Perfect Sound Quality

[BEDROCK]

What would you class as the perfect and most accurate sound possible to the original recordings in terms of music.

I have been going nuts lately trying to get the best from my laptop audio and have been playing about with speaker enhancements and sample rates and even the equaliser settings in Windows Media Player, some albums sound great while others sound muddled and harsh.

It is always impossible to get a good even sound without sacrificing detail in certain areas.

The type of music I am listening to are trance compilation albums so a natural yet vibrant sound is what am aiming for.

I want as flat frequency response as possible while having good tight solid bass but the midrange has to be prominent so I can hear the synths and vocals without the treble sounding too trash and dominating things, some albums are bass heavy while others sound naturally tinny, I try to get the same sound on every single album but everything is different there is no way you can do it.

I have my Dell Inspiron 1545 Laptop on the same desk as my M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 speakers which are connected via the 3.5 headphone jack.

 

[stevebrock]

For what You Dream of......... Bangin tune

On a serious note your trance compilations won't the best mastered/engineered..... Probably cut straight from the vinyl not the masters!

maybe try a turntable or an external DAC between your laptop and speakers... Presume they are active?

how has you music been ripped? FLAC or mp3

 

[BenLaw]

Using the headphone jack does not sound like a good plan. What is your budget?

 

[BEDROCK]

Well, my music is all ripped via Windows Media Player to MP3 256 as these are the same files I use on my device.

Not got a lot of money to spend on improvements just finding that most albums are mastered better than others.

Maybe my ears are just tuned to certain frequencies and pick out sounds or lose certain sounds especially in the mid range.

 

[michael hoy]

Well, my music is all ripped via Windows Media Player to MP3 256 as these are the same files I use on my device.

Not got a lot of money to spend on improvements just finding that most albums are mastered better than others.

Maybe my ears are just tuned to certain frequencies and pick out sounds or lose certain sounds especially in the mid range.

Not the best format to rip files to imho.

 

[stevebrock]

Try re ripping to FLAC - I'm not disrespecting your music tastes (I actually like orbital prodigy etc) but trance won't be the most well produced - it's made for those full moon parties on Goa Beach do your never going to get what your looking for!

 

[BEDROCK]

Yes well I would re-rip but find Windows Media Player does the best job at media management and syncing to my device, even though the sound qyality is not always best, it is a welcome sacrifice.

I have decided to stop messing with all the enhancements and let my speakers do the work, I have also turned off the EQ in WMP as I want the cleanest of sounds, even though some albums sound better than others.

 

[gregvet]

I think what the others are trying to say, is that there are quite a few possible reasons why you may not be hearing your tunes as well as you could be.

In no particular order, I would consider the following as areas where you could easily see improvements.

Re rip in flac, wav, or alac (windows media player should still handle some of these options I am sure). You only need to do this with a few CDs, but then you can see if you hear a difference (you could even do an ABX test if that turns you on ). Certainly on my system lossless files sound better than lower resolution mp3's.

Get an external DAC, as currently you are using the DAC in your computers sound card and the headphone socket, neither of which are generally best quality. An external dac moves the conversion into a less 'noisy' environment, and would IMO probably give the biggest improvement.

You could also consider trying different speakers, or moving them further from the wall (reflections from the walls can muddy the bass, for eg). Infact, if the speakers are currently on your desk, getting some cheap second hand stands would probably make a big difference. Worth a punt (if they make no difference, sell the, for what you bought them for )

 

[Overdose]

What is your budget please?

 

[atticus]

I think you are now hearing the inconsistencies in quality between different recordings. A well recorded piece, sat next to a poorer piece will accentuate the audible differences. I had an HRT 2 streamer and this gave me good quality into my previous hifi setup.

I think you need to find a good sample rate (320 would be my choice in WMP) and stick to it. Don't worry too much about the quality discrepancies (although you could email the producer concerned and tell him to get his act together!)

 

[BEDROCK]

256 is the highest I can go to cram in all the music on my device while still having enough quality on big speakers.

