High Quality Audio Files

I'm pretty new to car audio. But Iv'e been doing a lot of reading lately about how most modern music is really compressed and doesn't sound as good on even a half decent system. Since a lot of you guys seem to know a lot about this stuff, where can you get high quality music files from? I have a Kenwood eXcelon X300 head unit and I usually play my music from a thumb drive with the front usb port. Is this a good way to go?

 

Yes an MP3 file is compressed but there is a reason for that if you want to get more than a few files on a thumb drive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3 Frankly I doubt you could hear the difference.

 

I was more talking about the compression used in the production of the files. Mainly from reading this article on th JL audio site https://jlaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204374260-School-Of-Sound with the crest factors of the music from the 70's and 80's being way higher (around 22 db) compared with a lot of the new music being as low as 9.5 db

 

sorry the article is on the page I linked its called A_Short_Course_Audio_081211.pdf

 

I usually download my music in .flac format and convert it to ALAC (.mp4) before importing it to iTunes and my iPhone / iPod. It can be tricky to hunt down lossless audio formats. Usually buying legitimate CD's and importing them to iTunes using lossless settings will work, too.

 

www.hdtracks.com is a site i've seen mentioned the most. but as you pointed out, it's only as good as the approach the recording and mastering studios took. if you're into anything mainstream then chances are it's going to be heavily compressed and the highest bit and sample rate will net you very little gains. lesser-known acts and studios are true lovers of the art and put in the time to produce high quality recordings. they're not in the game to turn a quick buck on a talentless, overly-produced pop star.

with that said, there's a balance when you have a limited amount of storage space and a limited means to obtain high quality tracks. i myself have leaned more towards lesser quality but access to a greater library. i still buy my favorite artist's music on CD and rip to WAV in itunes. but for music that i rarely listen to or don't like enough to warrant buying a CD, i just rely on apple music. 256kbps is enough in a car environment and i have access to a huge library. complete playlist access and integration through my pioneer head unit was also a motivating factor. i tried many streaming services (spotify, tidal, etc.) and while they did give me access to a lot of music, it did not compare to what i can get through apple music. my itunes library is on a 120GB ipod and apple music is saved on my 64GB iphone. the dual USB ports on my DEH-80PRS allows me to connect both while in the car. i haven't run out of storage space yet.

 

Thanks for the responses guys

 

if you want to look up your favorite artists songs/albums for DR

http://dr.loudness-war.info/

this isn't the end all of audio quality, they can still be terribly recorded with high dynamic range. a high DR just hints at them not brickwalling the db meter on final mix or massive compression.