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Best way to encode audio without audible loss?

post #1 of 6
8/10/10 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 

I have an iPhone 3GS 8GB, and over 30GB of music. I know I'm not going to be able to fit most of it on there, but I'd like to be able to get around 1000 songs on there if possible in good quality.

Right now all of my songs are in either FLAC or MP3 CBR 320kbps. What's the lowest bitrate I can go without hearing a quality difference on my Koss Porta Pro's? I won't be using an AMP, just my iPhone and my Porta Pro's. I'll be transcoding everything in VBR for the best quality.

I know the iPhone doesn't the best sound quality and I won't be using an amp, but the Porta Pro's are pretty good so if there's a noticeable audio loss I'll hear it which I don't want.

 

Thanks! :)

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post #2 of 6
8/10/10 at 1:06pm

Transfer FLAC and 320 versions of a few of your favorite albums to the iPhone and listen for a difference. Easy enough to do.

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post #3 of 6
8/10/10 at 1:41pm

Only your ears know the answer to this question, but MP3 V2 should be transparent to most people, and with your audio chain will be good enough unless you have golden ears.

 

However, don't transcode your 320kbps to V2, leave them as is.

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post #4 of 6
8/10/10 at 1:46pm

I typically use v0 mp3 for my dap and it sounds great. It doesn't take up too much memory where most of them are typically around 5-8 mb or so. Of course if you have 320kbps only then you can't do much but if you have lots of flac you can encode them to whatever you want.

 

I suggest you pick a song or two or however many you want and try out 320kbps, v0 mp3 and others to see which one you like best to you however.

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post #5 of 6
8/11/10 at 1:32am

That only you can answer.

All we can do is guide you, but in the end what may be transparent to some may not be to you. Some find a well encoded 192kbps file to be transparent, while other do not find 320kbps to be transparent.

 

I would give LAME V0 a try. If that is transparent then continue to use it, or else consider going Apple Lossless

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post #6 of 6
8/11/10 at 3:44am

Lame V0 is generally the best sound quality/size ratio there is. I highly recommend it for portable use.

 

Here's a handy graph.

 

Lame-chart-2.png

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