It is a trade off I suppose and unless I can get a bigger device than my 16GB Walkman then it will have to stay 256.

I wish Sony would make bigger sizes than 16 GB.

 

[MeanandGreen]

The type of music I am listening to are trance compilation albums so a natural yet vibrant sound is what am aiming for.

Your music collection and natural sound don't go hand in hand unfortunately. This type of music varies in quality massively and you're never going to achieve perfect sound with every album.

You've turned the EQ off so that's a good start, what amplification do you use? The headphone output of your laptop is the worst connection you could make really. A separate DAC would be a wise move for you IMO.

 

[nopiano]

I fear your approach will never get near 'perfect'. It is bit like saying why don't my horse burgers taste like fillet steak? Answer, because they are not the same!

A low resolution copy will always lack something. I'd echo the suggestion of trying a DAC and headphones.

 

[Exoticsounds]

You should give Jriver MediaCenter a try, both for encoding your files and for playback. It usually gives a clear improvment over using Windows Media Player.

 

[pauln]

First off, why not rip twice, flac on your laptop and 256 on your Walkman?

Secondly, agree entirely about needing an external usb DAC rather than using headphone out.

Third, I have the same speakers as you in my kitchen hooked up to TV/Freeview radio. They are cheap consumer version of studio monitors with boomy bass, especially when close to a wall. They will never give you the sound you seem to be looking for.

 

[shafesk]

I think there are a few sacrifices you are going to have to make. The first is the bitrate, 256 kbps is simply not enough bandwith to be considered perfect. 320 kbps is a minimum for decent sound and higher gets better. Without reripping your music collection I wouldn't bother to add a dac to be honest, a better dac might just bring out more of the flaws of the mp3. Second, I don't mean to disrespect your choice of music genre but actually trying to hear how trance was meant to sound is something hard to justify...I would think they sound better on PA systems as that is how they are reproduced. What you need is something with oodles of bass possibly, something neutral in the midrange and a punchy treble. Then again that is my opinion. If you think you need to keep 256 kbps for your portable device then why not have 2 libraries or use something like media monkey just to manage your portable music collection? I hope this helps.

Regards,

Shafin

 

[fr0g]

I wouldn't worry about being at 256 Kbps. Few humans can tell 256 Kbps apart from a wav file.

It's entirely down to the mastering.

I would however for test purposes try ripping an album using the latest lame encoder. It's come on leaps and bounds and I am uncertain that WMP does the best job.

Grab a copy of EAC or CDex and the Lame plugin and test.

If you wish to ABX the 2 different rips, then download Foobar and the ABX comparitor plugin.

But as has already been mentioned, the quality of the 3.5mm headphone sockets on PCs varies wildly too.

 

[BEDROCK]

When I re-rip my music I will try a different ripping software and opt for the best VBR setting, that way I should be getting the best MP3s.

Then hopefully rip to Single-File FLAC and play those through VLC or something similar as Windows Media Player will not play FLAC.

 

[Big Chris]

Using the headphone jack does not sound like a good plan.

I'm with Ben. The headphone jack on my Dell sounds appalling. Buy a DAC.

 

[BigH]

Maybe a Filo E7 for £69 would be the answer.

 

[the record spot]

256kbps is absolutely fine for playback. You'll get a lot of advice about how nothing less than 320kbps will do. I ripped a load of CDs across to an external hard drive a couple of years back, a mix of 128, 192, 320 and WAV. I was amazed some months later, long after I'd copied the discs that the 128kbps ones sounded great through the stereo. Couldn't tell the 192 files apart form the WAV ones and these were on albums that had great mastering jobs done on them.

And therein lies your answer. Get good masterings of the music you like and you're done. a great mastering on 128kbps will comfortably outperform a duff one at hi-res.

 

[BEDROCK]

When you are listening to music, should you be able to hear every single quiet sound on the track or are things just designed like that, and should there be lots of bass action in the sound or will boosting sounds via effects and EQ improve the sound at all.

When I have every single effect and EQ disabled the sound is fine but find it is lacking some guts in certain areas especially where the rumbles and synths are.