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[breathe]

I only noticed this when Apple updated its Safari web browser last week, and I immediately noticed that the sound of MP3's playing back on the updated browser sounded significantly different than MP3's playing back on any of the earlier versions of Safari I had been using since the browser first came out.  Basically, MP3's playing back on the new Safari sound crappy.  I also noticed that Safari was no longer using a Quicktime plug-in to play back MP3's, as apparently that functionality had been integrated into the code of the browser.  I then went to Google's Chrome browser and listened back to the same MP3 file I had on my web server, and Chrome sounded even worse with its built-in MP3 playback functionality.  I then went to the Firefox browser, and noticed that browser was still using the Quicktime plug-in, and playback from that browser returned me to the good sound quality I have enjoyed before.  I have since decided to switch from Safari as my main browser to Firefox, solely because of this issue, though there will probably be perks to this switch because I use Thunderbird for my e-mail.

End rant.

Nicholas

[Fletcher]

I reckon that makes sense - though I frankly never thought about it - when someone sends me an MP-3 I usually end up playing it through iTunes.

[rankus]

I try not to think about what the person on the other end is listening to my work on these days... Too depressing, and I have no control over that anyway.

Sadly

[Gio]

rankus wrote on Mon, 15 November 2010 20:50

I try not to think about what the person on the other end is listening to my work on these days... Too depressing, and I have no control over that anyway. Sadly

No kidding.....

AFA browsers, I stopped using Safari ages ago. Firefox on all my computers.

[Jim Williams]

Just a different version of poor quality audio. Some of us pine for the good old days of PCM 44.1k 16 bit audio.

[Spindrift]

Jim Williams wrote on Tue, 16 November 2010 06:52

Just a different version of poor quality audio. Some of us pine for the good old days of PCM 44.1k 16 bit audio.

Ha!  Anyone remember the Sony PCM-1600 that you mixed/mastered to that sent the bitstream to a VHS tape???  

[jimlongo]

YEah it was especially groovy watching the recorded signal.  But talk about grungy DACs.

[breathe]

I think it's kind of silly to completely write off compressed formats such as MP3, especially when a sizable portion of the world experiences music exclusively through this format.  Though this forum has hipped me to supposedly better software, Barbabatch has been a real breakthrough for me because with it I can now make (with a single click no less) MP3's of split stereo 24/96 WAV files recorded in Pro Tools that actually can be used as a reference of mixes to send to clients without having to bend over backwards explaining to them how the MP3 sounds horrible and the actual mix sounds (hopefully) good.

I guess I'm just promoting finding nuances/differences within every technological situation, especially when they impact the experience of a large number of people who for whatever reason are unable to experience sound reproduction in an ideal way.

Nicholas