Cant hear the difference between: Mp3 128k and WAV 1411k - Page 2

I use V2 for most, unless it's something well-recorded, like Diana Krall, and then I use V0. No way I'd load FLAC or ALAC or WAV on a portable....lol.

I partially agree with Currawong. MOP can't benefit from higher bit rate or VBR or anything. I could tell the difference between my FLAC copy of Ride The Lightning and anything below 256kbps MP3 (320 got too close to tell). Some is noticeable more than others (as far as Metallica goes, some others are significantly easier to tell)

I usually can tell 128, 256 gets harder, and 320 is nearly impossible with my current setup (I have noticed one or two that sounded better as lossless on my iPod). However, I prefer to listen straight from the LP or CD most times anyway so I rarely even think about this "problem"

I can't tell the difference between a 320k MP3 and the same one I found as a 319kVBR MP3 though... although if anybody can I'd like to meet them.
Edited by sml1226 - 7/3/11 at 5:47am

my guess is that with your music tastes you arent used to looking for the differences, with that album you would just be happy if a passage wasnt clipping. in fact it would be hard to tell if it was ha. dont get me wrong i have nostalgic moments of listening to that album with good friends and getting wasted when i was a kid, but you would have no chance of picking the increase in dynamic range and resolution that file format differences give. as has been mentioned, compression formats have become quite good in the higher range, hell even vbr 256 is very good, but if the info isnt there to give......

 

you then tried to hear the difference with not terribly high quality gear, using music you are neither fond of, or familiar with, not much chance there either. 

 

its not as extreme as some can make out, but for sure there are noticeable differences.

I don't hear it either. 128kbps is good enough.

At 128kbps a lot of the loss is not the obvious in-your-face stuff, and many of the artifacts can be quite low level, I can not listen to 64 at all.

 

I did some work on the original MP3 and so I'm unfortunately quite attuned to the artifacts.  They can range from loss of ambience and space to hardness, and even strange pre-echo, ringing and other artifacts that you can hear in the background.    

 

256 becomes harder to hear the effects, but in general, I find lossless to simply sound more enjoyable and relaxed, especially if there are massed strings or very careful and subtle production.  256 kind of flattens things out.

 

I can't prove it, but the underlying psychoacoustic model behind lossy compression is that if you have a soft and a loud tone, most people (*most*) will only hear the loud tone.  For people who really listen deeply into the music or the "space" created by it, I think this assumption is problematic, and throwing out the low-amplitude tones is where the subtle cues that create ambience or harmonic texture just get lost, and the higher the compression the more you lose.

So to the OP and other commenters, agree totally that if Metallica is your music of choice, this may all be a non-issue.  Not much metal has subtle production (though a few do)...

with 128kbit or poorly ripped 160kbit I can tell a difference (mostly the upper cymbals get a woosh-woosh sound to them).

 

From 192kbit and up I usually can't tell (and hope it stays that way).  I can tell much easier a poor recording with my Sennheiser HD600 than with my Denon AH-D7000s.

Weird, I can tell the difference between some of my 320 tracks and my lossless ones. It's not often but some songs just sound a bit fuller. I do think some music lends itself better to higher bitrates. If a symphony is well recorded there's a world of difference to my ears, the same with things like Jazz. Where pop and electronica seem to be alright at lower bitrates.

 

I'm listening to a very good recording of "Adieu" (for those of you who know the Cowboy Bebop soundtracks) that's lossless and it sounds great. Though, I do wonder if the base shouldn't be a tad smoother. I'm wondering how much a decent DAC would fix that for me.