Do you Rip, mix ,burn?

[Dark Jaguar]

Dmiller, though admittedly I don't really have all that many MP3s, and only lately do I even have a large number as only lately have I had reason to copy most of my CDs to my computer, I must say that I don't hear the slightest difference in quality that you seem to say is obvious. The software I've been using seems to copy the data flawlessly, and indeed, it's JUST data. If all the bits are perfectly copied, it's a physical impossibility for it being in wave form to reduce quality. The question now is if MP3 compression reduces quality. MP3 compression consists of two things. First, all sound outside the range of human hearing is deleted. Unless you are a dog or something you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between a music track before this alteration and one after, at all, ever. The next is simply file compression using an algorythm. I can say after using zip files for some time that compression is always capable of "shrinking" a file with NO data loss at all. Simply compress a large text file, decompress it, and scan for ANY differences (there will be none, unless there was an error, which is VERY rare), and you will see the truth of this. Since data is data, and what it's translated to (text, sound, video) is completely and fully irrelevent, I submit that on the level of scientific fact, your statement that there is a quality difference is completely false. The only time there is a quality difference is if someone messes with those quality options, and purposely records the CD data (it's pure data remember, it's not really seen as "sound") inaccuratly. The next question is if the data is "cleaner" read from CD than read from RAM or HD. The only reason CD is cleaner than tape is because tape is a very dirty medium, magnetically. It's easily corruptible, so cracks will appear. CD eliminates this. HDs today are far better data storage than tape. So is RAM. RAM is in fact the BEST medium for data storage, totally flawless data at all times. Reading from RAM is more error free than CD by FAR.

Fact is, MP3 has the potential to sound BETTER than from CD, though it doesn't because it's generally recorded FROM the CD and thus it's maximum quality will be (WILL be) that of the CD it's read from. Again, the only time an MP3 will be lower quality is if someone records it purposely set at a lower quality, or if some data read error occured and they failed to do a bit for bit comparison to assure accuracy.