A major flaw of the "perceptual codec" philosophy used in MP3's is that it focuses on what the average human can hear, both in frequency range and psychoacoustics. Most audiophiles have developed the ability to hear more than the average human. The MP3 codec analyzes the "spectral energy distribution" of each frame, and compares it to a mathematical model of human psychoacoustics. But that model is predicated on the average, and music hobbyists are typically far above that average, "trained ears" if you will. The MP3 codec discards some overtones and harmonics, and also "accidents" like fingers squeaking on a fretboard or the breath intake of a flautist between notes. It also discards high and low frequencies that the "average human" can't hear.
Because the MP3 algorithms have made many such compromises, it is not generally accepted by audiophiles or music hobbyists. My earlier message that made the same point was somehow judged as flamebait by the moderators here.
Slashdot Mirror
A major flaw of the "perceptual codec" philosophy used in MP3's is that it focuses on what the average human can hear, both in frequency range and psychoacoustics. Most audiophiles have developed the ability to hear more than the average human. The MP3 codec analyzes the "spectral energy distribution" of each frame, and compares it to a mathematical model of human psychoacoustics. But that model is predicated on the average, and music hobbyists are typically far above that average, "trained ears" if you will. The MP3 codec discards some overtones and harmonics, and also "accidents" like fingers squeaking on a fretboard or the breath intake of a flautist between notes. It also discards high and low frequencies that the "average human" can't hear.
Because the MP3 algorithms have made many such compromises, it is not generally accepted by audiophiles or music hobbyists. My earlier message that made the same point was somehow judged as flamebait by the moderators here.
The Shorten format(.SHN extension), though larger than MP3, is lossless.
t ml
O'Reilly has posted a sample chapter of Chapter 2, "Inside The Codec" of the MP3 format.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mp3/chapter/ch02.h