I have a question for people who might know: Is there any reason for me to burn an audio CD to play mp3 files in my car when my car system will already play data direct from disk (mp3, wma,etc.)?

Is there any difference in sound quality between a data file and an audio CD?

The obvious advantage to the data files is I can store several albums on one disk (depending on the bitrate, between 5 and 12 albums) as opposed to say one album per audio disk.

Anyone with insight into this? Thanks.

The regular WAV format is said to sound superior to the compressed mp3 data on either a stick or burned CD but I can´t really hear the difference.

But the way you described it doesn´t really make sense to me...are you talking about mp3 songs burned onto a CD versus regular WAV data burned onto a CD or do you just want to use mp3s on a selfmade disk/CD ?

In a nutshell...people say mp3s don´t sound as good as wav-data.

No the data I'm talking about is mp3.

Is there any sound quality difference bewteen data and music/audio CDs?

WAV sounds better, but not if it's already been converted from cd to MP3 (as usually happens if you put your cd's on iTunes or other media player) and then back to WAV. You can't convert MP3 back to WAV and restore the quality as far as I know.

So to answer the question, I don't think there's any difference between an MP3 file and an MP3 burned to audio cd.

fms said:

No the data I'm talking about is mp3.

Is there any sound quality difference bewteen data and music/audio CDs?

Yes, like I said above....wav is superior to compressed mp3 data...but, honestly, I can´t hear the difference. Maybe it´s the thinner sound but that could be because I only listen to mp3s on my laptop or mp3 player, I have never blasted them the way I did and still do with vinyl or CDs or tapes on my stereo sytem´s loudspeakers.

fms said:

No the data I'm talking about is mp3.

Is there any sound quality difference bewteen data and music/audio CDs?

I don't think so. Someone might say there's a difference (because you're converting to a different format--from MP3 to WAV for the audio cd), but if there is a difference I think it would not be noticeable to most people on most systems.

The real difference comes from converting larger WAV (cd) files to compressed MP3 files, not the other way around.

As NDRU said, if it's mp3 data versus cd created from (the same) mp3's then no, there is absolutely no difference.

If the mp3's were created from a lossless format (e.g. wav) and the cd was burned from the same wav's, then yes there will be a difference as mp3 is a lossy format and will have dropped some of the audio information. It is unlikely that that difference in audio quality will make any actual difference to what you hear (depending upon how good your ears are, or how good the system you play it on is, or how much you care to lie about it). I can never spot any difference (unless the mp3 is a really low bitrate).

Similarly, if you rip a cd to a lossless format (usually wav or flac), then there will be no difference in quality between the cd and the data versions.

AsylumUtopia said:

As NDRU said, if it's mp3 data versus cd created from (the same) mp3's then no, there is absolutely no difference.

If the mp3's were created from a lossless format (e.g. wav) and the cd was burned from the same wav's, then yes there will be a difference as mp3 is a lossy format and will have dropped some of the audio information. It is unlikely that that difference in audio quality will make any actual difference to what you hear (depending upon how good your ears are, or how good the system you play it on is, or how much you care to lie about it). I can never spot any difference (unless the mp3 is a really low bitrate).

Similarly, if you rip a cd to a lossless format (usually wav or flac), then there will be no difference in quality between the cd and the data versions.

Yeah, and I think in the car there is so much other noise that any difference would not be apparent.

My vehicle has no CD changer, but the single-disc CD player has mp3/wma playback capability, so I burn several albums worth of 320kbps-constant mp3s in their respective folders onto a CD-R. The upside is less physical disc changing and longer playing times per disc. The downside is the sound quality suffers slightly(and most won't notice), but in a car with all it's inherent ambient noise, it's not that huge of an issue. FM radio is comparably a bit lower quality than 256kbps but higher than HD Radio, so 320kbps is a very decent upgrade from those formats.

fms said:

No the data I'm talking about is mp3.

Is there any sound quality difference bewteen data and music/audio CDs?

I don't think there is. Really the only difference is that if you burn the mp3s into an udio CD, you'll only get 80 minutes at most. If you burn them as an mp3 data CD, you can fit hours of music...

MidniteMagnet said:

fms said:

No the data I'm talking about is mp3.

Is there any sound quality difference bewteen data and music/audio CDs?

I don't think there is. Really the only difference is that if you burn the mp3s into an udio CD, you'll only get 80 minutes at most. If you burn them as an mp3 data CD, you can fit hours of music...

