2U4U DMR-300 WMA Player Review

[Simon5]

This is for Christian Stavro or anyone else interested.
You made up a good article but you forgot to include important things.
First, which program did you use to encode your mp3s?
It should be one using the latest LAME codec.
If your encoding program is using a public Franhofer codec like BladeEnc then it sucks.
Second, the cut off isn’t at 15.8 KHz, the high frequency cut off is customizable with mp3.
At the end, I think many people prefer a codec without artefacts and clean like mp3.
The conclusion should be AAC better than MP3 and MP3 better than WMA.
WMA sucks, that’s simple.
Here’s a good link to a music forum with enthusiasts and audiophiles: <A HREF="http/www.3dsoundsurge.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/postlist.pl?Cat=&Board=Forum3" target="_new">http/www.3dsoundsurge.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/postlist.pl?Cat=&Board=Forum3</A>
Another link to get the latest LAME encoder: LAME version 3.92 MMX (<A HREF="http/www.mp3dev.org/" target="_new">http/www.mp3dev.org/</A>)
I consider the future to be OGG Vorbis... <A HREF="http/www.vorbis.com/" target="_new">http/www.vorbis.com/</A>
It's better than MP3 for sound quality at same file size.

Thanks,
Simon

 

[djand]

Yeah, this article seemed to be more of a test of a single mp3 encoding implementation and then relating that implementation to wma and AAC. Lame (like most mp3 encoders) defaults to the high pass filtering started with the Fraunhofer public code implementation. My Rio portable mp3/wma player enabled me to test both formats away from my noisy computer room and my lame encoded audio certainly sounds better than the wma files produced from the same wav source. I use the -q0 and -k switches to select 'highest quality' and 'keep all frequencies' with lame and it produces the best quality mp3 files from my CDs by far. Older junk like the Xing mp3 encoder can't compete with Lame.

But, the future for Ogg and AAC looks bright too.

 

[Simon5]

I agree...
Xing, BladeEnc and a whole lot more sucks because they use the old public Fraunhofer codec limited to 128 kbps and crippled with some bugs and artifacts. Good encoders use the latest LAME encoder. LAME even include presets to get the best quality like: --alt-preset standard, --alt-preset extreme and --alt preset insane.
I don't know much about AAC but it looks good.

 

[Simon5]

An article worth a read for everybody who's beginning to rip all his music collection :
A Newbie Guide to MP3s
<A HREF="http/www.3dss.com/features/articles/MP3/MP3.html" target="_new">http/www.3dss.com/features/articles/MP3/MP3.html</A>

 

[drfunk000]

The WMA/AAC/MP3 article was unbelievably incomplete. As mentioned by Simon 5, the algorithm used to encode MP3s makes all the difference in recording quality.

Secondly, Mr. Stavro failed to describe WHY AAC hasn't caught on... licensing on the technology is too expensive. Any software one does use to encode AAC audio is either 1) extremely expensive or 2) illegal.

Other than Microsoft, Mr. Stavro is the first person I have heard laud WMA as a superior audio encoding technology. Mr. Stavro notes that the frequency cut off is well in the audible range, yet immediately concludes that the sound is better?

Mr. Stavro did not do his research, and I am in disbelief that something of such poor depth would be posted here...

 

[Simon5]

Yeah I'm a bit disappointed too that such a bad review is on TomsHardware. The review of the MP3 player is acceptable, but the author should have left compression codecs for someone else. Nobody else than Microsoft likes WMA. Nobody else than Dolby likes AAC. Nobody else than RealNetworks likes RealAudio 8. Conclusion : Every big corporation tries to push sucky compression schemes with royalties to be the next cash cow. WMA and RealAudio 8 aren't good, no audiophile likes them. AAC is quite good but we'll never pay for it.
MP3 is FREE... OGG Vorbis is FREE also and will be better than MP3... They are also other free codecs.
An MP3 successor need to be better and free to be successful.

 

[Simon5]

OGG Vorbis is now in final 1.0 Release!
The successor of MP3 is ready to overtake the world!

OGG Vorbis is available at:

<A HREF="http/www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/index.html" target="_new">http/www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/index.html</A>

<A HREF="http/www.vorbis.com" target="_new">http/www.vorbis.com</A>

Give me your opinion!