Switched from flac to mp3 - Page 2  

This is what I have been trying to say all along. LAME 3.9.9 --preset-insane results in 320 Kbps MP3s and they sound so transparent that it's very very difficult to tell the differences between the original CD, FLAC, and MP3 file under ideal ABX tests.

If I can't hear it then what's the point using 16 bit 44.1 kHz CD resolution material?

LAME has come a long way. It's an amazing old codec for an old format. It's too bad it's so old that it can't handle multi-channel hi-rez material, but for CDs it's just fine.

I get full listening satisfaction from my MP3s for CD resolution music. Saving a ton of disk space makes me feel better because I can purchase and download or rip more CDs in the future. I can easily double my music library full of LAME 3.9.9 --preset-insane 320 Kbps MP3s and not flinch at the amount of disk space consumed.

When you have more than 14,600+ songs, disk space becomes an issue regardless of audio codec or format even though I have 12 terabytes of high speed storage capacity. I'm trying to get the most value for my money by picking the MP3 format for CD resolution music. Now, I know it will take a very extremely long period of time and money to fill up my HDDs with more music and movies in the future by switching to lossy codecs and formats such as MPEG-4 M4V and LAME 320 Kbps MP3s.

I'm happy.

My ears are happy.

My purse is not happy, but I can replenish it quickly and easily.

14,606 MP3 songs takes up less than 150 GB at 320 Kbps bit rate. That's amazing in 2013. I can copy my music library to any digital audio player of any format and it will work so long as I have the disk space.

That's amazing too.

LAME 3.9.9 --preset insane 320 Kbps MP3s are the way to go for me in the future. There's no turning back for me now.

FLAC is for high resolution purchases in the future. It makes hi-rez material worth it.

AAC is an ideal lossy codec and format. I can see why Apple chose to ditch MP3 and go with protected AAC format. It's modern, super efficient, it has great psychoacoustics, and it can be wrapped with lots of DRM and it easily supports tagging. When you use Linux, your options are limited though. Protected AACs are a pain in the butt to read and modify on Linux. This is why I only bought 1 song from iTunes in the past decade.

I can't tell the differences between WAV and FLAC files even on my high end setup. They sound identical to me with numerous ABX tests. However, FLAC is preferred over WAV because it gets 40% compression ratio and it supports tagging and multi-channel hi-rez music.

Really, LAME 3.9.9 --preset-insane 320 Kbps MP3 is an ideal codec and format. It's now my favorite format for 16 bits 44.1 kHz CD quality music. FLAC is for 24 bit 44.1 - 192 kHz high resolution and multi-channel music. I understand the differences and advantages of both formats quite well.

Nero 400 CBR is too niche. It's extremely difficult to find digital audio electronics that read that format outside of a PC. I'd have to use VLC which is not a music management software player to read Nero files.

MP3 is not the most efficient codec available, but it's a stalwart. It gets universal support.

I get 4.4:1 compression ratio with 320 Kbps MP3s compared to WAV files. That's amazing!

I get 9.5:1 compression ratio with MPEG-4 .M4V compared to DVD-Videos. That's even more amazing!

The thing that I like most about MP3 is that I don't need to worry about transcoding from WAV or FLAC to another format because I know MP3 will be here to stay for a long time. CDs will continue to be pressed and sold worldwide for a long time. MP3s will continue to be encoded and sold for a long time.

I don't see the point in transcoding to the latest and greatest audio codec and format of the day just because it's popular. With my large library, it just takes too much damn time even though I have a System76 Leopard Extreme:

2nd Generation Intel Core i7-3970X Extreme Edition 3.50 GHz L2 15 MB - 6 Cores with Hyperthreading

64 GB - 8 x 8 GB - Crucial Elite Quad Channel DDR3 - 1333 MHz

4 GB nVidia GeForce GTX 690 with 3072 CUDA Cores

960 GB: LSI Hardware RAID 0 - 2 x 480 GB Intel 520 Series SATA III 6 Gb/s Solid State Disk Drive

CD-RW / DVD-RW Dual Layer [two of them]

Internal SD, Memory Stick, Compact Flash Card Reader

 Internal PCI Express 802.11 bgn

27" Full HD SuperThin Widescreen LED Display (1920 x 1080)

Logitech Wireless Illuminated Keyboard and Performance Mouse

3 Yr. Ltd. Warranty and 3 Yr. Technical Support

Asus 12X Blu-Ray USB 3.0 burner

LaCie 4Big Quad 10 TB USB 3.0 HDD

Western Digital My Passport 2 TB USB 3.0 Portable HDD

System76 Lemur Ultra Thin (lemu4):

Intel Core i5-3210M

Corsair Vengeance 2 X 8 [16 GB] 1,600 MHz RAM

Crucial M4 SATA-III 6 GB/s 128 GB SSD

Intel Advanced-N 6230 802.11 BGN

14.1" 1366 X 768 LED

Gigabit Ethernet

2 USB 3.0

1 USB 2.0

SDXC memory card slot

8X DVD burner

4.5 pounds

MP3 is an amazing format. Now, my friends and family members can share my media library remotely and securely since I use Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit GNU/Linux. We can share files quickly and play them easily on PCs, HDTVs, home entertainment systems, and my high end audio rig without any worries about compatible audio or video formats.

