Last week while charging my mp3 player, just a 1 gig shuffle style, I downloaded a firmware update. When I turned it on I noticed the playlist started over so I began to arrow backward to find where I left off. The player eventually jammed for some reason and quit. Reset didn't help. I ran the mp3 rescue thing and of course it reformat my player. So I proceeded to download the songs from my library which is less than 200. Although not many songs there were always some that didn't fit because of the settings I had my files set to. I wanted the best sound possible so it was on the largest setting. Well, when my download was complete I noticed I had 266 MB left. What? The only thing I can figure out is maybe either the rescue program or the firmware update some how changed my settings back to whatever factory was. It was late so I figure instead of trying to reset everything and downloading again I'll just listen like it is until I get more time.

I expected to turn on the player and be horrified but instead what I found was a trade off. When the music files were large I got a sense of everything being close together and congested. The smaller files sounded wider and more open. The only thing I can figure is it's an illusion because so much is gone or possibly some EQ done to the small files because they were very balanced in response. Now, the smaller files had much less bass. On songs I'm familiar with there is definitely a noticeable lack of detail. Like on a certain Smashing Pumpkins song the distorted guitar almost sounds like a wall of distortion, this is scaled down quite a bit on the smaller file. On Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Aeroplane toward the end when the children come in it's a pretty big part of the song but on the smaller file the kids were in the background more and it sounded like there were less participants. Also, on the smaller files everything has what I can only describe as a fragile or hollow feel to it. It's really wild, it's like you hear an instrument but you only get part of the picture.

So the trade off: smaller file more songs, sense of a more open sound stage but songs can sound different from the original and not have the wide range of frequency response and impact vs. larger files less songs, more info and wider fuller frequency response but everything sounds squeezed into a small space.

I think I tend to like the larger files better but being this is just for commuting being able to fit more songs tipped the scales to leaving things the way they are. I could live with the lesser frequency response because it does relieve that sense of everything being squeezed but it is going to be hard getting used to songs sounding different from the original. Hearing this I am certain at least one radio station uses mp3. When the format changed from Jazz to whatever they are now the sound quality changed and I could never figure out why but the characteristics is just the same as I experienced on my mp3 player.

Could it be the smaller files need less compression, so maybe that's why they don't sound as squeezed into a small space? Anyway if anyone has heard different size files I'd be interested in getting your thoughts.