Re: RCA Lyra Questions

From: None (None_at_no.spam)
Date: 12/11/04 

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 20:45:03 -0600

"TB" <partyslammer@socal.rr.com> wrote in message
news:aQrud.11405$nP1.4804@twister.socal.rr.com...
> Hopefully I'm at the right newsgroup and someone can help me with a few
> questions regarding the RCA multimedia Lyra player.

Not really, but let's give it a try...

> I understand that it can handle various file formats but can it handle
> full bitrate WAV files? The reason I ask is because right now, I use my
> laptop

Check the RCA web site for full details.

However, probably not.

You might want to see if they support any of the lossless codecs, such as
FLAC etc., though. That reduces a wav by about half.

> connected via a USB connection to my Pioneer Home Theater receiver and use
> the laptop as a sort of audio jukebox playing full bitrate WAV files
> burned from cds instead of playing single cds through my cd player. Trust
> me, I can tell a huge difference on my home theater setup between a WAV
> file and any compressed soundfile like an MP3. However, I'd like something
> a little less

It is indeed possible you have excellent hearing. Some people do.

It's more likely though that you just have crappy mp3's. Probably low bit
rates, probably a too low high freq cut-off, etc. There are a lot of poor
mp3 encoders out there. And a lot of poor recomendations on settings.

Using the best mp3 encoder, LAME, at an average rate of 128kbps, you can
come pretty close to 'near cd transparancy'. If you use higher quality
preset-standard or even preset-extreme, you should be very very hard pressed
to tell the difference on all but a few samples. (Every lossy format will
have a few samples it does poorly on.)

Try doing a blind ABX test with a wav and an APS or APE lame mp3, and you
might start to wonder why so many other people put up with crappy 128k bps
junk they get off the p2p networks.

If you need even better quality, you could always use a better format, such
as Vorbis or MPC. Those two are pretty much at the top of the pile when
comparing general audio codecs.

iTune's AAC/MP4 is slightly better than LAME. They are supposed to come out
with a much much better tuned version sometime next year, and I would expect
it to easily beat LAME and approach Vorbis or MPC. So if you get a portable
that supports that, then you'll be in a good position for several years to
come.

WMA (Microsoft's Windows Media) is not as good as mp3 when it comes to
higher bit rates, although you can get listenable quality at lower rates,
such as for streaming. (Supposedly, WMA is utterly incapable of being 'cd
transparent'. It can sound good enough, but supposedly because of the way
it's designed, it can never be mistaken for the original audio cd, even if
you went up to 1024kbps or such.)

You might be interested in Roberto's public double blind listening tests for
128kbps.

http://www.rjamorim.com/test/multiformat128/results.html

(He, and people in general, don't do higher bit rate tests because so few
people can tell the difference with modern codecs. By the time you reach
256kbps (or such), very very very few people can tell the difference between
that and the original wav on real music, and even many problem samples.)

Try going over to RareWares.org and downloading LameDrop which easily lets
you drag & drop wav files. That way you can easily experiment with the mp3
quality. And perhaps the latest Vorbis and MPC, too. (Assuming you can
find a player that supports those formats.)

> Also, I believe the Lyra only has a 20GB HD but I noticed on this guy's
> eBay auction that he's selling a 100GB Lyra.

I would suspect it's an error.... Again, check the RCA site to see what
sizes they sell. That'd answer the question completely.