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General discussion

Quality of mp3 is on PDA

Feb 24, 2005 4:43AM PST

I am looking onto buying PDA with mp3 player
None of the specs does not tell me how good the quality of the music the PDAs play
I was wondering how good it will be playing mp3s on PDAs compare to iPod and such mp3 devices

Discussion is locked

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No quality.
Feb 24, 2005 6:15AM PST

Here's why. MP3 encoding purposely discards audio information to achieve its compression. As such, there is no quality to the performance.

Bob

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I wouldn't say mp3 has "No Quality".
Feb 24, 2005 9:47AM PST

That's like saying 2% milk is not milk.

Sheesh.

mp3s sound great! Don't listen to that rubbish.

Stich

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At what point do we call it?
Feb 24, 2005 10:20AM PST

If I attach any MP3 player to the home stereo and listen to the MP3, then playback the original CD the "quality" is readily apparent between the two.

Just like 2% milk and whole milk, there is a difference.

It's not rubbish.

Bob

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Re: At what point do we call it?
Feb 25, 2005 12:29PM PST

Ok Bob, right on... NOT!

I think most conosuers of audio already know the neglible differnce between full 16 bit /44Khz CD audio & mp3's by now & the general consensus is that There's not enough difference to sweat over it.

And what are you going to tell us next... that 20 million artists, recording professionals, & iPod users are wrong too.

Your talking out your Wahoo.

Stich

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It's much like art.
Feb 26, 2005 6:23AM PST

I asked at what point do we call it "quality".

Instead you seem to disregard the loss of the audio content as not important. For you, the compressed audio is just fine and I agree that for mobile audio with the noise of the world around you, you might tell the difference, but the "quality" is definitely degraded.

Bob

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not answering the question
Feb 26, 2005 10:04PM PST

the question was not about how mp3s are or sound or their quality. He was asking how pdas do playing them.
I'm interested in knowing the same thing. DO PDAs play back mp3s as good as pcs or a regular mp3 player.

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DO PDAs play back mp3s as good as pcs or regular mp3 player
Feb 26, 2005 11:20PM PST

"DO PDAs play back mp3s as good as pcs or a regular mp3 player."

That's a simpler question. I've had a few such PDAs (Zire 71 and others) and the MP3 playback is not unlike what you hear from your PC or iPod.

Bob

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that's the question I want to know
Feb 28, 2005 3:28AM PST

I did not want to know diff. in mp3 and cd
I just want to know, playback diffrence between iPOD and PDA mp3 play back. thank you

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It's all in the question.
Feb 28, 2005 3:52AM PST

Your question didn't ask such. As such I replied to your question and can't guess you meant something else.

Best of luck,

Bob

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Huh????
Feb 28, 2005 6:16AM PST

Did you even bother to read the original question before you jumped up on your mp3 bashing soap box Bob???

"I am looking onto buying PDA with mp3 player
None of the specs does not tell me how good the quality of the music the PDAs play
I was wondering how good it will be playing mp3s on PDAs compare to iPod and such mp3 devices"

Posted by: Jeong Posted on: 02/24/2005 12:43 PM
"

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The question was in the title.
Feb 28, 2005 6:20AM PST

Should we ignore that?

Bob

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Yes pdas play are good mp3 players
Mar 5, 2005 12:20PM PST

I say so based on my pda, sony clie nx60. the sound quality is simply awesome. however, it doesn't have enough memory. you may need to have a memory stick with a large memory.

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MP3 Rubbish?
Feb 27, 2005 9:37AM PST

But for me, I figured the main reason for MP3s is the portability. For some it might be compressing several CDs (which you own rightfully ; ) onto one CD-ROM, or being able to email yourself a song, not to hook to a home stereo system. But I wouldn't imagine that in regard to a PDA that the MP3's quality would be the top priority, given a song/file is audible. I've seen a few people with high-end Bose headsets attached to their MP3 players, but for the most part, the quality of the MP3 playback would probably be limited by the $25 headphones themselves.

To save space, I rip/save/convert my favorite songs at 96bpm and have put the same song "recorded" at 160bpm and not noticed which is which - of course on a little Sony Clie with those $25 earbud headphones. But with a 128M memory stick, I get 40-45 songs. It's not an iPod, but it's a lot more portable, not having to have an MP3 player and PDA. Now to get a phone added to that mix...

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my experiences mp3 players vs pda
Mar 11, 2005 11:07AM PST

I have the archos av320 /the ipod 4th gen 20 gig/ and the rio carbon. Of those the archos has the best sound.
Now compare that archos to my palm zire 72 s . After installing aeroplayer on the zire the sound quality and volume levels are better on the palmone zire pda...much better. Storage space is less on the pda but you can buy sd cards to expand storage.I currently use a 1 gig sdcard ($99)not as much storage as the hard drive mp3 players but theres no moving parts on sd cards and they are lifetime waranteed.

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Probably based more on the headphones you are using.
Mar 25, 2005 6:04AM PST

The headphones probably make more of a difference then the device. The advantage of the PDA is that you can check your calendar or play a game, while you listen to MP3s.