Does the Rhaphsody music service have any sonic limitations?

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witchdoctor

I love the Rhaphsody music service. $15 a month and I have a music library of nearly every CD I could think of. I enjoy being able to hear anything I want instantly but fear I am not hearing the same resolution as the music files stored on my hard drive. Has anyone created a Hi Rez version of using this service? Any special software, dacs, cables, etc?

mr_bill

Re: Does the Rhaphsody music service have any sonic limitations?
« Reply #1 on: 12 Jul 2009, 11:40 pm »
I use Rhapsody too and love it.
The sound seems very high resolution to my ears.

ted_b

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Re: Does the Rhaphsody music service have any sonic limitations?
« Reply #2 on: 13 Jul 2009, 01:01 am »
Rhapsody is a great service to find music, and listen to full songs or even albums.  However, it is purely an MP3 service; it is streamed at a fairly low quality 160kbps and downloaded purchased music is not much better at 192k (variable 256k for some music...which is getting there sonically but still way below redbook, and vastly below HiRez).  Rhapsody is where I go to find out whether I'll like the music, not the sonics.   :)

So, in summary, yes you are missing a lot of musical information at their sample rates, but if it sounds ok, and it's getting you into new music, that's all that matters.  No cables, etc will gain back any resolution.  It's not there to begin with.  Find what you like then go buy it at full fidelity somewhere else..

decal

Re: Does the Rhaphsody music service have any sonic limitations?
« Reply #3 on: 19 Jul 2009, 01:24 am »
ted_b  hit the nail on the head. I thought mp3 was okay until I heard FLAC downloaded material.Don't ask me to explain,I am computer illiterate!! All I can say is that it sounds 10X better than mp3.