# Sound Quailty of iTunes



## Guest (Nov 2, 2007)

How does iTunes compare with CD??


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## Gustav (Aug 29, 2005)

why don't you try it yourself? Get Itunes, and go to the Itunes store, and sample some music, and make the comparison yourself.


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## Morigan (Oct 16, 2006)

I think iTunes uses higher bitrate than regular CDs...

EDIT: Upon verification, all the music I've bought from iTunes (recent albums) are 128 kbps, 44 kHz. That's exactly "CD quality".


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## Manuel (Feb 1, 2007)

Morigan said:


> I think iTunes uses higher bitrate than regular CDs...
> 
> EDIT: Upon verification, all the music I've bought from iTunes (recent albums) are 128 kbps, 44 kHz. That's exactly "CD quality".


That's below cd quality, actually. If the mp3 is below 320 kbps you will probably note the difference.


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

I'm not an audiophile, but isn't CD quality something like 1440 kbps, or am I confusing it with something else?


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## Rondo (Jul 11, 2007)

The music Ive downloaded from Amazon is 256 kbps, while that Ive bought from other online stores averages from 192 to 210 kbps. Most of my ripped music is also 192, while some that Ive had for a while are 56. 

Im not audiophile either, so I can't tell any audible difference between most of them.


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## Frasier (Mar 10, 2007)

CD is a little more complex than that. Without going into too much detail, each 16bit audio sample (per channel) gets converted into 2 x 14 bit codes. (8 to 14 modulation.) Because the CD has no physical groove, the 'groove' is kept by limiting the amount of zeros that can appear consecutively which means linear quantisation of the audio on CD isn't possible. So, per second you have 2 X 14 x 2 (for stereo) X 44,100 (sample rate) bits per second of audio, plus error correction and other stuff. 

However, either side of the encoding and decoding, for a standard CD, you'll get 44,100 x 32 bits, per sec. (2 channels) which is 1411.2 kb/sec. But like I say the actual bit rate coming off the CD is a bit higher. No compression is applied in the CD encoding/decoding.

Let's see if I can make the edited flag come up!


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## Morigan (Oct 16, 2006)

Actually I can't tell the difference when it's over 128 kbps. You got me there, I really don't care about this detail as long as it's not noticeable. I myself rip CDs at 192 kbps...

Does anyone here use lossless formats, like .ape or .flac? I think they're kind of... unpractical.


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## Manuel (Feb 1, 2007)

Morigan said:


> Actually I can't tell the difference when it's over 128 kbps.


You can excercise that. If you have solo violin cds and a hi-fi sound system compare the sound of the original cd and the 128kbps mp3. After a while, if not instantly, you will note they are not the same.
I suggest solo violin because the harmonics in the high register are usually hatcheted in the cd ripping process, but you can try any symphonic work coming from a DDD cd audio, or some piano works you know were recorded from a Steinway.

You also need to have a good sound system, for making this comparison through cheap pc speakers will only mean a waste of time.



> Does anyone here use lossless formats, like .ape or .flac? I think they're kind of... unpractical.


The lossless rips are heavy, that's true. But the gain in quality is inmense, and that's something I value a lot.

Mp3 removes "certain parts of sound that are outside the hearing range of most people". But I'm sure the definition of "most people" exclude classical music interpreters and fans, as we tend to develop much more our listening skills.


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## Gustav (Aug 29, 2005)

for a normal listeners, 192 above will be more than enough. I rip all my music at 320 mp3, just because mp3 are the easiest to manage digitally.


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## pianomusic (Nov 9, 2007)

I find that the iTunes downloads are 128k which is standard for most of the bought downloads. However, I once bought a recording at www.classical.com which also offered 192k that was good - I turned up the volume for Rite of Spring and it was really pretty good. So if it is a dense sound you should probably go for a higher bitrate than the iTunes system.


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