The "sound" Of Mp3`s........

[thoriated]

Hi, Mikee12345 -

As a consumer storage format, in general I think 24 bit DVD audio with at least 88ks/s is at least competitive with most analog media on its stronger points, and ideally 32 bit dynamic range for professional applications, so that a few bits of lost resolution due to processing or non-optimized recording level won't automatically destroy SQ. A very robust 'perceptually encoded' format using the CD data rate should also be able to easily meet that consumer standard. Of course, there's a 20 year accumulation of shitty 16 bit 44.1 & 48 ks/s professional equipment that needs to be disposed of somehow and the average quality of audio a/d's & d/a's needs to improve several notches to fully take advantage of a 24 bit or better storage resolution.

[Wombat]

As i wrote some posts before the decoding is from some interest also.
I always used the lame integrated or the Nero fhg decoder because i never
was convinsed by the better performance of the Mad decoder.
These days i tried some and found "foobar2000" with dithered diskwriter-plugin
really a step in front!
I was surprised myself. With the headphones on the PC it is hard to tell which sounds
better but for sure different. foobar sounds brighter here in a way.
When listening on my system the difference is much more existing in a moment.
The dithered, decoded mp3 really is much clearer and more detailed.

Any other findings regarding this are welcome.

[MWP]

Foobar2000 is the best quality player around for most compressed formats at the moment.
Anyone not using it already should give it a go.