It sometimes takes a little longer, but it seems that even the Rolling Stones Magazin has finally realized that not all MP3 is good. Duh! But most unfortunately, the terrible habit of extreme volume compression to make songs sound 'better' (i.e. louder) has been creeping into the business for a long time (think of all the Red Hot Chilli Peppers albums that could have been really good, but were compressed to death).

MP3 and other lossy formats amplify this problem, since they are often consumed through extremely lo-fi speakers and headphones. To compensate for the inadequate reproduction equipment, producers are now not only waging a loudness war on our ears, but also are starting to produce pop music in a way that avoids the obvious shortcomings of compressed music, by de-emphasizing high frequencies etc.

Please do not get me wrong: a decently implemented lossy format (like the LAME MP3 encoder) can provide a lot of musicality with very significant space savings for small devices. But most properly recorded and produced music will simply sound a lot better on a decent audio system, with a CD/PCM audio at 44.1 kHz/16 bit (or better: DVD-Audio or SACD at even higher rates) as the source and a good DAC.

It can only be hoped that the current MP3 hype will eventually run out and compressed lossy format will find their appropriate niche for small mobile devices.

tag: Audio, MP3, High Fidelity