Open Systems & Music Formats; Which Ones Deserve Your Attention? - Part 3
How music is encoded can greatly impact the audiophile music experience.
Today we’ll investigate how encoding and ripping formats can change your listening experience and how open standards guarantee the audiophile experience. Not only formats we use today but formats yet to come.
Music Formats and Closed Systems
Closed Systems - music formats are chosen for you
How does a closed system affect music formats?
In today’s market choice is critical. No one likes to be told what they can or can not have. But, when it comes to music formats and encoding schemes, that is unfortunately the landscape we live in today.
Many closed systems will focus on file encryption, ease of ripping, or even speed of encoding rather than sound quality. Yes, the music can be ripped fast, but does it sound as good as possible?
Lets face it. When you are encoding your music it takes time. You don’t want to spend a large portion of your life ripping your music or pay a small fortune for someone else to do it for you. But what happens when you make compromises in this area? Closed systems can leave you stuck with music that just doesn’t sound as good as it could. Yes, you can add a better equipment but if the file created and the encoding method is not the absolute possible best, you simply won’t get the best sound possible, period!
Why do manufacturers make these choices for you? In a fast paced world everyone wants things fast and your clients are no exception. But, remember, you’ll rip once and listen many, many times. Take the time to learn about the encoding schemes different manufacturers use and support. Don’t get stuck with a “compromise” encoding scheme or even some proprietary method that can’t be changed or moved later.
Music Formats and Open Systems
Open Systems - Flexible Music Format Choices
When all of the components of the system use open standards - you can use up-to-date standards and file formats. As new open formats hit the market, open systems manufacturers will have little or no work to do to support them. And what about open formats that give you better sound quality like variable bit rate encoding (VBR)? Most manufacturers don’t want to talk about VBR encoding schemes because they can take a long time to generate the final file. But, lets face it, you only rip your music once. However, you listen to it many, many, many times. Isn’t it worth a little waiting to offer your clients the optimal file quality? Only an open system will have such flexibility.
Not familiar with VBR encoding schemes? Simply put rather than choose a fixed coding rate for a track the track is examined one time slice at a time and the best encoding method is chosen. Complicated sections will be encoded at a higher bit rate and less complicated sections less so. The end result is a much better quality compressed file and the next best thing to those much larger lossless files.
Be sure to ask about encoding schemes when considering products, you’ll be glad you did.
How Do I Decide?
Choose flexibility and choose a system that can grow with you into the future.
How much music does your client have? What kind of music does your client have. What kind of equipment does your client have. How do they experience music daily. How important is file clarity?
The moodSeer system records your music in both lossless and high-quality VBR MP3 formats. Excellence takes time, patience and persistance. We won’t stop until you have the absolute best music server in the market.
— Ben M., Golden, CO