iPod Is there such a thing as song decay?

[Arcus]

Just listening to my library and I 'think' I noticed some songs that I has ripped a while ago sounding kinda crappy, like a bed rip. I cant rememebr if they were like that since the day I ripped them or was wondering if songs will decay after a while. I would have though that the mp3 would have a checksum so that the player can tell if it is bad or not.

Any ideas on this? Do songs decay over time?

 

[Sun Baked]

These are digital files, if they decay -- all that crap on your life and credit would also be decaying at the same rate.

Maybe you are noticing the differences between the method you used then and now.

Either that, or your body is decaying faster than plastic.

 

[iMeowbot]

MP3 streams can get corrupted and still be playable (ID3 as it originally worked depended on that feature!), but it's more likely that you've simply noticed that your rips aren't as good as you may have thought at the time.

There were (and still are) a lot of really poor MP3 encoders out there.

 

[MmmPancakes]

I theory, I suppose it could be related to normal wear and tear on the iPod's disk. I think this is pretty unlikely. But, if this were the case, I think you'd hear the decay on all tracks stored on the disk. You may want to try deleting the songs in question, then re-rip them. Post your results if you do. It may answer some interesting questions.

 

[iDM]

These are digital files, if they decay -- all that crap on your life and credit would also be decaying at the same rate.

Maybe you are noticing the differences between the method you used then and now.

Either that, or your body is decaying faster than plastic.

I agree with Sun Baked, I believe you are experiencing this because of the method you are playing/listening to them. Possibly you noticed more dynamics when using a good pair of heads phones as oppose to speakers built into your laptop. Another example would be the whole iPod replay debate, which if your not familiar relates to how the different generations and models of iPods reproduce their sound through their head phone jacks. Some same the Shuffle sounds better then the full size iPod. I have had both and the only time i notice a difference is when using a good pair of head phones on the shuffle compared to my old 20 gig iPod. Hope this helps a little. My Shuffle also does not appear to get distorted at higher volumes.

 

[Arcus]

I will try and re rip them and see what I get. Maybe a bad CD.

The only things I can add to this is that they were ripped using iTunes AAC and when I say they sound bad, its alot more then just the sound quality,I mean they skip, blank spots, I get that digital squel in one or two. This is on my iBook and I really only listen to the songs through the iBook speakers while doing misc stuff.

Ill have to see if they are on my iPod and compare the songs to see if they are both FUBARed. I will have to do this tommorow as my girlfriend has my iPod.

 

[Sun Baked]

I will try and re rip them and see what I get. Maybe a bad CD.

The songs on the HD don't decay.

But the CD-Rs do have a horrid decay rate due to the dyes.

That crap ain't an archive medium, especially if you toss it in your car.

 

[Demon Hunter]

I will try and re rip them and see what I get. Maybe a bad CD.

The only things I can add to this is that they were ripped using iTunes AAC and when I say they sound bad, its alot more then just the sound quality,I mean they skip, blank spots, I get that digital squel in one or two. This is on my iBook and I really only listen to the songs through the iBook speakers while doing misc stuff.

Ill have to see if they are on my iPod and compare the songs to see if they are both FUBARed. I will have to do this tommorow as my girlfriend has my iPod.

Sounds like a hard disk or circuitry issue.

 

[aussie_geek]

Encode everything at 192kbps aac or higher. Use error correction when ripping off cd's as well.