Car owners guide to: Car Audio > MP3 & Ipods
 MPEG-1
Audio Layer 3 - or MP3 as it's more usually called - was dreamed
up by a team of European engineers as they were working on the DAB
digital radio project. It is a method of recording and storing audio
digitally in such a way that each music track takes up considerably
less memory space than when using other types of recording (or 'encoding')
techniques.
The result is that a lot more music can be stored on a CD or on
the memory chip or miniature hard-disk of an audio player, such
as Apple's famous iPod™ portable music player.
Lossy Audio Formats
MP3 is what is known as a 'lossy' compression format. Some of the
finer detail in the audio track is ignored and the remaining data
is encoded in a very efficient way so that the stored music retains
the essential parts that keep it sounding true-to-life, but it now
fits into a much smaller memory space.
While some clever psychoacoustic rules are applied to decide what
bits get ignored, it's unavoidable that MP3 (and other lossy compression
formats) will never quite match the audio quality of the original
sound recording.
Where maximising data memory is important (such as with small portable
devices), MP3 provides a good solution. But with a more revealing
playback system, such as a power amplifier and a good quality speaker
system instead of earphones, the limitation of the MP3 format becomes
more evident. This is especially true if you compare the sound with
the same music track played from a prerecorded CD.
Portable MP3 players have revolutionised the way we listen to our
music as we travel on trains, planes and buses, walk, jog and even
while we work. More and more people, having put perhaps their entire
music collection on to their MP3 player, are then tempted to hook
the player up to their home and in-car system. It has become a very
popular thing to do. But these are first and foremost convenience
devices where sound quality is sacrificed for portability.
In particular, sound quality at the extreme ends of the scale (sub
bass and highs) will be noticeably less impressive than from uncompressed
CD recordings. The sensation of air and space around the musical
instruments and singers' voices tends to be lost. It simply doesn't
feel quite so 'alive'.
For Convenience, not for Hi-Fi
MP3 is a portable music format not ideally suited to amplified
music reproduction, whether in the home or car. It is not a high-fidelity
audio format. Use it for convenience certainly, but when you really
want to get into your music and you know how it should sound live,
'lossy' audio formats such as MP3 should not be your first choice.
|
