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?

Redfox Car MP3 player

As my Boss wanted me to get a 5metre USB cable, I decided to drop by "All IT Hypermarket " at Section 13, PJ. And I also picked up a car MP3 player too. Maybe its the convenience of using thumbdrives compared to burning CD-Rs or maybe its the fact I can have MP3 in any car I drive. But whatever it is, I got one. Moving from shop to shop, the same product, the RedFox MP3 was priced between RM98 to RM119. So, I decided to wait until All IT opened and got it from there.

A car MP3 player like this is a boon. Not many people can afford to have MP3 players installed in all their cars. And even if you got the cheap ones, its still a small fortune. And not only that, you'd have to burn the MP3 CD and take it with you when you change cars. Lastly, if there was a few songs you have gown out of it, you cannot just delete file on the CD-R (or CR-RW) and make a new one. So, this clever little invention (USB MP3 player with a FM transmitter) solves a lot of problem for people like me. Everyone has a radio in the car and every car has a 12 volt outlet which means this unit is convenient to use.

I am not sure if I am happy or sad because although I got Mr. VISA to help out, the sound that came from it lacked treble and sounded like as if it came from a muffled speaker. Not only that, since its using FM frequency, any car which, by coincidence, happens to be on the same frequence, will be able to hear your MP3 being played. And woe betide you if you decided to plug in your handphone into as well. I mean, its possible to have a nice conversation but there are things best left in private. Oh, and if you accidentally knocked into it while its playing, the sound skips or you hear lots of static. And when you put it back on, it will start from the beginning of that song during the incident.

For RM98.00, all you get is the MP3 player which looks like a cut-off
gold club, an infra-red remote control and a stereo cable in case you
do not have a SD card or a thumbdrive but a PDA

It accepts SD cards and USB drives

This is the little hole where you plug one end of the cable
and the other end to another music source. Its not for a
headphone though.