Right. All that happens with an audio CD is that it will re-format the mp3s to the larger lossless CD codec. The missing bits of information are still going to be gone forever after they were converted to mp3. Up-converting to WAV/Aiff won't lose data, but won't regain data either.

Lossless Flac, Ape, WAV or Aiff are the best starting points for a good audio CD. Ogg is lossy, no matter what anyone says otherwise, though it's more efficient than mp3 as is wma.

squirrelgrease said:

My vehicle has no CD changer, but the single-disc CD player has mp3/wma playback capability, so I burn several albums worth of 320kbps-constant mp3s in their respective folders onto a CD-R. The upside is less physical disc changing and longer playing times per disc. The downside is the sound quality suffers slightly(and most won't notice), but in a car with all it's inherent ambient noise, it's not that huge of an issue. FM radio is comparably a bit lower quality than 256kbps but higher than HD Radio, so 320kbps is a very decent upgrade from those formats.

Yeah, that's me too. Cd-Rs with folders of one artist, different albums. Hours worth of driving music on a single disk.

Other downside to that is with live music, you get big gaps between song instead of a smooth transition from track to track. I'm also kind of OC about artists/albums/etc. and like to have actual audio CDs too

KoolEaze said:

The regular WAV format is said to sound superior to the compressed mp3 data on either a stick or burned CD but I can´t really hear the difference.

But the way you described it doesn´t really make sense to me...are you talking about mp3 songs burned onto a CD versus regular WAV data burned onto a CD or do you just want to use mp3s on a selfmade disk/CD ?

In a nutshell...people say mp3s don´t sound as good as wav-data.

not over all that engine noise

I make mp3 discs so I can have 10 albums on one and not change discs for a year

squirrelgrease said:

My vehicle has no CD changer, but the single-disc CD player has mp3/wma playback capability, so I burn several albums worth of 320kbps-constant mp3s in their respective folders onto a CD-R. The upside is less physical disc changing and longer playing times per disc. The downside is the sound quality suffers slightly(and most won't notice), but in a car with all it's inherent ambient noise, it's not that huge of an issue. FM radio is comparably a bit lower quality than 256kbps but higher than HD Radio, so 320kbps is a very decent upgrade from those formats.

I totally agree with you. I have the same issue in my truck. I have a factory radio that has mp3 capabilities and it works well, but the quality is different. Even with high quality mp3s, they still suffer in quality. I find that the music sounds better playing through my mp3 player than through the mp3 cds.

The upside for me is that I always can have a few albums worth on one cd and not have to worry about running the mp3 battery down.

ZombieKitten said:

KoolEaze said:

The regular WAV format is said to sound superior to the compressed mp3 data on either a stick or burned CD but I can´t really hear the difference.

But the way you described it doesn´t really make sense to me...are you talking about mp3 songs burned onto a CD versus regular WAV data burned onto a CD or do you just want to use mp3s on a selfmade disk/CD ?

In a nutshell...people say mp3s don´t sound as good as wav-data.

not over all that engine noise

I make mp3 discs so I can have 10 albums on one and not change discs for a year

a year?!!

I'm gonna have to burn some data discs. I am tired of discs everywhere in my car

NDRU said:

ZombieKitten said:

not over all that engine noise

I make mp3 discs so I can have 10 albums on one and not change discs for a year

a year?!!

I'm gonna have to burn some data discs. I am tired of discs everywhere in my car

I don't drive drive around that much, so I'd hear one or two songs at a time. When Peter Gabriel's UP came out, that was the only CD in my player for 4 months, and that was a regular store bought CD - which does sound amazingly amazing sound wise

[Edited 10/6/10 15:22pm]

Not only is it doubtful that you'll ever notice a sound quality difference, but you can put a whole bunch of albums on one disc instead of just 80 minutes. Very important if owing/carrying around an MP3 player isn't important for you. I'll never have another car stereo that doesn't recognize data discs of one kind or another.

NDRU said:

ZombieKitten said:

not over all that engine noise

I make mp3 discs so I can have 10 albums on one and not change discs for a year

a year?!!

I'm gonna have to burn some data discs. I am tired of discs everywhere in my car

Glad somebody already commented on this. NDRU, it's awesome. The multiple albums thing is great. I've got single data discs with every album from some of the bands I listen to on them. But imagine just being able to put in one disc with 100-150 of your favorite songs. It's like your own radio for the cost of one burnable CD.

