the music in 128k on a backup, and then convert to WMA. If I get into my LP collection, I would double my easy listening capacity. (Yes, this is tempting to me, I am a lounge and easy listening aficionado.) I also don't feel like buying any Rolling Stones CDs because they sound great even on AM, or even 8-track tape! (Dude, they do not fill the audio space like Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd).

I have a nice phono preamp, and last weekend I brought my laptop down and put "Physical Graffiti" on my turntable. Plugging this into my laptop, I was amazed at the difference. I listened to my WMA file for "Trampled Under Foot," then I pushed the CD on for the full digital effect. Nothing compares to vinyl! Keep in mind that my turntable was plugged into a $50 preamp, and then into the line-in on my laptop, and finally my headphones. Immediately after setting that needle down, I was transported 20 years back, in my teenage years, with my ample record collection.

When I was in high school, I dreamed of high fidelity components. Who would have known that we would be ditching all that great sound for the convenience of CDs and MP3s. MP3s sound twice as good as FM, and CDs sound twice as good as MP3s. But vinyl sounds twice as good as CDs. (The way I imagine these comparisons is not exactly linear, I would offer that comparative increase in quality follows that of an audio-tapered potentiometer, and not a linear taper. If you don't understand this, then you probably don't understand a lot of my feelings here.)

At this stage, LP vinyl recordings are still superior. If you have difficulty with this, then I can surmise that you have suffered hearing loss, or are using cheap cables and cheap components (including the headphones or speakers). Unless you grew up with ubiquitous vinyl LPs, you may have never fully experienced this.

I remember the first time I heard digital-based audio. It was at a Sears-Roebuck store in Fair Oaks Mall. I was intrigued by these devices and got the nerve to ask for a demonstration. The CD was by Alan Parsons, and the sales attendant was embarrassed to demonstrate the audio capabilities. It sounded brash, tinny, and somewhat horrible. This was in the early 1980s, and I was thinking there was no way digital would ever catch on. Cassette tapes (an analog technology) sounded better. And it was no match for the LP.

However, D/A converters got better with increased technology. More importantly, the analog-to-digital process (studio side) got better as well. Most of the good recordings from the 1980s are being redistributed with "Remastered" status, and it is worth it to invest in those (unless you are at a pawn shop).

We are all compressing our music even further to fit on our MP3 players. Right now, quality suffers for the need for quantity. The best sound system that my music plays through is one of those $150 computer speaker sets that you hook up to the computer. (That is at work, lol!) Mostly, however, I am listening through $40 headphones, or an MP3 player. With a nice stereo system, you could tell that I degraded my music to a degree - however you would be hard pressed to find the difference in my general usage.

In short, hi-fi is near dead. I think this will change in the next 5-7 years, though. We are not limited to the data size of CDs anymore, and bandwidth is getting cheaper, faster, and more accessible each year. Imagine a digital system that slices an analog system ten (or 100) times finer than present CDs do. Even the stuffiest audiophile would have difficulty turning that down. In ten years, we will see a new discovery of what music is SUPPOSED to sound like and people will start buying their favorite recordings all over again.

I know I will.

--gh