[sad_old_man]

As a complete newbie I would like some help please (cats and other vermin excluded).

Bobbing around here on this cruise I attended get board and I have turned to music as a form of splice. I have a pair of Bose bluetooth headphones that I use with my pb and they also remind me of my beloved home in Flodira.

I have Neutron installed on my pb but the majority of my music is in mp3 format and from the snippets of information I have gleaned from other threads I am lead to believe that this is not the best for sound? I don't know so could anyone please explain:

A). What format is best for sound reproduction on the pb?
B). Is there an app that will convert my current mp3s to that format available for the pb?

Thank you in advance.

Regards from the little short arsed leprechaun commonly called a gnome, who temporarily is stranded in the med on a cruise with no help at all and in need of help with my music.

I think that covers it just about.

[glamrlama]

PlayBook plays .mp3 just fine. Never any issues.

.mp3 is a form of massive audio data compression and does an incredible job of balancing sound fidelity versus file size .

Is it the best audio format? No.

Is it widely used? Yes

I would never convert an .mp3 for any reason. You can play .flac on your PB as well but an .mp3 converted to .flac will not sound better.

[alphecca]

To expand on glamrlama's post: MP3 files have essentially already had information removed from them, compared to the original .WAV files. Thus, there would be no advantage to converting them to FLAC or any other format which is capable of storing more information. Your only option, if you have access to the original source (CDs, for instance), is to rip those to FLAC, for instance. If all you have are the MP3s, though, there's not much to be done...but Neutron will likely give you the best sound from those, at least.

[bambinoitaliano]

As a complete newbie I would like some help please (cats and other vermin excluded).

Bobbing around here on this cruise I attended get board and I have turned to music as a form of splice. I have a pair of Bose bluetooth headphones that I use with my pb and they also remind me of my beloved home in Flodira.

I have Neutron installed on my pb but the majority of my music is in mp3 format and from the snippets of information I have gleaned from other threads I am lead to believe that this is not the best for sound? I don't know so could anyone please explain:

A). What format is best for sound reproduction on the pb?
B). Is there an app that will convert my current mp3s to that format available for the pb?

Thank you in advance.

Regards from the little short arsed leprechaun commonly called a gnome, who temporarily is stranded in the med on a cruise with no help at all and in need of help with my music.

I think that covers it just about.

The gist of it.
FLAC uses up to six times the space of MP3, but the advantage to this is that more information is retained, leading to an audible boost in quality. Furthermore, FLAC is not just restricted to CD quality, and you can buy files up to 24-bit/192kHz for another potential boost in performance. As the previous poster said converting your mp3 files which is already a compress file will not improve the quality of the audio.

[sad_old_man]

Thank you for the quick reply (apart from the cat).

Could I just ask one more question as I know nothing about FLAC apart from you release it to hopefully distract missiles in flight, what is the difference between FLAC and WAVE?

[bambinoitaliano]

Thank you for the quick reply (apart from the cat).

Could I just ask one more question as I know nothing about FLAC apart from you release it to hopefully distract missiles in flight, what is the difference between FLAC and WAVE?

The advantage of FLAC files versus the CD format CDA or WAV is that they use much less space, typically around half.

[ChrisMay]

I know I'm a cat, and hence my opinions are not really required here, but I'm gonna give you em anyway...

If you want to sit in an acoustically balanced room (whatever one of those is) and absolutely MUST have 100% perfect music reproduction, then worry about messing about with lossless (or at least low loss) music formats, but if you are going to listen in the real world, and just need decent (as CD quality near enough) then just listen to your MP3s. IMO, you will not hear a huge difference in quality, and you will be able to store many times the number of music files on whatever device you choose to keep them on.

[sad_old_man]

The advantage of FLAC files versus the CD format CDA or WAV is that they use much less space, typically around half.

How do you know? Your a woman?

[bambinoitaliano]

How do you know? Your a woman?

I don't I just google!!

[bambinoitaliano]

I know I'm a cat, and hence my opinions are not really required here, but I'm gonna give you em anyway...

If you want to sit in an acoustically balanced room (whatever one of those is) and absolutely MUST have 100% perfect music reproduction, then worry about messing about with lossless (or at least low loss) music formats, but if you are going to listen in the real world, and just need decent (as CD quality near enough) then just listen to your MP3s. IMO, you will not hear a huge difference in quality, and you will be able to store many times the number of music files on whatever device you choose to keep them on.

