Sound Quality on NW-S706F

[fredjones]

I just got my shiny new player the other day. I have been experimenting with various formats. Encoding the same song in different formats. I did the same song with Atrac 256 and then Lame mp3 (standard quality). It seems that on this player that the Atrac files sound better with better separation. Has anyone else experienced something like this? Any recs on future encoding greatly appreciated.

[DSP]

you use atrac @ 256 and LAME @ standard. I guess standard means 128?? If so. you should compare at same bitrates.

Personally, I think atrac sounds overall better than mp3. Though lame is very good!

If you realy wanna know wich codec sounds best to you I´d recommend you to compare 1 song (from an original, recent CD) in the formats ATRAC3+, AAC, WMA, WAV. All @ 160/192 Kbps (except WAV off course). Use CBR (constant bit rate)

WAV is the best, but way to big. Just do this test, and see for yourself. It´s very personal. I use atrac3+ at 160/192 kbps.

greetz

Edited February 8, 2007 by DSP

[fredjones]

Thanks. By lame standard, I meant the preset standard which is vbr with average bit rate around 192. I think the atrac does sound better. I noted that in sonicstage when encoding there is an option for atrac and atrac lossless. Which one would be the atrac3+ you mentioned above.

[dura_]

Atrac lossless is a confusing term; if I understand correctly, it mean how the CD is captured on your PC HD. You get the ATRAC lossy file, plus another part somewhere that contains the rest of the data that was on the source. Playing back from SS on your PC you get lossless, on your device you get the lossy thing.

BTW I think 256 kbs gives very good sound quality.

[Zizone_]

Atrac lossless is a confusing term; if I understand correctly, it mean how the CD is captured on your PC HD. You get the ATRAC lossy file, plus another part somewhere that contains the rest of the data that was on the source. Playing back from SS on your PC you get lossless, on your device you get the lossy thing.

BTW I think 256 kbs gives very good sound quality.

Actually, if you play ATRAC Advanced Lossless on NW-S70X series, you play lossless NOT lossy. In fact, the device shows ATRAC Advanced Lossless format. In addition, the file size on the player is somewhere over 30mb (depending on song ofcourse) so it is infact really a lossless you are playing on NW-S706F.

[DSP]

seriuosly??

damn, that means that the NW-S700 does support lossless!!!! Great news!!

greetz

[Zizone_]

seriuosly??

damn, that means that the NW-S700 does support lossless!!!! Great news!!

greetz

Yep. Sony Japan site shows that NW-S70X series can play back true ATRAC Advanced Loss and PCM. Well... I am using one so I know

[firbird]

is it possible to compare ATRAC3 and MP3 bitrates.... e.g. most og my MP3s are at 192kbps and some at 128kbps. I want them in ATRAC3 on my NWS706. What bitrate should I choose? Say I use ATRAC3 132kbps - is there any point as the 'loss' has already occured - if you know what I mean.....?!?

[ceres]

is it possible to compare ATRAC3 and MP3 bitrates.... e.g. most og my MP3s are at 192kbps and some at 128kbps. I want them in ATRAC3 on my NWS706. What bitrate should I choose? Say I use ATRAC3 132kbps - is there any point as the 'loss' has already occured - if you know what I mean.....?!?

do not transcode from a lossy codec (mp3) to another lossy codec (atrac). The result will be inferior audio quality´.

Only transcode from lossless (FLAC, Wavpack, Apple Lossless etc) audio to lossy (mp3, aac, wma etc.)

[firbird]

is it really not worth it? even to save space...? unfortunately, my music collection is in MP3s so converting from CDs is not an option... can i not use ATRAC just to reduce file size?

[jonny mac]

Of course you can convert MP3 to ATRAC. I do this a lot, most of my collection is in MP3 (LAME, VBR 0, averaging aprox 256kbps) & I convert these to ATRAC 192 kbps. They sound great after conversion. However, I'd be wary of converting a low bitrate MP3 to another format. I've listened to 128 kbps MP3s converted to ATRAC & the compression is clearly audible. With 192 kbps you'd probably be ok.

What you need is better quality MP3s from which to convert.

(However, always for best results convert from lossless/CD, it's just that most people won't be able to tell the difference.)

[fredjones]

Transcoding in general is not a good idea. However, I have found that mp3s that have a good enough initial bitrate, such as 192 or higher, that the results when transcoded to atrac are in general very listenable. There will always be some loss of sound quality when doing this. You just have to decide what is good enough for you. Anyway my NW-S706F sound reproduction is so good that most stuff sounds good anyway. Even the 64kb stuff has surprised me. If I can I use the original CD to make all my atrac files, this assures the highest sound quality.