[atlantaprog] quality of digital downloads

You can't really make blanket statements about mp3s sounding "crappy" without 
discussing encoding bitrate.  For sure, a 128 bit encoded mp3 sounds lame.  
Very swishy and undefined, but encoding at 256 or 320 is virtually 
indistinguishable from cd unless you have a high-end listening environemnt.

That being said, you can now download songs in LOSSLESS compressed format like 
FLAC.  

http://www.mindawn.com is a great example of a digital download service where 
you have the choice of downloading in FLAC.  That means, the song is identical 
to cd quality (imagine flac is like .zip format, compressed, but lossless).  
Additionally, Mindawn has a ton of progressive rock on it (probably the largest 
collection of indie progressive rock in the world).   

iTunes has also started offering dloads in lossless Apple format.  

So, fear not, audiophiles.  Digital downloading does not automatically mean 
poorer quality, unless you choose it to be.

Steve
www.littleatlas.com

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