Why Do Some People Dislike The MP3 Quality?
The MP3 format is almost synonymous with digital audio files, but they’re also known to produce poorer fidelity on playback. However, some people swear off MP3s while others can’t hear the difference: why do some people dislike MP3 audio?
Some people dislike the MP3 audio quality due to the loss of information and compression artifacts. Potential defects include mushiness, added noise, and lost sounds. However, audio quality varies based on the encoding algorithm, bitrate, playback devices, and listener discretion.
MP3’s lesser quality often isn’t noticeable. But there are times it can be unpleasant. Learning of alternatives and how to minimize degrading audio quality will help you manage your music, podcasts, and more.
Why Do Some People Dislike MP3 Quality?
MP3s are disliked by many for their poor reproduction of the original audio data. The MP3 format will reduce the quality of the audio it encodes because it is lossy-compressed. The information that is discarded cannot be recovered by the decoder later.
As a result of the MP3 encoding, audio can become “mushier,” components of the original sounds are lost, and artifacts are added. Audibly perceptible compression artifacts in MP3 include, but are not limited to:
- “Sizzles” or “swirlies” – poorly encoded high-pitched sounds and added noise
- “Pre-echo” – noise that resembles the sound that follows in the original recording
- “Ringing” – noise that follows the end of a sound in the original recording
When combined with good enough audio equipment, some people can easily pick out the difference between MP3 and CD-quality audio. MP3s are often described as lacking depth, nuance, warmth, impact, and other desirable qualities.
Why Does MP3 Lose Quality?
MP3s lose quality because the audio data is lossy-compressed. Uncompressed audio takes up a lot of space. For example, a 4-minute track of raw CD-quality audio is over 40MiB in size. Multiply that by an album, then a library, and you can end up with multiple gigabytes of audio. Such a scenario was unmanageable in the 90s when the MP3 standard was established.
Newer lossy compressed audio formats have significantly improved upon prior encoding algorithms. However, per the MPEG-2 Layer III specification, MP3s must be decoded in a standardized way, which sets a minimum on the amount of damage a conversion to MP3 will do.
The average storage of a PC in the mid-90s was 1 gigabyte. You can’t even get an iPhone these days with less than 64 gigabytes. Thus, lossy compression was essential as PCs simply didn’t have enough space.
Uncompressed digital audio information is usually represented as a sequence of samples, recording the amplitude of the sound wave at regular intervals. Instead, MP3 encoders transform the data into sets of frequencies. These frequencies are then selectively discarded according to a psycho-acoustic model that determines which frequencies are more important than others.
Despite gains in storage capacity, MP3 has remained ubiquitous due to its widespread support and fame. Its lossy encoders continue sacrificing the fidelity of the audio we listen to in the name of saving bytes to this day.
But compression doesn’t always mean being lossy. Compression can be lossless (the original file can be restored, like a ZIP archive) and lossy (some information is unrecoverably lost/discarded, like a JPEG image). For audio files, see below for the industry-standard lossy and lossless formats.
Why Do Some People Find MP3 To Be Adequate?
Many people find MP3 audio adequate because they can’t hear the difference. It is difficult to notice the flaws without knowing what to listen for. In addition, the impression of quality also depends on how distracted you are, among other psychological effects. Many people only listen to music when they’re busy doing something else.
Poor audio equipment is also to blame for people not noticing MP3’s lack of quality. For instance, if you’re listening to music through cheap earphones, it doesn’t matter if you’re listening to an MP3 or CD because the speakers can’t reproduce the sound well anyway. Ambient noise can also disrupt our ears’ ability to notice poor sound quality.
Furthermore, there is no single “MP3 quality.” There is no single way to encode an MP3 file. Some encoders, such as LAME, are much better than others, such as the original l3enc MP3 encoder. Better encoding can result in the same decoder producing much better results.
Most lossy encoders can also be configured to encode data at different bit rates. A higher bit rate means that the file is larger but allows more information to be preserved. The upper limit on the bit rate of an MP3 file is 320kbit/s. For reference, CD audio is 1411kbit/s. However, MP3 at 320kbit/s is usually sufficient to achieve “transparency,” where the loss is imperceptible.
It sometimes goes the other way, too. In some cases, people report preferring the compression artifacts of MP3s, such as when listening to a lecture.
Modern Alternatives To MP3
There are various great alternatives to the MP3 format. In fact, from a technical perspective, MP3 is seldom the ideal choice for any audio file, except in rare cases where it’s required by limited compatibility. If you want the roughly five to tenfold savings of lossy compression techniques and have the choice, consider the following options:
Ogg Opus is the best option in terms of the ratio of fidelity to size, being smaller while sounding better. Xiph developed Opus primarily to replace the Speex codec and thus supports streaming speech excellently, but it was also made with flexibility and the Ogg container format in mind. However, its main drawback is support. You may need a 3rd party media player like VLC.
AAC is often an ideal choice. It was developed by Apple as a successor to the MP3 format. The QAAC encoder produces better fidelity audio at similar bit rates compared to MP3 encoders. AAC is widely supported across platforms, especially within the Apple ecosystem.
Ogg Vorbis is worth trying if you’re a fan of open formats like Ogg Opus but want better support. It saves more space while still being audibly better on average than MP3 in blind, randomized testing. On the other hand, it’s not as universally supported or high-fidelity as AAC at commonly used bit rates.
Using any of the above with a bit rate of at least 196-256kbit/s will get you close to transparency, avoiding introducing perceptible defects in the sound.
How To Ensure Audio Quality Is Best Or Good Enough?
How can you avoid the hassle of trying to compress audio sufficiently while making sure not to sacrifice quality? FLAC, or its Apple counterpart ALAC, are lossless-compression formats that preserve the original waveform while typically halving the size compared to an uncompressed WAV or AIFF file. On the other hand, WAV and AIFF do enjoy more support on niche platforms.
Note that converting from MP3, or any other format, will not improve quality. Audio quality is only lost or preserved. Converting to a lossless format like FLAC or WAV will maintain quality, whereas converting to a lossy format like MP3 or AAC will cause a loss in quality, regardless of the audio source. So converting an MP3 to FLAC is pointless. It’ll be the same information, just more data.
Thus, always convert from the audio source. If the source is a lossy file, it’s often best to leave it as-is unless you need to change the format for compatibility.
Conclusion
If you have a collection of MP3s you’re happy with, there’s usually no need to worry, nor much that should be done. If you’re saving recorded audio, converting from another format, or trying to squish a podcast onto your phone, avoid MP3 and go with Opus, AAC, or FLAC/ALAC instead.
