Loseless vs Lossy?

Ironically it's usually the other way round: Classical music is often a lot easier to encode. Try it for yourself: Configure your encoder to use variable bitrate (VBR) and then rip a track of classical music and a thrash/death metal track with identical settings. You'll find that the encoder will go for a much higher bitrate with the latter ... 

Henry Plainview wrote: I can only barely hear 16.7 khz. I used to have better hearing, and I don't even listen to that much music or very loud. :(

Everyone loses their hearing a bit over time. No worries.

A Person wrote: Slartibartfast wrote: ^^^^Here's someone to listen to.  He's 18 and hasn't made to that point in his 20's where most people lose the ability to hear certain frequencies. Now take it into a store and try out some higher end audio equipment for us. Funnily enough, the other day I was depressed to find out that about the highest frequency I can hear is 16.7 kHz, and a few years ago I am sure I could hear 17.7kHz. It is spot on for my age, but I can't help but think that maybe I have listened to The Mars Volta too loud too often. BTW, on August 20 I will be 19, so I am hardly 18. Can you hear these ultrasonic ringtones?

I can hear 18.8 khz.

Hey, don't forget about important thing with CD's. It's source, but what about old one vs. remastered version ? And when you have a lot of vinyls and you rip them to mp3 format, then you should have appropriate quality, right ? There's no point in making FLAC files from vinyl format. It's same when you make .AVI video from old VHS source. You can make it in 3000kbit/s quality, but it's real quality is about 500kbit/s or lower. Therefore, you have enormous file which is just not effective.

I hope you will understand my point of view, it's quite a hard to think about everything.

Slartibartfast wrote: ^^^^Here's someone to listen to.  He's 18 and hasn't made to that point in his 20's where most people lose the ability to hear certain frequencies. Now take it into a store and try out some higher end audio equipment for us.

Funnily enough, the other day I was depressed to find out that about the highest frequency I can hear is 16.7 kHz, and a few years ago I am sure I could hear 17.7kHz. It is spot on for my age, but I can't help but think that maybe I have listened to The Mars Volta too loud too often. BTW, on August 20 I will be 19, so I am hardly 18.

Can you hear these ultrasonic ringtones?

Edited by A Person - July 15 2009 at 23:46

^^^^Here's someone to listen to.  He's 18 and hasn't made to that point in his 20's where most people lose the ability to hear certain frequencies. Now take it into a store and try out some higher end audio equipment for us.


Edited by Slartibartfast - July 15 2009 at 20:43

Padraic wrote: Slartibartfast wrote: Actually, the CD itself is not really a lossless format.  What is being discussed is lossless vs. lossy compression.  The CD tracks are the source - their fidelity to the original music with metrics such as SNR or sampling rate is another discussion.

My point was that if you're already losing bits of the music when it's put into CD form, that you really shouldn't worry too much about even more at ripping lower lossy bit rates when you make a digital music file from a CD.  I'd recommend getting a friend to help you with an experiment.  Take a track you know well, rip it lossless and at various other bit rates and do a blind hearing test.  See how low you can go before the track really starts to sound like it's missing something, then go with the next higher setting.


Edited by Slartibartfast - July 15 2009 at 20:39

I have been wondering how much better 320 kbps is then 256 kbps, because my Pink Floyd file is taking up my undersized mp3 player ( only 8 gigs, and less than 700 songs)

Unless you REALLY care about the slightest bit of a difference, it doesn't matter. I don't care either way.

Actually, the CD itself is not really a lossless format.  Of course for those who like LPs better, because they sound "warmer", the LP isn't really a lossless format since there's the whole needle noise and scratches thing.  Basically all recorded music is an artificial reproduction anyway.  When it comes to ripping of CDs for using in a digital player, I go with WMA 64K for space conservation purposes.  Recognizing that I'll most like be listening in an environment where there will be extraneous noises anyway, you'll never get perfection.  When I do want to sit down and concentrate on the music, I'll play the CD using a nice set of headphones.

Edited by Slartibartfast - July 15 2009 at 20:37