Cerebus said:

NDRU said:

a year?!!

I'm gonna have to burn some data discs. I am tired of discs everywhere in my car

Glad somebody already commented on this. NDRU, it's awesome. The multiple albums thing is great. I've got single data discs with every album from some of the bands I listen to on them. But imagine just being able to put in one disc with 100-150 of your favorite songs. It's like your own radio for the cost of one burnable CD.

I hated back in the days where you had to bring along big CD folders, and then choose what to listen to, change discs at red lights etc I was always so paranoid my original discs would get scratched etc.

ZombieKitten said:

Cerebus said:

Glad somebody already commented on this. NDRU, it's awesome. The multiple albums thing is great. I've got single data discs with every album from some of the bands I listen to on them. But imagine just being able to put in one disc with 100-150 of your favorite songs. It's like your own radio for the cost of one burnable CD.

I hated back in the days where you had to bring along big CD folders, and then choose what to listen to, change discs at red lights etc I was always so paranoid my original discs would get scratched etc.

yeah man, I am living in the past!

I think my previous cd player did not play data discs, in my defense

NDRU said:

ZombieKitten said:

I hated back in the days where you had to bring along big CD folders, and then choose what to listen to, change discs at red lights etc I was always so paranoid my original discs would get scratched etc.

yeah man, I am living in the past!

I think my previous cd player did not play data discs, in my defense

Well, a lot of people live with an MP3 player, or even a phone, that can be plugged into their car stereo, too. In that case you could have a fairly large music collection in your hand at all time. I have no issues with that, but I'm not one to lug around electronic devices when I'm out of the house (I can barely remember to bring my no memory havin' phone with me as it is). So when I had a car I kept a binder full of data discs in it at all times. Several thousand songs on a stack of discs that I didn't care if they got scratched of stolen.

I'd be willing to bet with car DVD players and PCs becoming so common that some people can do this with burned DVDs as well. Would definitely have been nice to see what was on the discs on a screen sometimes.

My car has a tape deck.

sextonseven said:

My car has a tape deck.

as WELL as a CD player????

sextonseven said:

My car has a tape deck.

You can get a portable CD player that reads data discs and play it through your tape deck. You can even power if off your car lighter (which I'm assuming you still have because you have a tape deck ).

Cerebus said:

sextonseven said:

My car has a tape deck.

You can get a portable CD player that reads data discs and play it through your tape deck. You can even power if off your car lighter (which I'm assuming you still have because you have a tape deck ).

I used to do exactly that!

Cerebus said:

NDRU said:

yeah man, I am living in the past!

I think my previous cd player did not play data discs, in my defense

Well, a lot of people live with an MP3 player, or even a phone, that can be plugged into their car stereo, too. In that case you could have a fairly large music collection in your hand at all time. I have no issues with that, but I'm not one to lug around electronic devices when I'm out of the house (I can barely remember to bring my no memory havin' phone with me as it is). So when I had a car I kept a binder full of data discs in it at all times. Several thousand songs on a stack of discs that I didn't care if they got scratched of stolen.

I'd be willing to bet with car DVD players and PCs becoming so common that some people can do this with burned DVDs as well. Would definitely have been nice to see what was on the discs on a screen sometimes.

yeah I can plug in my ipod, but there is no way I'm going through all that trouble.

But I think I will burn some discs now!

ZombieKitten said:

Cerebus said:

You can get a portable CD player that reads data discs and play it through your tape deck. You can even power if off your car lighter (which I'm assuming you still have because you have a tape deck ).

I used to do exactly that!

Me too! The last new car I purchased was in early 1996 when cars still came stock with tape decks. It was quite a shock to me just now to think about that, though. I had that car until 2006, but it's crazy how long my main form of transportation has been that of the public variety.

I just played a cassette in my car the other day. It was this one:

sextonseven said:

My car has a tape deck.

I went the last two & 1/2 years with nothing but a hole in my dash!

Cerebus said:

sextonseven said:

My car has a tape deck.

You can get a portable CD player that reads data discs and play it through your tape deck. You can even power if off your car lighter (which I'm assuming you still have because you have a tape deck ).

I'm being facetious, my car also has a disc player as ZK pointed out.

I don't drive for long periods normally so one CD usually is good for an entire drive.

An iPod adapter for the odd road trip would come in handy though.