Finally breaking down and doing it. I've ripped my CD collection a couple times. First in 128k mp3. Then in OGG 'cause I could hear the artifacts. Now I'm hearing what I assuming just to be a bad encode on some of my OGG files, plus the album art isn't coming up on them.This time around is going to be the last time! Flac is going to be my master digital version. foobar 2000 is going to transcode to whatever format I need from here on out, but I'll have my perfect lossless versions on disc so I don't have to sit and baby sit ever again. I think I'll probably just go 256k vbr mp3 with the latest lame codec for the phone. Its hard to justify more on a portable.

 

FLAC/WAV ftw. I feel sorry for the people that say they can't hear a difference. There's a good demo of "compressed vs. Uncompressed" on one of the Focal Test CD's. I'm sure you know this, but for anyone else looking in here...you can go from a lossless format like FLAC and convert down to mp3, etc but you CAN NOT convert up. Once that information has been encoded in a format, it's lost.

 

You can't hear the difference between FLAC and a 244kb v0

 

alot of the people that say they cant hear the difference is because their listening to the audio on a sub par audio setup or on a set of shitass headphones.

a while back i had one of the guys that works with me listen to a 320 and then a flac song and he said he couldnt hear the difference. I asked him where he listened to them and he said on his laptop..... i wanted to slap his ears off his head.

 

^ Exactly. That's like saying you can't feel the difference between an Acura TL and a c6z. I mean cmon lol

I would venture to guess that a lot of people that think they're listening to Flac aren't. They likely ripped an MP3,etc up to Flac, which isn't possible.

 

The hell type of comparison is this, lol.


I'm curious to know what kind of equipment you guys have to be able to tell the difference?

I know it sure isn't happening in a car environmental.

 

Why wouldn't it be happening in a car environment? .....

 

A car is like..the worst environmental for a true audiophile.

Shitty speaker placements
road noise

shit like that

 

Certain homes aren't much better though. I'm sure there are cars that are much better for listening environments than some homes. Oh well, my ears can tell a difference. That's all that matters to me

 

Have you ever done an ABX test? IE not knowing which sample you're listening to. Its easy, and I mean *real* easy to convince yourself you hear a difference when you know what is playing.

I'm ripping flac so I never have to touch the discs again, not because I think I can hear the difference between it and high bitrate compressed.

 

Yea I have...and yes I can hear a difference. It's more pronounced with my home audio setup but I can tell in the car also. Not trying to start an argument but some can hear it, some can't. Endo story

 

I've taken the test and have been right every time. The better your system is, the easier it is to tell but I could even tell on my cheap computer speakers.

It's also interesting how much amplifier power is needed for a good high dynamic recording. Over on DIYMA they did the math a while back and to listen at a moderate level and deliver the dynamics as they should, even 150w is the lower limit.