[jojoarmani]

Hello

I am looking at getting an amp with DAC, separate or one unit.

My question concerns my source material from my computer. I know if i play lossless material, that on a DAC and AMP, compared to the soundcard, i am going to get a major difference. I have also read that even 320kbps will have a noticeably better sound.

However, i do have a bit of music encoded at 192kbps. What happens to it when it goes through the amp? Will i hear a difference, but for the worse? Will i hear just how bad 192kbps sounds like, when from the soundcard, it sounds just fine, but barely?

Thanks for your help.

 

[nutric08]

Hi!

If you enjoy your 192kbps encoded music now i see no reason you shouldn't enjoy it even more with an amp/DAC.

Obviously you will spot the flaws in such encoded music much easier but it will only make you to encode the music in higher bit rates.

In the long run you will only benefit from this situation. Hope this helped!

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jojoarmani /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have also read that even 320kbps will have a noticeably better sound.

With a good encoder, MP3s can be transparent (i.e., indistinguishable from the original) at bitrates far below 320kbps. You cannot assume that 320kbps MP3s will be "noticeably better" than a lower bitrate MP3. It may well be the case that you cannot hear any difference at all. The only way to find out is to test for yourself, preferably using something like Foobar's ABX comparator so that you do not know which file is which.

 

[jojoarmani]

I love the Foobar!

what i have in 192, i cannot re-encode so i am stuck with it. When there is a choice, i always go with EAC and FLAC'em! Hard drive space is so cheap nowadays, anyways!

Yeah, well i guess i will have to test it to hear fro myself.

 

[basman]

Dont forget to setup your DSP correctly in foobar.

 

[jojoarmani]

I won't... (Let me read up on it first) . I run foobar as is without touching the install settings. Thx; I'll take a look!

Hydrogen and techspot seem like a good start.

 

[basman]

Been using foobar without DSP for long time, until I heard about it from the threads in Computer Audio section....and I got addicted on it, really enjoy the sounds comi'n out on my cans.