bad mp3 playback

[James McCloud]

like $200

if you listen to music as much as i think you do then maybe even a snazzier one, but a $200 should be fine.

[Andres]

jesus, 200? id rather put my music on my mp3player

[Slime]

I record and play music and used a ~$40 sound card and had absolutely no problem.

Its not going to make MP3 playback sound any better if you get a more expensive one. Unless you enjoy the placebo effect.

Oh wait, you're on a laptop. Maybe its more expensive? I was going to suggest like a $25 one, like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829270008

[Evil Ash]

$200 is like... come on. You need the speakers to match the card, too.

A quality home use soundcard will run about $70-$80, which is perfect for your standard 5.1 PC speaker system.

Edit: And you're going to want a PCIe card, not PCI. PCI is poopy. Mainly PCIe is just a more efficient connector. The card Lohr linked to is what most computers come with attached to the motherboard. $25 is great for that card, some companies charge like $50 for a generic sound card that most mobos come with.

But yeah this all for not cause you're on a laptop anyways.

[Compcat]

Is it just on mp3s or does it ever happen when you're hearing other sounds on it? I used to have this problem for any sounds on my comp, and I'd go to the program for the sound driver and switch the number of speakers (so from two to four or the other way around) and that would fix it temporarily. I'm not sure how I fixed it for good, but you should definitely try updating your drivers if you haven't done that yet.

[James McCloud]

Originally Posted by Evil Ash

$200 is like... come on. You need the speakers to match the card, too.

well i was really just doubling the price of a reasonable one from ocuk to get to dollars, but -^^-

[Slime]

yeah thats just an absurd price for pretty much any sound card though, the most money you'd ever really need to spend is like $90 for a crazy one for gaming, certainly never $200 for playing music unless you need like multiple guitar jacks + shit in the back

i don't even think any amount of money makes straight MP3 playback better than a really cheap soundcard. i think thats like people saying "i switched to winamp and it sounds so much better!"

[Andres]

Originally Posted by Compcat

Is it just on mp3s or does it ever happen when you're hearing other sounds on it? I used to have this problem for any sounds on my comp, and I'd go to the program for the sound driver and switch the number of speakers (so from two to four or the other way around) and that would fix it temporarily. I'm not sure how I fixed it for good, but you should definitely try updating your drivers if you haven't done that yet.

I don't seem to recall it when I'm playing movies. It's hard to tell though... I only just noticed this recently, and now I can't unhear it.

[Kale Monster]

Originally Posted by Andres

I don't seem to recall it when I'm playing movies. It's hard to tell though... I only just noticed this recently, and now I can't unhear it.

seriously though, to isolate the problem, switch off all heavy electricity-using appliances and listen out for the artefacts.
the other issues it could be are drivers, failing cards, etc, but electrical interference is the most likely due to how sound cards work.

[Samurai Clinton]

Originally Posted by Aaron Haynes

or else you're getting interference from something like a cell phone or a nearby radio tower

Radio towers need to be consolidated in favor of newer, more efficient radio communications standards!

most FM radio stations suck monkey balls. So we might as well just decommission them to get line analog audio to FM converters to work more efficiently with nearby tabletop stereos that lack line-level analog inputs so we can treat them as "computer speakers". I don't think personal battery (or car cigarette lighter) powered FM transmitters would interfere as severely, besides I think consumer FM transmitters give better flexibility to the FM communications medium. And besides, the sound quality you'd get from 12V FM transmitters for personal use would yield better sound quality than metropolitan-scale transmitters (possibly metropolitan-scale transmitters overmodulate to cover a 100 mile radius, and the presence of other FM frequencies in a wide area like that interfere with the fidelity). This is why I think a mass-decommissioning of FM towers could improve the fidelity of an FM broadcast from a small-scale 12-volt transmitter; and what I'm saying, is that a small-scale 12-volt transmitter may yield better results than a metropolitan-grade transmitter (though its ironic how a metropolitan area of broadcast towers invade the radio space, which makes small-scale transmitters harder to use). And ya know, maybe the rampancy of FM broadcast towers might have some issue with your report on MP3 playback (or possibly the audio equipment you hear it with).

With all the inflexibilities of metropolitan-scale FM radio stations, and the growing rampancy of wifi, and Satellite Internet, who needs those tainted ClearChannel stations (Channel 955 really brainwashed the Metro Detroit Area). Come to think of it, I think ClearChannel is maliciously trying to ruin MP3 files of songs by good, decent artists just as an excuse to brainwash the populous, and they took advantage of Kazaa's userbase (just a theory). Therefore, the "clear" in ClearChannel is not so clear anymore!

I think that the monthly subscription rate of XM/Sirius tries to con people into having poorer fidelity with all these rationalized theories on interference and audio performance, since the one-time payment of an iPod is just what you need, and not to mention computers and MP3 players in general. Besides, Internet costs enough per month already, what more would ya want in terms of communications services that burn a hole in your pocket?

AND ANOTHER THEORY...

Maybe running a 12 volt DC car audio system with an AUX jack for line-level audio input from an iPod may yield better MP3 quality results than hearing it from a home sound system that plugs into the wall (110volt AC)

Originally Posted by Andres

jesus, 200? id rather put my music on my mp3player

YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN!!!!!!!

I could go on for hours describing how MP3 players (depending on which type you buy) can give you a positive experience in life. Like my comparison of XM/Sirius monthly rate breaking even with the one-time payment of iPods on the long run, and I also described how the rampancy of radio waves in a concentrated suburban area could be detrimental to the local performance of the MP3 playback of the sound equipment you have.

And ya know, those so-called MP3 players may implement playlist playback from YouTube, GrooveShark, and Playlist.com with worldwide coverage sometime by 2020.

[Andres]

fuck off

[Kale Monster]

Samurai Clinton more like

[Samurai Clinton]

I do remember those days when the early days of downloadable billboard hit music that initially just played on radio had some random loud static in the files. Perhaps that was done to discourage people from downloading music, but my method was hearing the song in whole to ensure I had the right file to download. And whatever other playback problems people are getting may just be attributed to FM towers in our metropolitan areas being malicious broadcasters (which I mentioned in the above post).