MP3 builder expands surround sound

User Comments: 14

1. January 4, 2006 7:20 PM
   exscind said:
   Certainly an interesting topic. I had to learn about sound, waves and frequency in my Physics class, so I know a bit about this. MP3 essentially compresses sound at certain frequencies to save space - which is why MP3 takes up less space than WMV format. But to negate this compression, to some degree, MP3 SX attempts to add new elements in in hopes of "patching" up the compressions taken place by the MP3 format. I wonder how much efficiency this new MP3 SX can do, as softwares (and hardware) of the Creative Labs X-Fi series have already taken the sound quality up another notch.
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2. January 4, 2006 10:25 PM
   PUTALE said:
   I thought it's been in talk for like a few years already. I have not seen the real stuff in the market or any software codec for it. I wonder if this is real, would all of our mp3 players, such as ipod and such can support it by simply update teh sfotware.
   Reply
3. January 4, 2006 11:21 PM
   rahuls said:
   Having it supported for iPod would help it spread in the market more rapidly
   Reply
4. January 4, 2006 11:22 PM
   MonkeyMan said:
   Well, this year will be a technological year, so you guys are going to see some great new technologies. As for sound, I love my surround sound speakers, especially when playing PC games, because it makes you feel as though you are right in the center of the action. This MP3 SX is a great addition to home entertainment, and sound in general. Improving the sound for anything, is always a plus in my book.
   Reply
5. January 5, 2006 12:57 AM
   zachig said:
   WOW. That's really awesome. Now I guess we'll just have to wait a see which mp3 players will support it, or at least who will be the first and when?
   Reply
6. January 5, 2006 3:50 AM
   luvhuffer said:
   The thing that interests me is the fact that my existing mp3 files can be modified by attaching the enhancements as side information, thereby not affecting thhe quality of the sound or the compression. The thing that bums me out about it, is thinking about how long it would take to redo my 19,000 mp3 files.
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7. January 5, 2006 6:56 AM
   cyrax said:
   The quality of these sound definately make stuff from itunes seem to increase alot more in value. I gotta get me an ipod!
   Reply
8. January 5, 2006 7:10 AM
   asphix said:
   This is EXCELLENT news. I'm a bit of an audiophile and am working on a very expensive surround sound system for my livingroom. Now with my x360 it makes it easy to set up my computer as a music server and stream the content over to my living room.The only thing that was lacking was surround sound music for my mp3 playback. This will be a fun thing to play around with, and for certain with 5 and 7 multimedia speaker setups becoming very popular and affordable it will surely take off!personally, I'm quite partial to APE encoding, and wish that would take over as the digital music medium since the sound quality is so much better. I'm interested to see if something will come along and replace mp3 as our bandwith restrictions are eased away to larger thresholds.
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9. January 5, 2006 8:22 AM
   Mictlantecuhtli said:
   [b]Originally posted by asphix:[/b][quote]The only thing that was lacking was surround sound music for my mp3 playback.[/quote]Ogg Vorbis has had multichannel support for years.[quote]personally, I'm quite partial to APE encoding, and wish that would take over as the digital music medium since the sound quality is so much better. I'm interested to see if something will come along and replace mp3 as our bandwith restrictions are eased away to larger thresholds.[/quote]There are a lot of DTS-encoded music CDs and DVDs, in addition to DVD-Audio. I don't think APE or FLAC will be popular enough to get hardware support from big manufacturers. Apple has their own lossless codec which supports multichannel audio, too.
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10. January 5, 2006 9:00 AM
    asphix said:
    Cool, thanks for the information! I have used Ogg before but its hardly as simple and integrated as mp3. Though APE wasnt either.. but I really enjoyed the increased sound quality provided by that format.The downside to the DTS enabled disc formats is that you need to purchase hardware to enjoy them. mp3 surround capabilites will require no hardware upgrades for the majority of people and be offered in a way that will be user friendly.
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11. January 5, 2006 1:09 PM
    mtyson8 said:
    THis is excellent news for me. I am an audiophile, everything of mine has to be of best quality, otherwise I wont even use it. All my speakers are Bose, all DVD players are DTS, DVD-Audio, and DD 5.1Ch. In my PC is SB Audigy 2 ZS, Great THX Speakers. I actually currently change regular MP3s to stellar sound. Im all about great sampling frequency, and bit-rate. Ill be the first to use and pay for this technology.
    Reply
12. January 5, 2006 1:14 PM
    otmakus said:
    [b]Originally posted by luvhuffer:[/b][quote]The thing that interests me is the fact that my existing mp3 files can be modified by attaching the enhancements as side information, thereby not affecting thhe quality of the sound or the compression. The thing that bums me out about it, is thinking about how long it would take to redo my 19,000 mp3 files.[/quote]That's one hell of a collection of mp3 files. And how many of them did u actually spend money to get? Not much, I guess. Beware the RIAA, they will sue u to ur last penny if they know where u live.
    Reply
13. January 6, 2006 11:50 AM
    mentaljedi said:
    [b]Originally posted by MonkeyMan:[/b][quote]Well, this year will be a technological year, so you guys are going to see some great new technologies. As for sound, I love my surround sound speakers, especially when playing PC games, because it makes you feel as though you are right in the center of the action. This MP3 SX is a great addition to home entertainment, and sound in general. Improving the sound for anything, is always a plus in my book.[/quote]You know Monkeyman, thats exactly what i thought when read the article. With the likes of Vista and duel-core, and yonah, the revolution, PS3 etc... this is going to be good. In accordane to the article, i would like to see this become widely available soon, as an improvment in sound is great for me. (I'm hard-of-hearing you see)
    Reply
14. January 9, 2006 8:43 AM
    Jesse_hz said:
    Why the hell would anyone want to use an inefficient audio format for surround sound??
    Reply

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