Audio Format - Best Quality

[Guest]

1 minute ago, spwath said:

uh, yeah you should. Ask anyone else here.

Should, does not mean it always does. 

[spwath]

10 minutes ago, IAmLamp said:

Should, does not mean it always does. 

it does what?

 

[anothertom]

13 minutes ago, IAmLamp said:

Nope. You don't have to go in any particular order. 

You don't have to, but it makes sense to make the biggest changes first so you don't end up with a massively imbalanced system.

tt

16 minutes ago, spwath said:

but again, you are asking the wrong questions. If you want best audio quality, you should focus on: Good headphones/speakers, good amplification, good dac, good masters, then finally the format.

I would say that isn't the best route, as it encourages spending more money on smaller upgrades than better and cheaper upgrades. I also think that limiting what you listen to to have 'good mastering' isn't helpful as the majority of music released has a single master which any release is based off. I say format first, as you presumably already own the CD and re-ripping costs you nothing, and depending on what you previously ripped to can have the biggest impact on listening experience. Then a good pair of headphones/speakers will give the biggest gain in quality. A dedicated DAC will provide a smaller upgrade over on-board than format and headphones will, and a dedicated amp will only really benefit a minority of headphones.

[Guest]

44 minutes ago, anothertom said:

You don't have to, but it makes sense to make the biggest changes first so you don't end up with a massively imbalanced system.

Not all puzzles start with the first piece. Do, you understand what I'm saying? 

[anothertom]

8 minutes ago, IAmLamp said:

Not all puzzles start with the first piece. Do, you understand what I'm saying? 

The words, yes. The reasoning behind it, no.

 

Audio is very much a shit-in-shit-out system, and more like a painting than a puzzle, there's no point doing the fine details until you've done the basics properly. Similarly, why would you spend hundreds on a good DAC or amp when you're playing shit quality files through them and using $/£20 headphones, and why spend hundreds on headphones when they'll be playing low bit-rate files?

 

If you said you had $/£200 to spend now, and $/£200 to spend in three months and you want to end up with a good pair of headphones and a DAC/amp, you'll get better satisfaction from getting the headphones first and the DAC/amp later than the other way round.