Re: [Phys-l] iPod music compression

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

Anthony Lapinski wrote:

> I have 3000+ CD's, and am thinking of buying an iPod. 

You shouldn't rip 3000 CDs all at once.  Do one or two,
check out the results, adjust the settings, and iterate.

> Does anyone know how
> the iPod compresses songs? ...

Most (if not all) iPods can handle AAC, which is better than
MP3.  That is, it provides a uniformly better tradeoff of
sound-quality versus compression-ratio.

> > And can a music enthusiast like myself really hear a difference between
> > the compressed music file and the original song on CD?

Any encoder at a low bit rate: yes.
AAC at a reasonable bit rate: probably not.

> Specifically, what frequencies get chopped off?

That's not how it works.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding