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Sound quality of Absolution and BHARevolations

snuze

By snuze
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snuze Escapee

snuze

Posted
Posted

I was listening to these two albums the other day and the quality of the sound just wasn't there. I love the bands music and have seen them in person, but the music sounded just empty and almost distorted. This is especially at higher volumes.

 

Before you might guess that it was compression from the MP3's, the tracks were actually ripped to FLAC, a lossless codec, so it should have been identical to the sound of the CD. The sound felt hollow and empty. I have a nice stereo was expected to be blown away by the intro to Your Time is Running Out, but in reality the song was just running out. The sound sucked.

 

Has anyone else noticed this? Are there any other formats that they have recorded on that would sound better? I love the band and want to hear them play on a great format.

 

Thanks.

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brainwashed Escapee

brainwashed

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I was listening to these two albums the other day and the quality of the sound just wasn't there. I love the bands music and have seen them in person, but the music sounded just empty and almost distorted. This is especially at higher volumes.

 

Before you might guess that it was compression from the MP3's, the tracks were actually ripped to FLAC, a lossless codec, so it should have been identical to the sound of the CD. The sound felt hollow and empty. I have a nice stereo was expected to be blown away by the intro to Your Time is Running Out, but in reality the song was just running out. The sound sucked.

 

Has anyone else noticed this? Are there any other formats that they have recorded on that would sound better? I love the band and want to hear them play on a great format.

 

Thanks.

 

was the "other day" the first time you listened those CD's?

next, i would say, if you want something to sound like a CD, just buy the CD.

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Triple C Escapee

Triple C

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I actually find the quality of both to be just fine in digital format, although of all their albums I think The Resistance has the best sound quality (and I have that in Apple Lossless). I'm judging based on listening in my car, which has Focal CV100 and CV130 Polyglass speakers, a Alpine PDX-5 digital amplifier and a Polk DB 12-inch subwoofer. Not an audiophile getup but pretty damn good. I also have a pretty nice head unit (all digital, doesn't play CDs) which gives me some control over balance and loudness.

I also have Absolution on vinyl and it sounds pretty good on my three-way Bose's I got from my dad. OoS, on the other hand, doesn't sound too great on those speakers but sounds brilliant in my car in AAC format.

I'm not an expert and I'm at best an "audiophile wannabe" ... but I have pretty good hearing and no way are either of those albums outstandingly bad. They don't stand out as the highest quality on my playlist ... but don't stand out as crap either. When you say you have a nice stereo, how nice? Are the speakers components/coax, external amp, crossovers, etc.? Distortion, loudness, clipping can come from either the file, the sound system or often the combination. TIRO sounds washy on my laptop. It's sounds OK on my iPod with decent headphones. It sounds intolerable in my 1978 car with crap aftermarket speakers. It sounds pretty good but distorted and muddy at high volumes in my Jeep. It sounds excellent in my 1987 car with the above-described system ... even cranked up really high.

Here's a question: How do the CDs sound to you? If they sound like crap to you, there's no file that's going to sound better, unless you have a $50,000 sound system and the best ears on the planet, in which case, by all means, get it in higher-than-CD quality WAV and see what happens.:p And you wouldn't gain much if anything with those albums, since as mentioned by others, the sound quality just isn't smashingly great in the recordings. However, I think in high-quality MP3, Apple Lossless or AAC -- or on CD -- they should sound pretty cool.

Do they sound like Muse live? No. No one's home stereo system is going to match the quality of the one Muse sets up at live gigs.;)

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Disassociative Escapee

Disassociative

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I reckon Absolution sounds like... well crap. But the songs are good though. BHaR isn't TOO bad but some songs are done better than others and the TR mastering is a bit iffy sometimes. It all depands on what my hearings like though, it goes weird occasionally but on average, Absolution sounds the worst which is a shame because I <3 the songs on it.

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Triple C Escapee

Triple C

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I reckon Absolution sounds like... well crap. But the songs are good though. BHaR isn't TOO bad but some songs are done better than others and the TR mastering is a bit iffy sometimes. It all depands on what my hearings like though, it goes weird occasionally but on average, Absolution sounds the worst which is a shame because I <3 the songs on it.

 

I will say one thing with Abso is that the mids and lows turn into slush on mid-range woofers and kind of swallow up the highs. But I really think with separate drivers for highs, mids/lows and low-lows -- and decent (steep) crossovers -- it's at least average, like I said before. Now that I've read all the criticism of it though I'm going to have to listen to it with a more discerning ear. Maybe I've been fooling myself all this time.:stunned::)

 

FWIW the best sound quality of anything on my playlist is Nine Inch Nails' The Slip in HQ MP3. It was free. I like bass a lot though so maybe that's why ... :happy:

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Gareeh Escapee

Gareeh

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jeez one of my favourite genres is drum & bass which is all about producing to the finest quality and i have a slight obsession with downloading FLAC and WAV format albums when i can and also listening to CD and Vinyl. but never have i once thought this is produced terrible, apart from the gallery [i've never understood the distortion effect at all]. also people say exo-politics was produced poorly, i reckon the nature of track and maybe most of the album was to have the producing sound as close to the live performances which could also explain why matt doesn't have any vocal or guitar twists [if you wish] on the more recent material. absolution is the last of the "who gives a fuck if they hate our music era." a direction which a lot of bands are taking too, unfortunate yes but exogenesis shows there is still hope, in a very strange way.

 

anyway way off track, i agree yet disagree with you.

 

the quality is fine.

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Triple C Escapee

Triple C

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They all sound fine to me but then, I have them on CDs which can be played through a proper music system.

When I put them on my mp3 player they lose some of the fullness of sound.

 

Well, you can play digital files quite properly if you download or rip at the right quality and have the connection between the iPod and the stereo system. The difference between a CD and a high quality MP3 or an AAC file shouldn't be too remarkable. The difference between CD and FLAC/Apple Lossless is pretty much not noticeable.

 

Of course on the earbuds that come with digital media players, everything sounds like poo.

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Kirby Escapee

Kirby

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Abso seems alright. BHAR quality is awful.

 

Both CDs sound awesome on my iPod. But that's probably because I have some badass headphones. \o/

 

This. I mean, I can tell in some places not all of the songs sound perfect, but usually when I'm listening to them, they sound great.

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Triple C Escapee

Triple C

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all earcandy or similar cheap brand headphones are crap, even the £50 earcandy ones are a rip.

 

get some Sony or BOSE or Seinnheiser earphones.

 

Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to ask for for my birthday ... in December.:rolleyes: I think it would also be great to get over-ear headphones because the buds have seriously irritated one of my ears to the point of infection.

Off topic ... :$

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010101 Escapee

010101

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all earcandy or similar cheap brand headphones are crap, even the £50 earcandy ones are a rip.

 

get some Sony or BOSE or Seinnheiser earphones.

 

I've got Microsoft earphones,they were quite cheap but the sound is great.

 

Anyway, I was quite surprised when I listened to Absolution on cd first, I didn't really enjoy it as much as I do on my phone and computer with earphones :stunned:

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