is the quality of downloaded music and a original CD the same?

Question

if i get music from a p2p or if i buy the original cd, do they sound the same?

Answer 1

The main thing to consider is the bitrate. Usually mp3 files on the net and p2ps are 128kbps ripped from CDs or downloaded from legit paid music stores.
CD audio is of better quality than 128kbps mp3s, but when mp3s hit the scene people thought the subtle (barely noticeable with most music to the mainstream music fan) sacrifice in quality was worth the space they saved.
Now that mp3s are not singularly dominant the other factor you have to consider is the format. WMA, Real-media, and most such proprietary formats aren't as good as the same bitrate mp3. Then there's mp3pro which claims space saving by what could be called 'audio interpolation', the music encoded to this format isn't bad as you'd expect and the space saving is huge. An mp3pro file is about half the size of its mp3 counterpart.
However it's best to stick with mp3 for most purposes. But then there's AAC audio, used by Apple among others. These are space-saving and have better quality than mp3s. That is to say a 128kbps AAC file is comparable in quality to a 192kbps mp3.
Sometimes people tend to be stupid and encode at a huge bitrate when the original file is at a lower bitrate, this won't increase the quality and if the original file had any 'bit-bumps' in its audio information these will be amplified in the hi-bitrate file.
So it's a good idea to download AACs or sufficiently bitrated mp3s.
PS- Most AACs have a .m4a extension and are gaining popularity among the underground music distro crowd.

Hope this resolves your question.

Answer 2

Not always,depends... An original CD actually sound better. A bit.

Answer 3

It depends on the bitrate of the song you get. Stick with 192 bitrate or higher and you'll have a good sounding file. The higher the bitrate the larger the file but also the better the quality.

Answer 4

Depends on which host your downloading from. The quality depends on the place you download in from.

Answer 5

It's format...any corrpution or file type change will make your sound sound worse. The CD will most likely sound the best.

Answer 6

Not always, It depends upon the site from where u downloading.

Answer 7

DEPENDS ON THE SOURCE.

Answer 8

it depends dude

Answer 9

it ought to be they're both binary, right?