[viracocha]

Originally Posted by ipodfan

This is probably going to sound stupid after all these detailed posts, but here goes. I've been downloading from aom3 via alltunes for several years, mostly at 192, sometimes 320, but today for the first time I noticed I had a choice between "simple mode" and "expert mode". What is the difference?

You simply must be kidding...

Try to actually press the expert mode link and see what happens

[vikulenka]

Originally Posted by viracocha

You simply must be kidding...

Now now... Viracocha, be nice...

[viracocha]

Originally Posted by ipodfan

This is probably going to sound stupid after all these detailed posts, but here goes. I've been downloading from aom3 via alltunes for several years, mostly at 192, sometimes 320, but today for the first time I noticed I had a choice between "simple mode" and "expert mode". What is the difference?

Sorry, ipodfan, for my harsh and sarcastic first comment, so in case you aren't kidding, I will answer your question the best that I can.

That Expert Mode button is the very reason that AllOfMP3/MP3Sparks is the king of all the online music stores in the world. Using that option you can choose exactly which fileformat and bitrate you want to download each track in.

That means you don't have to download all tracks in the MP3 file format (like you have apparently been doing all these years) but get to choose between several other options (see attachment) and you don't have to choose only between 192 kbps and 320 kbps but get many more options (see attachment).

I hope this clears things up for you.

[vikulenka]

Originally Posted by viracocha

Sorry, ipodfan, for my harsh and sarcastic first comment, so in case you aren't kidding, I will answer your question the best that I can.

That Expert Mode button is the very reason that AllOfMP3/MP3Sparks is the king of all the online music stores in the world. Using that option you can choose exactly which fileformat and bitrate you want to download each track in.

That means you don't have to download all tracks in the MP3 file format (like you have apparently been doing all these years) but get to choose between several other options (see attachment) and you don't have to choose only between 192 kbps and 320 kbps but get many more options (see attachment).

I hope this clears things up for you.

Virachocha, my dreamy friend, I was just joking around with you and not instigating you to write a long and perfect explanation and an apology.

You are too kind!!

[RedSmurf]

Originally Posted by mvo76

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=28124
They do lots of independent listening tests.

That is all very interesting, but I'm afraid dreism meant an independent test on music downloaded from allofmp3/mp3sparks So someone should be prepared to spend some $ to download a bunch of different songs, each in multiple bitrates, and do a blind quality comparison. Or, you could download songs that you have ripped yourself, try to mimic AOM3's encoding process, and do a comparison with those files.

I think there might be some albums out there that don't have the full 384kbps quality even though they are available as OE, especially material from the early days of allofmp3 when users could upload music themselves. There might have been some morons who transcoded low-bitrate songs to a higher bitrate or raw audio, just to make it uploadable or because they believed it would increase the quality
But I think the number of such albums must be very small, and all OEX material should be of full quality because I think those are always ripped by AOM3 themselves.

[viracocha]

Originally Posted by RedSmurf

I think there might be some albums out there that don't have the full 384kbps quality even though they are available as OE, especially material from the early days of allofmp3 when users could upload music themselves. There might have been some morons who transcoded low-bitrate songs to a higher bitrate or raw audio, just to make it uploadable or because they believed it would increase the quality
But I think the number of such albums must be very small, and all OEX material should be of full quality because I think those are always ripped by AOM3 themselves.

I think you are right on the money there, RedSmurf - and the number of OE files are getting smaller all the time because some of the daily added new albums are in fact not new at all but offering OEX opportunity instead of OE.