In other forums and bulletin boards again and again you come across people with serious misconceptions about MP3 quality. It could be one of those boring old rants against joint stereo, or perhaps just a mildly irritating "Sure, LAME is the king of MP3 encoding, but Blade isn't too bad either". (I saw that one just a few days ago)

Since I don't know of any updated site which presents the basic facts simply put enough for a newbie or a generally misled person, I have the option of getting into an argument, or simply let it pass. Since I don't have enough of insight in the more technical aspects of MP3 encoding, just good enough ears to hear what sounds worse and what sounds better, and not having English as my first language I often find myself leaving the thread in question.

Is it worth the effort telling people the truth, when they obviously are satisfied with what they think is the best? Maybe they don't even hear the difference; shouldn't they be left alone with their false info? Some has said that the MP3 community (if there is one) as a whole is damaged by the circulating rumours and inaccuracies about the sound quality. But wouldn't in fact the "encoding community" gain from leaving the MP3 format - the sooner the better - for example for MPC? If all Xing ignorants will change to LAME first, perhaps the general acceptance (again; if there ever will be any) of MPC, or some other superior format, will just be delayed for years.

What do you think?

Might as well tell 'em off I mean by informing them and not by insult.

Explain the double-blind listening test (done many many people with above-average hearing) of the methods used to tune --alt-preset. If they care to argue you need not blow a gasket, is just means they don't have issues with quality as those who have desired more from MP3. But be quick to point out that there have not been as much listening tests done with any other MP3 encoder than with LAME --alt-preset.

Yes. It can be time-consuming and frustrating, but if you are perseverant enough (and have some people to back you up), it pays.

I came across the German CHIP forum in October last year and started promoting EAC and LAME ("--r3mix" at that time ). I was faced with the usual clever comments from the "experts" of course (best of all was the claim that "EAC and Vorbis contain spyware" ).

Two months later, Benjamin joined in (and being a Vorbis fan at that time, he made sure Vorbis got its credit too ). It took a while, but from some point on, we could see progress. And another member who came later, Frank_Bicking, also helped a lot.

Anyway, nowadays, basically *all* regular posters promote EAC and LAME/Vorbis, many even use MPC. In recent articles, CHIP promotes EAC as the best ripper, LAME with --alt-presets as the best MP3 encoder, and Vorbis as the best compressed audio format. They even included instructions on how to use MPC and Monkey's Audio with EAC.

Make a long story short, if you have one or two people to back you up, then it definitely is worth it.


BTW, I don't agree with this:



The ignorants you're speaking of certainly won't change formats that quickly if they aren't even willing to change MP3 encoders. If they want to stick with MP3, that's fine, but make sure they use it properly.

I don't care about the ones that are not willing to learn; it's not my problem if they won't listen. It gets my problem though if they spread false information to people that do wanna learn.
I say: ignore the ignorant asholes that don't wanna learn but correct their false information.

Moved this thread back to the general section.