Flac vs 320kbps mp3?

[brownninja97]

Do any of you guys notice a difference between the above formats, i tend to stop noticing improvements in quality after around 260kbps and ive tested with my logitech z623 but also a few EV sw300 loudspeakers. Also with sennheiser hd598 with a mayflower dac(dunno which dac but its my uncles, he knows more about audio). Still i cant notice the difference, can you?

[naca1227]

I agree with your 260kbps, it may not be factually true but I can't hear anything that much better beyond that point. Maybe I'm a peasant but 128 is actually fine for me lol 

[brownninja97]

I agree with your 260kbps, it may not be factually true but I can't hear anything that much better beyond that point. Maybe I'm a peasant but 128 is actually fine for me lol 

For me it has to be 192 kbps or i will not listen, then again youtube has 128kbps sound

[Bluethulhu]

I can hear differences in certain genres, especially rock and metal. For genres like chiptune and some electronica, it's less noticeable, if at all.

[naca1227]

For me it has to be 192 kbps or i will not listen, then again youtube has 128kbps sound

Sadly I have to suffice with 128 because that's how I get my music (sorry world) albums are expensive as hell. A world of 320kbps is probably grand.

[_ASSASSIN_]

192kbps is absolute trash, 320kbps above only is worth my time

[brownninja97]

192kbps is absolute trash, 320kbps above only is worth my time

if its 320 then i will get it, sadly due to the type of music i listen to which is mainly music from animes and games means that the quality isnt always good.

[KamiKatze]

Recording spotify gives only 256 kbps.

 

If i had waaaay to much money I'd buy my own music library, just to have a good quality of it.

[Artem]

I selected the "extreme" music quality preset on spotify and ran out of my 3gb plan in 3 days lol.

 

EDIT:

 

3gb data plan on my phone, because I listen to spotify at work and at the gym all day.

[Guest]

I selected the "extreme" music quality preset on spotify and ran out of my 3gb plan in 3 days lol.

Yeah, I reserve my old iPod touch as my Spotify player; 300 songs fills up 8GB quick on extreme

[madknight3]

It's a little disappointing that all my music is from iTunes, so probably 128 Kbps AAC. I didn't know better at the time and the convenience of iTunes seemed great when I owned an iPhone (not so much now that I own a Nexus 5).

 

I can get all my music re-downloaded at 256 kbps AAC if I pay the $30 per year for iTunes match. This also gets me ad free access to iTunes radio I believe, but as far as I know Apple doesn't state the quality of the music played here and it's safe to assume it's not better than 256 AAC and likely worse.

 

Still, I'm thinking that the 256 AAC will be worth the upgrade and I wonder if I could notice a difference past that. I think Google Play offers better MP3 quality but unfortunately that isn't available in Canada. I may have to start finding a new source for my music.

[Ziommm]

Am I the only one thinking it depends on the music genre?

 

For heavy metal and casual pop music I don't really care, Natalie Imbruglia sounds just fine at 128k  .

 

But for minimal electro like Trentemoller, Ludique or Extrawelt, with crisp sounds and lots of details, 320k is needed.

 

It's the same analogy for movies, a master piece like "The Man From Earth"  is okay at VGA resolution, because everything is in the dialogs, the imagination does the rest , but for a Pacific Rim a high bitrate 1080p encoding is necessary.

[brownninja97]

Am I the only one thinking it depends on the music genre?

 

For heavy metal and casual pop music I don't really care, Natalie Imbruglia sounds just fine at 128k  .

 

But for minimal electro like Trentemoller, Ludique or Extrawelt, with crisp sounds and lots of details, 320k is needed.

 

It's the same analogy for movies, a master piece like "The Man From Earth"  is okay at VGA resolution, because everything is in the dialogs, the imagination does the rest , but for a Pacific Rim a high bitrate 1080p encoding is necessary.

Isnt natalie imbruglie in johnny english, that movie was bloody amazing.

[Maxibonbits]

I listen to a lot of Michael Buble, since a lot of his best music is live having the files in FLAC makes a very subtle, but noticeably unnoticeable difference (if you get what I'm trying to say).

 

Generally speaking i'm happy with 256+ mp3 files.

[Ashratt]

FLAC for archiving (although i don't use it) and mp3 for listening

[NannerBeans]

I'm pretty sure I can but it could be placebo effect too. Although I had a random mp3 which I believe was either like a 280k or 320k mixed in with my playlist on accident and I thought I could hear something off about it. I don't listen to a lot of different music anyway so the extra storage for FLAC files doesn't really make a difference. I have 10GB of music and half of that is from FLAC/WAV.

[Slinkey]

320 or above. I generally try to get FLAC when I can.

