Opening the Rabbit Hole again
After so many years, there was a suggested video from YouTube. It was Fairground Attraction's Find My Love.
I've been listening to this CD non-stop during my Enya phase from the end 90's to well, twenty tens. With a Sony Sub-woofer in my Bengmobile, the sound was amazing. All the percussion beats and clear guitar strings really hit it off. What's more, with Eddi Reader's voice, the album, "The First of a Million Kisses" was hauntingly perfect.
When I clicked to watch the Video, all the vocal magic and percussive highlights were... not there. Even my pair of headphones confirmed it. The sounds coming from the video was just that. Sounds. No great treble nor punchful bass. Even the music instruments sounded so muted.
The MP3 Format
Truth to be told, most of my MP3 songs came from YouTube since there are no places for one to buy AI Song covers or CDs. Even at 320kbps, I realised, these bloated files are acoustically crap. Just listen to their CD or even a SACD copy, suddenly you'd reaslise that, all the MP3 songs are potentially worthless.
Of course the MP3 format is dead. It has been dying since the twenty tens but every now and then, it acted like that flogged dead horse. Although we were warned about its lossy compression we happily chose that format. Nowadays, with USB Storage formats that starts with a minimum of 32GB, FLAC suddenly became a much better compromise. However, I have yet to find a good site that offers great compression or a FLAC library within reasonable cost.
FLAC-ing the not dead Horse
I do have a CD reader now, and there is a very high chance that I can spot a winner between a converted MP3 and a YouTube version. Right now, listening to the FLAC version of the same song is really a day & night difference even for a audio philistine like me.
Now, when I listen to my MP3 songs, my mind would wonder, "Is there a much better quality than this 12Mb 320kbps MP3?"
Is there a better Dire Strait's Romeo and Juliet?
Is there a better Yanni Live at the Acropolis?
How about Kitaro's Matsuri?
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