What she's saying is unless you are a dog , squirrel or a bat, you can't tell the difference .
Here's one opinion:
FLAC is better than MP3 simply because it is lossless. Some peoples state that they don't hear any difference between FLAC and high bitrate MP3 files. It's true for most people who don't use professional music equipment. With any pair of decent headphones you can easily tell the difference between a 128kbps and FLAC. Between 320kbps MP3's and FLAC's, the difference is more subtle, but still very much existent, especially when it comes to a good number of instruments playing at the same time, and a 320kbps MP3 encode suddenly sounds "crowded". This difference is incredibly noticeable with metal songs that rely heavily on cymbals for example, where they are always washed away by other instruments in crappy encodes.
Just a few facts:

MP3 always work with 16bit audio, it not suitable for 24bit DVD audio
MP3 sampling rate limited by 48000Hz
MP3 doesn't support multichannel audio, only Mono/Stereo supported
MP3 is a proprietary codec and required license fee
FLAC takes up more hard drive space
My recommendations, listen to FLAC at the house and listen to mp3 on portables. Audio Converter Plus will help you to convert FLAC album to MP3. If you have decent audio equipment in your home, you can tell the difference between FLAC and 320bit MP3 or at least I can with my ears. MP3 seems to destroy the high end range of frequencies and makes instruments like cymbals sound washed out.

[sad_old_man]

I know I'm a cat, and hence my opinions are not really required here, but I'm gonna give you em anyway...

If you want to sit in an acoustically balanced room (whatever one of those is) and absolutely MUST have 100% perfect music reproduction, then worry about messing about with lossless (or at least low loss) music formats, but if you are going to listen in the real world, and just need decent (as CD quality near enough) then just listen to your MP3s. IMO, you will not hear a huge difference in quality, and you will be able to store many times the number of music files on whatever device you choose to keep them on.

Thank you for your help and indeed for even bothering to help at all I think? Anyway do not confuse my feelings for cats with my general dislike of that Italian woman cat that has continually harassed me since I was born.

For one you are clever is what you is and also handsome with those piercing blue eyes. (have I told you about your eyes before)? You are not at all like what that other flea bag is so thank you.

[bambinoitaliano]

Thank you for your help and indeed for even bothering to help at all I think? Anyway do not confuse my feelings for cats with my general dislike of that Italian woman cat that has continually harassed me since I was born.

For one you are clever is what you is and also handsome with those piercing blue eyes. (have I told you about your eyes before)? You are not at all like what that other flea bag is so thank you.

You are welcome! :P

[Carl Estes]

I have tried the various formats, and I have found the WMA Lossless works best for me. Yes, they are full size files, BUT everything is there, no compression, nothing "stripped" away. I have over 250/275 cd rips @ WMA Lossless on my "Media Server" Playbook connected to my Audio/Vid system, and I pump it thru the BT Gateway. As mentioned abouve, sometimes you can hear the difference on some artist/bands if there is ALOT of Dynamic Range in their recordings.

Works flawlessly, except every once in a while, maybe 1/2 times a month, I have to re-boot the Gateway, as the BT transmission gets coruptted and sounds a bit "tinny" (sp?). 5 seconds later, all is good with the world.

The BEST thing is not to compress the audio files..........IF you can afford the space.

2 64 GB units, Heh Heh.........
Oh yeah, the Neutron player is the best one out there!
C

[sad_old_man]

You are welcome! :P

It wasn't addressed to you flea bag it was addressed to the nice looking cat with the piercing blue eyes! You know the clever one! (you might have to Google that)

[bambinoitaliano]

It wasn't addressed to you flea bag it was addressed to the nice looking cat with the piercing blue eyes! You know the clever one! (you might have to Google that)

The clever one is the one who make use of the google search engine before asking question!!

[Kendall Oei]

Great information from you all! Thanx!

[sad_old_man]

The clever one is the one who make use of the google search engine before asking question!!

That's because I'm thick! What's your excuse?

[miss_morgana]

this format you silly man

[FF22]

I don't I just google!!

He probably can't use google - it probably would relay LOCATION Data to the wrong, ahem, people. I wonder if google street view is out there filming his course at this very moment.

[bambinoitaliano]

He probably can't use google - it probably would relay LOCATION Data to the wrong, ahem, people. I wonder if google street view is out there filming his course at this very moment.

I would not think that coming to crackberry is that safe either

[FF22]

I run through this debate regularly. I am not sure that my old ears would be able to detect the differences but storage space is not as much of a limiting factor as it use to be. But with video and lots of music my 64gig is quite full.

What RIPPER do you folks generally recommend?

[sad_old_man]

I would not think that coming to crackberry is that safe either

Not with you around!!!!!!!!! Is it not bedtime yet?

[bambinoitaliano]

I run through this debate regularly. I am not sure that my old ears would be able to detect the differences but storage space is not as much of a limiting factor as it use to be. But with video and lots of music my 64gig is quite full.

What RIPPER do you folks generally recommend?

That's like a thread on it's own when it comes to ripper.

[bambinoitaliano]

Not with you around!!!!!!!!! Is it not bedtime yet?

Okay. I'm out!!

[sad_old_man]

Okay. I'm out!!

Now we can get some sense around here!

So bigger is better but takes up more room. Smaller is worse but takes less room and I can't hear the difference anyway so?

I'm bobbing around here with only mp3s on my pb and no way of converting them which would be pointless anyway even if I could?

So the only thing I found out so far is that Neutron is the best player around which I already knew!

Mmmmmmmm, I think I'll go for photograph next?