It's amazing!

System76 supports Ubuntu. My Leopard Extreme is designed for media consumption. I was able to rip, encode, compress, and convert my CDs on it in only 5 days. I found that using HandBrake utilizes the Intel Extreme Edition 6 core CPU and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 to rip, encode, compress, and convert DVD-Videos to MPEG-4 .M4V format in less than 4 minutes per disc. Blu-Rays take much longer because Ubuntu does not support hi-def video formats native. With Blu-Rays, I just rip the disc and I don't encode or compress or convert it to preserve the audio and video quality.

I do a lot of file sharing with family and friends all over the world. This is why I have WiTopia personal VPN pro and Ubuntu because I can setup user accounts and I can send GnuPG encrypted e-mail messages using Mozilla Thunderbird to my family and friends with their login credentials so that they can download whatever they want from my Leopard Extreme. I don't allow them to write or upload data to my System76 PCs. I must have at least 50 people that I'm constantly sharing data with daily. This is why I have Verizon FiOS Quantum Maximum Speed at 300 MB download and 65 MB upload speeds. Actually, I am getting 399 MB download and 86 MB upload performance on a consistent basis.

They complained when I used uncompressed DVD-Videos and FLAC formats because it took them too much time to download my stuff. So, I did some research and testing and I decided to settle for MPEG-4 .M4V because it's compatible with Apple devices and MP3 because it's well supported. Now, everybody is happy.

I always use 7-Zip to encrypt and compress file names for every movie or music album or e-book or .pdf file and I send GPG encrypted e-mail messages with the passwords. So, only they can get access to my Samba or VSFTP servers and only they can decrypt my files to get my media.

7-Zip supports AES-256 bits if you encrypt individual file names.

I have separate directories and sub-folders for my encrypted media files on my LaCie hdd. I also use LUKS full-disk encryption with AES 256 bits for all of my storage devices.

dBPowerAmp works with Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7. I have Codeweavers CrossOver for Linux 64 bit version 12.10.0. dBPowerAmp CD ripper and encoder are not known to work with CrossOver.

I use AudEX and Gnac and HandBrake to rip, encode, compress, and convert my digital media discs or files. They're FLOSS software.

I stopped ripping CDs a long time ago. I purchase and download MP3s or FLAC files from various online music stores. I get DVD-Videos from my library or friends and I use HandBrake.

It's all good. I'll look into dBPowerAmp by researching the Codeweavers support tickets and forums for Ubuntu 64 bit.

I have a LastPass Premium account with a 3 year subscription. I have two Yubico Yubi Keys for two-factor authentication. I also have a Upek FIPS compliant fingerprint reader to enable three factor authentication for my System76 PCs. I am an information assurance professional.

I have a Google account and I use Google Music Manager to upload my MP3s to my Google Play Music account for free. So, I have a cloud backup. I use CrashPlan+ to backup to my private cloud storage drive on my System76 PCs.

I enabled two-factor authentication for Google and Facebook and Yahoo and Microsoft accounts. I have a Verizon Motorola Droid Bionic.

I'm doing ABX tests between my FLAC hi-rez materials and MP3s and the differences are startlingly clear. This is where I draw the line in favor of flac. The problem is the CD format is over 30 years old that modern loss less and lossy codecs do an amazing job of compressing the bits with very little audible artifacts. I agree that WAV should sound the best, but flac sounds identical even at level 8 compression ratio. Comparing flac 8 compression to LAME 3.9.9 --preset-insane 320 Kbps MP3 results in very very minor artifacts which sounds almost identical in ABX tests. I'm enjoying the music more with MP3s for CD format music because I know it's highly compressed and it's well supported.

I just saved hundreds of gigabytes of disk space with no appreciable loss in sound quality.

It's a good day.

Exactly. MP3 will always be supported for the next several years just like FLAC. However, MP3 will have much wider and deeper support than FLAC. As I said earlier, I have no need to transcode between different codecs and formats as I have made up my mind. I have a strong preference for the MP3 format especially at 320 Kbps. It sounds damn good to my ears and I am a vocalist in a choir so I need to be aware of pitch accuracy and tonal balance. I find it difficult to conceive that the MP3 format or the FLAC format will gradually fade away for more popular formats in the future. There are just too many users with too much music data in these two formats to give up the ghost. I think that LAME 3.9.9 --preset-insane 320 Kbps MP3s are the limit of my hearing threshold. I don't think I can hear beyond the amount of information contained at that high bit rate in that lossy format without someone telling me what I am listening to in which format at what bit rate and what resolution.

I think that we have become conditioned as audiophile to accept nothing short of the best and we turn up our noses at anything that hints of inferiority. 320 Kbps MP3s are not inferior. They sound nearly identical to FLAC and WAV files to my ears according to my previous ABX tests. I did not want to share my results with an audiophile community like here, but I was compelled to speak the truth that I discovered in praise of 320 Kbps MP3s. It's still a very good audio codec and format that gets shortchanged by audiophiles.

I'd rather listen to 320 Kbps MP3s rather than nothing at all.