3 ms·

Those bad mp3 cymbals and the wash of noise... Higher bit rates (and probably improved encoders) help though.

• astrange 3y ago
  Cymbals in MP3 sound bad due to fundamental limitations of MP3; even high bitrates can't fix that. It's not a problem in any other codec though. You probably couldn't hear the difference in AAC or Opus.
  • musicale 3y ago
    Interesting - it's a persistent and annoying problem. I assumed that better bit rates would improve the issue but most compressed music I listen to is AAC where it may be better. Do you have a reference for the MP3 issue?
    • astrange 3y ago
      https://web.archive.org/web/20120222124415/http://www.mp3-tech.org/content/?Mp3%20Limitations https://web.archive.org/web/20120222124415/http://www.mp3-te... The highest frequency band doesn't have its own quantization level meaning it's hard to control the bitrate when there's detail in it.
• JohnFen 3y ago
  Higher bit rates do help some, but not enough.