Seriously folks - a quality metal cassette recorded on a good deck (Nakamichi, for example) with Dolby B or C will have sound quality indistinguishable from a CD in the high ambient noise environment of an automobile. And furthermore, a cassette recorded from an LP will sound infinitely better than the common 128 KBPS MP-3s stuffed onto a CD or played through an iPOD. Yes the new technology can sound better - but the fact is, as most folks use it, it does NOT. Unless your MP-3s are at least 192 MBPS, you are listening to garbage. Good equipment from the 1970s sounded much better than what most people listen to today. So much for progress.

I'm serious. People think that just 'cause its digital, it must be good. On the contrary, full CD quality is 320 KBPS which is never found at the usual music download web sites. People pay a buck to download 128 KBPS garbage. And people who know still say LPs sound better than CDs because they are not digitized at the very low standard of 44.1 KHz ... roughly two data points defining the waveform for a say a cymbal on a drumset. If you know any math or physics, you know the truth of what I say.

 

I used to listen to MP3's all the time in my other car. It sounded great. I had a killer system. You can tell a difference from MP3 to CD quality, but in a car, MP3 is great. I can put 14 CD's on one disk. Better than tape quality. Maybe not for home stereo, but great and usually free. No Complaints here.

I would however not pay 99cents for MP3 or buy and album on line and download just for convenience. I think that is a rip off. I would go and buy the CD.

 

I only download 256kbs and above MP3's, and never had a problem finding these files on the internet. I would never bother putting anything less than a 192 file as there is quite a noticable audio difference.

 

i've bought some songs off of the internet and the sound quality was fine. i like it that way because i make my own cd of songs that i like without having to buy the whole cd.

 

I mostly agree. The noise environment of the car will mask the slightly higher S/N ratio of the Dolby cassette. But the dynamic range will also suffer slightly compared to MP3.
Again, mostly agree, but it depends on how good your source LP audio is. If you have a great turntable and take the time to clean you records meticulously, that's one thing. I personally can't stand crack & pop sounds. They just ruin music for me.
You meant 192 kbps, perhaps?!
Really good equipment, maybe. I seem to remember old tape machines with hiss that would drive away snakes. Even pro Dolby A was pathetic.
You are very right here. But I think lots of folks now have a good concept of digital compression garbage. Ask anyone how their cellphone sounds compared to landline voice quality.
Actually, full audio CD "red book" data rate after FEC removal is 1.47Mbps.
Hmmm. Here is where there is lots of controversy. If you truly go by the math and physics of quantum sampling, a 44.1 kHz sample rate will absolutely and correctly capture frequencies known to be distinguishable by the human ear. But I agree there are lots of arguments being made now that get into psychoacoustics and human capabilities to somehow perceive, if not hear, frequencies beyond 20kHz.

 

yeah... but try throwing your record into your car!

actually... one thing digital music has over analog is it's potential for mobility. u can move around digital music as much as you want and it will not degrade. this is where digital sound far exceeds analog. i can make a copy of a copy of a copy... and it will still sound like the original (given the same standards on each file). try doing that with your lp to tape. plus look at the conveniece with the internet, zip drives, memory cards... etc. i'm not a true audiophile... so minor things in sound quality don't bother me at all.

 

I would have to agree with number2 for the most part.