MP3 320kbps CBR vs Loseless

[StrangerGuy]

...In a blind test?

 

[funboy6942]

Oh I can, night and day. Just listening to the way the cymbal crashes it makes me sick if you go any lower on the coding. I just cannot listen to any music uless it is done in ogg or aflac.

















Actually I cant hear the diff when it gets around 192. wma I cant hear a diff till you go under 96, or 92, hell 90 somthing.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It doesn't matter to me whether I can only hear the difference in 1% of my collection.

Having my CDs in lossless FLAC format means
1. I don't have to wonder about that 1%, it's exactly the same audio as on the CD.
2. I can transcode to other formats/bitrates as often as I want to with no lossy-to-lossy conversion artifacts. The transcoding from FLAC is exactly the same as ripping fresh from the CD.

Storage is cheap. On one 500 GB hard drive ($140 at newegg) I have over 1,000 CDs in lossless FLAC format plus about 800 of them transcoded to 192kbps MP3 for my iPod.

 

[GTaudiophile]

What mp3 portable players can decode OGG and FLAC?

 

[Ipno]

Unless it's played by live musicians playing finely tuned hand crafted masterwork instruments, it's all CRAP to me!

 

[ForumMaster]

i'll admit i usually can't but on certain tracks, for example classical music, when it is amplified, the lossy encoding will sound worse without a doubt.

 

[drinkmorejava]

I save everything in lossless just for posterity's sake, but I generally can't tell any difference. Classical music seems to be the most apparent for me, but I don't listen to a whole lot anyway

 

[alm99]

What software plays lossless FLAC? I have always done 320k MP3, but have considered doing lossless. Anyone have any guides anywhere or software to use?

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: alm99
What software plays lossless FLAC? I have always done 320k MP3, but have considered doing lossless. Anyone have any guides anywhere or software to use?

Foobar2K plays FLAC. I can hear the little compression chops in songs that I already have in .flac when I listen to them at 320 mp3.

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
What mp3 portable players can decode OGG and FLAC?

Any Rockbox supported device can. 4th gen iPod's are the easiest to setup for though.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

if you only will listen to losslessFLAC you have taken your OCD to0 far.

 

[tw1164]

most players that play wma can play lossless wma

 

[randumb]

99.9% of the time I can't tell a difference on my HD650s.

 

[uhohs]

Originally posted by: alm99
What software plays lossless FLAC? I have always done 320k MP3, but have considered doing lossless. Anyone have any guides anywhere or software to use?

pretty sure the flac installation download includes a plugin for winamp or other players.

 

[BigToque]

I rip all my music as FLAC.

I keep a 2nd copy of mp3's encoded at 192 VBR (--preset fast standard).

 

[MrBond]

I remember a few years ago, an AT'er did a thread where he posted samples of "lossless" versus "lossy" compression and asked people to vote on which was which in a poll.

He posted the files in such a way that you couldn't tell which was which - I think he ripped them from CDs, then re-encoded them into WAV format or something.

Anyway, the reason I remember it is because a lot of people got it wrong.

I have no idea who the poster was or how to even find it since the search is terrible. Maybe someone else remembers?

 

[uhohs]

Originally posted by: BigToque
I rip all my music as FLAC.

I keep a 2nd copy of mp3's encoded at 192 VBR (--preset fast standard).

same

 

[Sheep]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
What mp3 portable players can decode OGG and FLAC?

I love my old school iRiver H120. :heart:

Can't do FLAC but does have OGG support and has never failed me once.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
if you only will listen to losslessFLAC you have taken your OCD to0 far.

Agreed, and I'm a self-proclaimed audiophile.

 

[yhelothar]

There's a poll I made a while ago doing a blind test comparison between 128kbps mp3 and 320kbps mp3s. Half the guys here couldn't get it, and even then, the half that did get it right, a good percentage of them got it from guessing.
Unless you have REALLLLLY trained ears, you're not going to hear the difference between 320 and lossless.
Lossless is mostly for elistist nerds to brag about.

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: astroidea
...Lossless is mostly for elistist nerds to brag about.

And archiving

 

[Leros]

Is there any way to legally acquire lossless music online?

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: Leros
Is there any way to legally acquire lossless music online?

Metallica was (still is?) selling their last concert performances in FLAC on their website. You could buy every show they did on that tour. I think as MP3's, they were ~$10/show, and $14 for FLAC. Each show was roughly two CD's of music.

 

[Skeeedunt]

Originally posted by: astroidea
There's a poll I made a while ago doing a blind test comparison between 128kbps mp3 and 320kbps mp3s. Half the guys here couldn't get it, and even then, the half that did get it right, a good percentage of them got it from guessing.

Oh man, that sounds like a fun game. I wanna play

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
It doesn't matter to me whether I can only hear the difference in 1% of my collection.

Having my CDs in lossless FLAC format means
1. I don't have to wonder about that 1%, it's exactly the same audio as on the CD.
2. I can transcode to other formats/bitrates as often as I want to with no lossy-to-lossy conversion artifacts. The transcoding from FLAC is exactly the same as ripping fresh from the CD.

Storage is cheap. On one 500 GB hard drive ($140 at newegg) I have over 1,000 CDs in lossless FLAC format plus about 800 of them transcoded to 192kbps MP3 for my iPod.

Ditto, except they're in Apple Lossless so I don't need to transcode for my iPod (and I don't have half as many CDs as you do).