Source: flicker.com
YOUR MUSIC SOURCE: To gain the most benefit from any music you enjoy, either listen to the CD itself or download it as a .wav file to your phone, media device or computer with Exact Audio Copy . (This program is free to download!) This program gives the most error free conversion to a .wav file we have found. If your music is 40 minutes long, it will occupy approximately 400 mg of space.
YOUR DELIVERY SYSTEM: “Invest” in your hearing when selecting headphones. We recommend either ‘Noise isolating’ in-ear headphones (See photo at right.) or normal headphones that cover the entire ear, both types with a frequency range of 20Hz – 20,000 Hz. Basic ear pods that are supplied with most listening devices increase distortion, have a limited frequency range, and permit audible, ambient noise. Prolonged use leads to stress-related tension & long-term hearing loss. (Learn more about this with the links at the bottom of the page.
.wav files
.wav vs .mp3 – What’s the difference? .wav and .mp3 are both digital audio file formats. .mp3 has gained popularity through file-sharing, internet radio and downloading music tracks over the internet due to faster download speeds, but .wav files are the industry standard for CD-quality recordings.
An .mp3 audio track downloads faster than a .wav version of the same track because the file size is smaller than a .wav version – approximately one-tenth of the size. The difference is achieved through eliminating some of the data from the original recording. Once music is compressed into an .mp3 file, there is no going back.
You don’t get the data back by reconverting to a .wav file.
.mp3 format has revolutionized our music listening and buying habits and offers a cheaper alternative to buying CDs, but the hidden ‘cost’ lies in a loss of quality of your listening experience which is not so easily determined.
WHY USING .wav FILES MATTERS: CD quality/.wav files provide a good representation of the original music while .mp3 files do not. With .mp3, material or data has been removed based on what’s known as ‘psycho-acoustic modeling’. The graphic on the right shows this concept in a basic way. Whole frequency bands are taken out of an .mp3 recording, only sounds that are hard to hear or are considered less meaningful to the Mp3 compression algorithm being used. Psycho-acoustics is the study of how the brain processes sound. This processing is something that happens in the background that we do have control over. The more complete the data in the recording, the greater the potential benefit to our bodies. Our audible hearing range extends from 20 to 20,000 hertz (cycles per second) and we can ‘feel’ frequencies both higher and lower than that. The data lost with .mp3 compression are in our audible frequency range. The habitual listening to .mp3 files has been shown to cause our hearing mechanism to become lazy. After listening for extended periods of time to .mp3 students showed the preference not to listen to CD quality sound. Click here for an in-depth article from the magazine “SOS” (Sound On Sound) about Mp3 and similar lossy compression formats. Learn more about audio compression.
A LITTLE PHYSICS OF SOUND: Everything in our physical world vibrates, whether it’s a table, wine glass or part of the human body. Any object or ‘system’ responds most easily to its ‘natural’ or resonant frequency, producing the biggest spontaneous response with the smallest input of energy. (See the ‘Kids Prefer Poor Quality MP3’ link below.)
As we listen to any kind of music, sound waves pass through our bodies producing subtle movement in different areas, helping us release stress & tension , creating a ‘therapeutic’ benefit to our listening experience. The more complete the musical experience, the greater the potential benefit.
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