[mr moose]

Man I hate these discussions.  I want to invite people around to my studio and do the blind test here so I can put this to bed once and for all.  Debating online will never resolve the issue because it is too easy for people to simply say they can hear a difference when the reality maybe far from it.

 

 

For the record my personal collection is all 320mp3 ripped from cd's I own and my public playlists are all 128mp3.

[madknight3]

I just got my new headphones in this afternoon, Shure 440's, and I wanted to test this. I took a CD I own, Nightwish - Once, ripped the first three songs off at the different qualities with WMP and did a blind test with the help of someone using VLC player. Turns out I couldn't tell the difference between 128 and WAV Lossless.

 

Maybe my hearing is bad or I'm just not used to listening to audio differences. Maybe it's just the music I chose. Maybe the 440's aren't anything special. Maybe it's another factor. I don't know but the result is that I can't tell the difference in this situation.

[mr moose]

I just got my new headphones in this afternoon, Shure 440's, and I wanted to test this. I took a CD I own, Nightwish - Once, ripped the first three songs off at the different qualities with WMP and did a blind test with the help of someone using VLC player. Turns out I couldn't tell the difference between 128 and WAV Lossless.

 

Maybe my hearing is bad or I'm just not used to listening to audio differences. Maybe it's just the music I chose. Maybe the 440's aren't anything special. Maybe it's another factor. I don't know but the result is that I can't tell the difference in this situation.

your hearing is probably fine, the difference is very miniscule, you have to know what you are listening for to hear the difference.  If it was anymore obvious than that mp3 wold not be as popular as it is.

[madknight3]

your hearing is probably fine, the difference is very miniscule, you have to know what you are listening for to hear the difference.  If it was anymore obvious than that mp3 wold not be as popular is it is for.

 

That makes sense.

[jonnyyyl]

With regards to the 128k to 320k range, yes the difference is highly noticeable. Always go for 320k, whichever way you obtain it.

 

In my experience of using FLAC and 320k, there is a noticeable difference, but not material. Suppose I listen to my favorite trance or Sophie Milman song, a song that I am extremely familiar with. I can identifty very few, minor differences at the top range of the treble for difference sound files. In some instances, FLAC files seem to have a smoother, rounder experience. 

 

And in many situations, the extra quality may not be worth the extra space, and in some ways may not be in your favour because the files are so big.

 

That's my 2 cents on the issue.

[StormtrooperStu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjTxEwlypA0

 

Have a listen to Logan on that very subject.

 

I personally don't notice any difference over the placebo effect.

[LAwLz]

No I can't. It is possible to hear the difference (I have seen people get 90%+ in several tests in ABX Comparator), but you need to have very good equipment and more importantly, have trained yourself to know what to listen for. At that point though you are not really listening to the music but rather listening to the audio quality itself, trying to find defects. Some people enjoy that (*cough* audiophiles *cough*) but most people don't.

 

 

if its 320 then i will get it, sadly due to the type of music i listen to which is mainly music from animes and games means that the quality isnt always good.

I've found it to be the opposite actually. Anime music is easy to find in FLAC and for more mainstream music it is hard to find anything other than crappy MP3s. Guess it depends on what tracker you use though, ehhh I mean which store you buy it from.

 

 

 

FLAC for archiving (although i don't use it) and AAC or Opus/Vorbis for listening

Fixed that for you.

 

 

 

And in many situations, the extra quality may not be worth the extra space, and in some ways may not be in your favour because the files are so big.

I don't quite get this argument. For portable players I totally get it. Very limited space so you want to keep the file sizes down, perfectly reasonable. But for desktops? Let's assume that your average song is 20MB in FLAC, and the lossy format at around 320Kbps would be about 7MB (roughly 1/3 the size). You would need ~77 songs to make the FLAC collection be 1GB bigger than the lossy format collection.

The WD Green 2TB (not even the best price/GB drive on the market) has a price/GB ratio of 0.04. That means that each GB costs 4 cents.

It costs about 1 dollar per 2000 songs to store them in FLAC. That's next to nothing.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjTxEwlypA0

Have a listen to Logan on that very subject.

Can we please stop linking that video? It really is awful and is filled with half truths, lies, bias etc.

 

don't notice any difference over the placebo effect.

I don't think "placebo effect" means what you think it means...

[StormtrooperStu]

 

 

Can we please stop linking that video? It really is awful and is filled with half truths, lies, bias etc.

 

I don't think "placebo effect" means what you think it means...

I like the video.  Just because your opinion doesn't match theirs. 

 

So sorry. I really wan't aware that we had the worlds expert on sound within this forum.

 

By bias you mean opinion. Are we not allowed to have different opinions ?

 

By placebo effect I was really trying to illustrate the situation where if you are told it will sound better you will listen and think it does.