4 ms·

this is roughly what the "Mastered for iTunes" badge means on iTunes downloads the mastering engineer has to be approved and there are some minimum dynamic ran

this is roughly what the "Mastered for iTunes" badge means on iTunes downloads the mastering engineer has to be approved and there are some minimum dynamic range standards also 24 bit (but not 192khz) master files have to be supplied reportedly some of the streaming services (Spotify, YouTube) are now applying some 'loudness normalisation' which will bring some of the bad loud masters into line (it won't restore their dynamic range but will make them similar loudness to other tracks) the loudness wars were never about what's good for listeners, but rather a competition for tracks to sound louder than other people's tracks when played consecutively on radio or in your music player

rplst8 9y ago
Mastering for "high fidelity" 24-bit audio on iTunes is an oxymoron. The compression algorithms used for AAC and MP3 are going to the worsen the sound quality in a manner that renders the extended dynamic range of 24-bit audio is useless.
- anentropic 9y ago
  even on mp3s where the bitrate is low enough to hear some compression artefacts you would still be able to perceive the difference in dynamic range and the iTunes files are 256 kbps AACs, you can't hear the compression remember that 'compression' in this context is data compression and not audio compression (which acts directly on the dynamic range of the source)
  - rplst8 9y ago
    > the iTunes files are 256 kbps AACs, you can't hear the compression I can most certainly hear the compression when compared with CD digital audio. I fully understand the difference between data compression and dynamic range (not audio) compression. What I'm saying is, lossy data compressed audio formats are already compromised enough to rule it out as a medium for audiophile use. Worrying about the dynamic range at that point is moot. It's going to be played on tiny, terrible sounding speakers.
    - tripzilch 9y ago
      > I can most certainly hear the compression when compared with CD digital audio. with 256kbps AAC, really? yeah MP3 is old and even at 320kbps it throws away everything above 18kHz (which I can't hear personally, but some people can). However AAC is newer and better and blows MP3 out of the water (so do OGG and OPUS, btw). We got a lot better at psychoacoustics since MP3 started out. I strongly doubt you could hear it in a proper A/B test.

rplst8 9y ago

Mastering for "high fidelity" 24-bit audio on iTunes is an oxymoron. The compression algorithms used for AAC and MP3 are going to the worsen the sound quality in a manner that renders the extended dynamic range of 24-bit audio is useless.

anentropic 9y ago
even on mp3s where the bitrate is low enough to hear some compression artefacts you would still be able to perceive the difference in dynamic range and the iTunes files are 256 kbps AACs, you can't hear the compression remember that 'compression' in this context is data compression and not audio compression (which acts directly on the dynamic range of the source)
- rplst8 9y ago
  > the iTunes files are 256 kbps AACs, you can't hear the compression I can most certainly hear the compression when compared with CD digital audio. I fully understand the difference between data compression and dynamic range (not audio) compression. What I'm saying is, lossy data compressed audio formats are already compromised enough to rule it out as a medium for audiophile use. Worrying about the dynamic range at that point is moot. It's going to be played on tiny, terrible sounding speakers.
  - tripzilch 9y ago
    > I can most certainly hear the compression when compared with CD digital audio. with 256kbps AAC, really? yeah MP3 is old and even at 320kbps it throws away everything above 18kHz (which I can't hear personally, but some people can). However AAC is newer and better and blows MP3 out of the water (so do OGG and OPUS, btw). We got a lot better at psychoacoustics since MP3 started out. I strongly doubt you could hear it in a proper A/B test.