[henrylee]

Hi ,i'm a sorta a newbie to all the audiophile things . I was wondering from a ipod with 128kb bitrate mp3 file would it be worth it to consider new headphones ? Now i got the cx300 ,se110 and i'm about to get the es7 . Since is coming stright from the 3.5m jack of the ipod classic and through the format i mentioned earlier ,would new headphones do much to the sound quality ?

since i have 8000 songs which is in that format i can not do much to change my music source .

thanx in advance

 

[Romulus1]

My personal experience has lead me to believe that it cannot hurt. I have a 50,000+ lossy library that I listened to for many years. When I started out I was using generic crap headphones. When I upgraded to Senn HD280's I was able to get a lot more out of the music. In other words, I was able to get more detail instead of having the tracks low quality revealed which made it a worthwhile upgrade.

Of course you walk a fine line when you upgrade. If you try to play 128's through really good equipment they could just sound terrible. However, if you get a reasonably price 'can that isn't too bad I think that you can get more out a 128 then you can get with something like a discman generic headphone.

 

[revolink24]

Of course it will change, though I will not say upgrade because it is all down to personal taste. The benefits of having higher quality headphones go far beyond being more analytical or revealing, they may show the problems in the source more but the improvement or change in sound will be there no matter your source.

 

[LingLing1337]

I cannot imagine an iPod and ES7 are revealing enough to make 128k a problem, though buying or ripping your music in 320 or FLAC would help a lot as far as SQ.

If you have a library that mainly consists of CD rips, you could work on re-ripping your collection.

 

[TheKisho]

Quote:

Originally Posted by henrylee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi ,i'm a sorta a newbie to all the audiophile things . I was wondering from a ipod with 128kb bitrate mp3 file would it be worth it to consider new headphones ? Now i got the cx300 ,se110 and i'm about to get the es7 . Since is coming stright from the 3.5m jack of the ipod classic and through the format i mentioned earlier ,would new headphones do much to the sound quality ? since i have 8000 songs which is in that format i can not do much to change my music source .

I know it's a pain in the butt but I think it's in your best interest to slowly upgrade your music to at least high bitrate mp3s [I don't know how many times I redid my library in different formats and rates]. You could probably get a bit more from your current headphones/earbuds by doing that. You'll start noticing the low bitrate of your mp3s shortly if you don't already. I don't know much about earbuds. You might be able to get the more sound quality your looking for from the es7. You could try a portable amp with you earbuds.

 

[backtoreality15]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheKisho /img/forum/go_quote.gif I know it's a pain in the butt but I think it's in your best interest to slowly upgrade your music to at least high bitrate mp3s [I don't know how many times I redid my library in different formats and rates]. You could probably get a bit more from your current headphones/earbuds by doing that. You'll start noticing the low bitrate of your mp3s shortly if you don't already. I don't know much about earbuds. You might be able to get the more sound quality your looking for from the es7. You could try a portable amp with you earbuds.

This.

Start by obtain higher quality (at least 256kbps or even lossless) when you get new songs. Then upgrade the old songs in your library which you listen to more often and just propagate down.

I still have tons and tons of OLD songs from the 90s that are 128, which I won't even bother updating because I rarely listen to them. (Maybe because their quality sucks, heh)

 

[fenixdown110]

You can get some cans more on the muddy side just for 128.

You shouldn't be able to hear most the flaws that way.

 

[skyline889]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LingLing1337 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I cannot imagine an iPod and ES7 are revealing enough to make 128k a problem

And why is this? The Ipod has been proven as a capable portable source and the ES7 a good for the money can. You can tell the difference between 128kbps and 320kbps even on ibuds.

 

[TheOtus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyline889 /img/forum/go_quote.gif And why is this? The Ipod has been proven as a capable portable source and the ES7 a good for the money can. You can tell the difference between 128kbps and 320kbps even on ibuds.

X2 Unless ES7 is much worse than I thought.

 

[krmathis]

Yeah, most definitely!
Even at 128kbps there may be audio data available which you do not hear because of limitations in your current headphones.

 

[mcmurray]

Quote:

Originally Posted by henrylee /img/forum/go_quote.gif since i have 8000 songs which is in that format i can not do much to change my music source .

It's never too late to start!

 

[Armaegis]

I only recently got some Grado 80's, but already I find I'm treading this fine line between enjoying my music more or getting annoyed at the low bitrates. It really depends on the song.

 

[parkchansu]

If you are using iTunes, which is usually the case around here, you can simply highlight songs that you want to convert by right clicking and clicking on "make apple lossless copy." It's not as good as WAV or FLAC, but it is definitely better than the stock 128. I did this on music files that I obtained through technically-not-legal means, where most files are 128, with a handful of 192's and 320's. Oh, and sampling rate is important too. 44100 is usually the case. Anything less than 30k and you're going to have problems after the conversion.

 

[iriverdude]

I deleted all mp3 music even 256kps a while ago, 128kps sounds horrid.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by parkchansu /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you are using iTunes, which is usually the case around here, you can simply highlight songs that you want to convert by right clicking and clicking on "make apple lossless copy." It's not as good as WAV or FLAC, but it is definitely better than the stock 128. I did this on music files that I obtained through technically-not-legal means, where most files are 128, with a handful of 192's and 320's. Oh, and sampling rate is important too. 44100 is usually the case. Anything less than 30k and you're going to have problems after the conversion.

What a waste!
Converting lossy files (you refer to 128, 192 and 320kbps) files to Apple Lossless will not increase the sound quality. You will just end up with files multiple times the size with exactly the same sound quality.
Audio data thrown away during lossy encoding can not be restore, simple as that...