Question for Amazon.com MP3 Music Download Customers

I have never purchased an album from Amazon in mp3 format ... call me old fashioned and stubborn, but I always assumed the quality would be seriously compromised.  But there's an album I want that's out of stock, so that got me thinking maybe it's time to try.  After a little googling, I found that there seems to be some disagreement on the web over the audio quality, but many folks say the Amazon encoding specs. offer a near-CD listening experience, even on good playback equipment.
 
So, any opinions here? 
  
Also, my intent would be to use LAME to transform the downloads into .wav files and burn those onto a CD.  Is this, in fact, possible with Amazon mp3 downloads?

You can convert any audio format into .wav. After all, when you play an MP3 or any other format, your computer is "unpacking" it to a .wav before it comes out of your speakers. 

The quality of an MP3 very much depends on its bitrate. In the early days of MP3 downloading, most of them were sold @ 128kbps which is a very low bitrate and sounds like crap (unless you're listening to it on some really crappy earbuds in which case you probably won't notice). Nowadays the general standard is 320kbps, so make sure the MP3's are at least that. 

There are plenty of articles out there which talk about (and test) whether or not people can tell the difference between 256kbps and higher bitrates. Most of them conclude that the majority of people can't tell the difference. I don't really buy that though. I can definitely tell - to me, the bass sounds a little generic and undefined at 256kbps, but at 320kbps I can hear the instrument coming through.

Unless you're a pretty hardcore audiophile, you're not going to be disappointed with an MP3 @ 320kbps. Properly encoded, they sound very good indeed. Unless of course you have a particularly good set of ears and are listening on very high end equipment, in which case you'll probably notice the limitations of the format. 

For me, nothing beats the sound of vinyl on a high end system. However, most people have been prepared to sacrifice a little of the quality for the convenience of compressed digital audio. At the end of the day I think we can become obsessed with audio quality, especially if we're musicians....but you have to question how much it really affects your enjoyment of the music. I can enjoy a song on AM radio. If it's good enough music, I don't really care. 

call me old fashioned and stubborn

You're old and stubborn! 


Not exactly what you asked for but no one else stepped up to the plate so ya get what ya get.  


Mike