MP3ness??

[shooter]

Could someone explain to me what MP3ness means (and sounds like) when relating to compressed music files like WAV and Lossless.
Thanks.

 

[idc]

Can you give a context to MP3ness? It sounds like a descriptive for something that has the properties of compressed music files

 

[shooter]

In listening tests, we found sound quality was good, if limited somewhat by the inevitable on-the-fly lossy compression applied to the audio signal before it's transmitted to the Chordette Gem. Beware, therefore, that even pristine WAV or lossless files will carry some hint of 'MP3ness' to them.

This came from A well known PC mag reviewing the Gem.

I'm having problems with my own Gem and am trying to find out what the sibilance problems i have with it could be.

 

[professorhat]

So what it's saying is, even though the WAV and lossless files themselves are not compressed with a loss (i.e. lossless compression), the method of transmitting these files to the Gem involved lossy compression and as a result, sound quality was affected. In the same way sound quality is affected when you create an MP3 of something - it's affected because it's compressed with a loss of information.

 

[shooter]

Ok i understand that, but what am i listening for? I'm new to compressed music but so far unimpressed with results, will i get an 'edge' or sibilance on vocals with compressed music?

 

[idc]

It is not my experience that you get sibilance with vocals and compression. For example; I find Chris Martin's vocals sibilant on CD, Apple Lossless but not on Spotify with Vorbis compression.

My suggestions for causes are either your setup is bright and itself causes the sibilance or the original recording had sibilance which your setup is now revealing in all its glory. At the other end of the scale, how is the bass?

 

[shooter]

The bottom end is pretty well defined not stodgy or bloated. The set up its self is neutral with cd play back very good. With the gem hardwired its good but wireless via a2dp its poor.

 

[idc]

So the problem is with the wireless part, of which I cannot help, sorry. Your other descriptive suggets you have a system that is at least towards bright and is revealing, so vocals may well suffer. Another sign would be cymbols that tizz and merge into one continuous sound instead of a crisp ting or being able make out individual strikes.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you still getting the drop outs you mentioned in your original post? I'm not sure if you're saying the sound is poor quality with some noticeable loss of fidelity or if you just don't like the sound? However I wouldn't expect a huge night-and-day difference between USB and Bluetooth. To be honest, no one seems to know much about this device or about streaming music over Bluetooth. As I've already said I think you should contact Chord with these questions, I'm sure others here (myself included) would like to know the answers to the various questions you've asked about it.

Gareth

 

[shooter]

Ok, i don't have a definitive answer as yet ( i wish i did) these are my findings to date..

Cables.

No noticeable difference, but that could be down to similar cables used.

Used left on.

Slightly better when warm with a more organic sound.

Hard wired.

Good all round. No sibilance problems. An engaging listen.

Cd's via bluetooth (A2DP).

Good with some recording's but poor with others.

Internet radio and other broadcast's via bluetooth (A2DP)

Good all round. No sibilance problems. An engaging listen.

These finding's have me perplexed.

Hard wired listening to cd's, it's good. Internet radio via bluetooth it's good. Cd's via bluetooth poor at times.

Not really sure where to go with this. The ripping process (apple lossless) is good because the play back hard wired is good. Bluetooth (A2DP) is good because internet radio is good. So why not cd's. The Gem codec (apt-x) is the most technically advanced to date delivering around 350Kbit/s. The imac codec is inferior delivering 200kbit/s, could this be the problem? I doubt it.
The Gem cant upscale (if thats the correct wording) so it gets 200kbit/s and passes it on, but because internet radio is good i cant see why this would affect apple lossless play back. Maybe i'm missing something!

If i get any further i'll be in touch!

 

[shooter]

When i mention cd's i mean apple lossless files.

Sorry old habits die hard.

 

[shooter]

Ordered Chord iChord 3.5mm Minijack to 2 RCA last night. Will be off into the local Apple store over the next few days to get an Airport Express.
With a 300' range i shouldn't have any problems with sound quality deterioration as i do with the Gem and should be able to have the AE out of site as well as cabling. Most importantly will compare sound quality to see if i still have sibilance problems. I'll report back my findings.

 

[PJPro]

idc:
It is not my experience that you get sibilance with vocals and compression. For example; I find Chris Martin's vocals sibilant on CD, Apple Lossless but not on Spotify with Vorbis compression.

Perhaps he has a speech impediment?

 

[shooter]

Got the AE over the weekend and set it up last night.
No problems with it at all apart i had to set it up manually because of drop outs but it works well now.
No sibilant problems as before.
The Chord unfortunately was the weakest link, so will have to go back.
Sound quality wise it's not as good as the Chord but for occasional listening it's good enough, not a patch on cd or vinyl playback which is my preferred choice but i can live with it for being lazy