Posible bug in built-in MP3 decoder - please verify

[sikahr]

Sorry for offtopic on Croatian:

Živio Damire, imaš imenjaka kod mene u Splitu

pozdrav Nenad

[sikahr]

And now for my hosts audiophiles,
mp3 decoding in full 24-bit, as promised in slimdevices promo material:

mp3 flc * *
[madplay] --output=wave:- --replay-gain=audiophile --attenuate=-0 --very-quiet --bit-depth=24 $FILE$ | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --compression-level-0 --endian big --sign signed --channels 2 --bps 24 --sample-rate 44100 -

tested in 7.0

dare to compare with lossless?

cheers,

Nenad

[dcote]

amazing how much attraction this thread is getting for the fact that "nobody" is interested in MP3 format. ;-)

personally, i appreciate these guy's efforts, because my GF is not technically savvy enough to rip her music to any other format than MP3. that means that half our collection (~3000 songs) is in MP3 - for me that means it is a majorly important format.

because of this, i have voted for the bug.

i agree, it is great to see that the people INSIDE slimdevices take this feedback seriously. in this day and age where products are becoming more and more similar, customer service and acknowledgement is a BIG differentiator. please logitech/slimdevices: keep it that way!

[sikahr]

Hi dcote,
You can try bug workaround listed above if you want ( tested only in 7.0).

Nenad

[dcote]

update: i just did some reading of the entire thread (9 pages!?) and noticed new (music!) test samples from dcolak.

i downloadad and listened to them and i am SHOCKED.

i can hear a SEVERE background noise, which is modulated by the music. my GF can hear it too and she does not have audiophile ears.
>sample 1: clean+clear
>sample 2: VERY audible noise floor (like a hiss), modulated by the music
>sample 3: same as 2, but also seems to include clicks (may be due to the sampler/ripper you used)
>sample 4: clean+clear
this is more or less the same for all music pieces.

i found especially "aint no sunshine" terrible. at around ~8sec in to the song, she sings "..its not warm...", where the artifact is fully obvious.

for good measure, i tested the MP3 on my iRiver player with headphones and there were no audible artifacts, so the file seems to be OK.

we have never noticed this before and (as i mentioned above) we have A LOT of MP3s, many of them at fairly high bitrates.
now that i knew what to look for, i tried to find MP3s in our collection which show the same behaviour - and found some!
however: i can only hear the artifact if the track is quiet and the volume is turned WAY up.

but honestly: since i didnt go through the trouble of listening to the originals on CD i am not even sure if i am autosuggesting to myself or if the hiss is in the original recording. only the fact that the noise is clearly modulated suggests to me that i am hearing the artifact you guys discovered.

thanks for the workaround, sikahr. i am not sure if that is an option for us, since transcoding means no more FFW/REW, and my GF needs to have that. she already resents the fact that i prefer vorbis for my CDs which does not allow FFW/REW either. ;-)

[sikahr]

Hi dcote,

thank you for listening.

however: i can only hear the artifact if the track is quiet and the volume is turned WAY up.

This is it. Bug is not showstoper but very annoying on hi-fi gear.

My rough estimation is that generated noise is about -50 - -60 dB.

cheers,

Nenad

[mvalera]

Hey Guys,

If you want to keep up on the progress on this bug, please goto:

http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=6231

Cheers,

Mike

[sikahr]

Heeelp, heeelp, slimdevices engineers, little bugs are eating our signal.

[Robin Bowes]

sikahr wrote:
> Heeelp, heeelp, slimdevices engineers, little bugs are eating our
> signal.
>
>
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Three points:

1. The bug is logged and will be dealt with in due course. In fact, the
link to the bug was in the very post you replied to:

http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=6231

2. Use flac - it's better than mp3 anyway.

3. Stop whining. Most people here don't care about this issue.

R.

[sikahr]

Robin, it seems You live here on this forum.

Anyway, my post is little joke to refresh thread, don't understand way you are so serious&angry.

P.S.

2. Use flac - it's better than mp3 anyway.

You know this for the fact, I mean you did double blind test.
All tests on hydrogenaudio means nothing to You?

cheers, Nenad