[Nuks]

Hey everyone, I've searched around, but can't really find what I'm looking for, so here goes.


I'm getting Ultimate Ear's super.fi 5's for christmas, and I'm wondering what settings to import my cd's with. Here's my scenario:

I have a 3rg gen 15 gig ipod, and for the time being, I'm trying to import using alac. However, that takes an awful lot of space, as you know. Eventually, I'd like to get a super-mini and a turbodock, but for the near future, it'll just be the ipod and headphones.

Will I notice a big difference in quality when moving from alac to aac? (keep in mind the headphones I'm using, etc.) I'm just trying to maximize space.

Also, is there any point in getting an amp? All my cd's will be imported using one of the above settings, but I also have a fair few albums downloaded, and they are usually at around 192 VBR... will an amp improve this? Do I even need to amp the super.fis?

Sorry about the abundance of questions, but I don't want to rush into anything without the proper knowledge.

Much thanks everyone.

 

[trains are bad]

Very few can ABX Lossless from 320 AAC. Almost nobody can ABX lossless from 320 AAC out of an iPod with IEMs.

So it depends on your opinion of the validity of blind testing.

 

[omendelovitz]

An amp through the line out of your ipod will do wonders for it... even with the IEM's...

 

[Nuks]

^ So you're saying that, until I get an amp, 320 would be fine? and then when I get it I should make some space on my iPod and re-rip to lossless?

 

[unkoman]

My portable set up is ipod(4thg)->sik din->go-vibe v3 w/ ad8066->e4, and I can tell the difference between ALAC and AAC 320kb/s. I've spent hours blind testing, and found out that the main differences are:
1. AAC sound more "mellow". The sound lacks dynamic
2. Low bass(-50hz) is a bit rolled off and high treble (+15khz) sounds thin in AAC
3. The biggest difference is sound stage. AAC sounds like you're listening inside a small cubic room.
Yet, ALAC eats up the battery pretty quickly. Mine only lasts for about 7 hours at max w/ back light and eq off.

 

[richard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by unkoman My portable set up is ipod(4thg)->sik din->go-vibe v3 w/ ad8066->e4, and I can tell the difference between ALAC and AAC 320kb/s.

How are you testing? What steps do you use in your tests to ensure that you don't know which version you are listening to and that both versions have the same volume level?

 

[CookieFactory]

I doubt his tests were controlled.

 

[halcyon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by unkoman My portable set up is ipod(4thg)->sik din->go-vibe v3 w/ ad8066->e4, and I can tell the difference between ALAC and AAC 320kb/s.

[offtopic]
Great!

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Sorry for the off-topic content. Back to the regular programming:
[/offtopic]


Nuks,

the only way for you is to find out by listening yourself.

Try to rip to lossless at this stage.

You can then more easily convert to various lossy bitrates, without re-ripping the cds.

Once you get your setup, you can try listening to 128kbps AAC, 192 kbps AAC and 320 kbps AAC.

Then you just pick the one that has sufficient sound quality to you and saves most space (as space was important to you).

Once you've decided on your target bit-rate, you can convert from ALAC to AAC and destroy the space consuming ALAC files.

BTW, I find c. 192 kbps average bitrate AAC VBR (Apple implementation) more than enough for portable use myself. Background noises, movement noises and such will also contribute artifacts which mask other type of errors in the sound.

 

[blessingx]

I've never heard the Ultimate Ear's, but the phones I have tried with the iPod, telling the difference between high-bitrate AAC and ALAC is extremely difficult on that source (and I suspect the same could be said about other portables). With a lot of albums it's difficult with any source, but I doubted there was any difference until I got my home DAC.

That said I think the first question you need to ask yourself (especially with the third gen and it's much lower battery life) is can you tell the difference between 224 VBR AAC and 320? I actually think that's even more difficult than 320 and ALAC.

 

[vranswer]

Heck, I just use ALAC. Nice knowing there's no nuance of sound left behind. Also better to archive with, if you go with lossy compression later you can just convert. If you go with lossy now and want ALAC later you WILL have to re-rip.

 

[unkoman]

richard,
First I emptied my ipod. Then I ripped songs that I'm really familiar with(probably listened to them over 100 times) to ALAC, AAC 320, and AAC VBR 256. I named the songs with random numbers and letters so that I can't tell which files are which, and loaded them into my pod. Then I shuffled the songs. I wrote down my guesses on a paper and checked back on my computer to see which files were which. After several hours of this testing, the difference between AAC and ALAC became very apparent to my ears. I used well recorded classical musics and my favorite rock songs. Even with hard metal rock songs, the difference in sound staging was pretty apparent.
Funny thing, it was easier for me to tell the difference btw the files using my e4 than hd595.

 

[Nuks]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I think I'll probably re-rip everything to alac before christmas, and then convert some of them to various aac formats. When I get my phones burned in, etc. I'll see if I can notice differences between all the file formats. If I cant, I'll be saving valuable space, but if I can't, it looks like I'll have about 20 albums on my iPod! (It's my primary source right now, so I want it sounding as good as possible)

Once again, thanks a bunch.

 

[kukrisna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by unkoman richard, First I emptied my ipod. Then I ripped songs that I'm really familiar with(probably listened to them over 100 times) to ALAC, AAC 320, and AAC VBR 256. I named the songs with random numbers and letters so that I can't tell which files are which, and loaded them into my pod. Then I shuffled the songs. I wrote down my guesses on a paper and checked back on my computer to see which files were which. After several hours of this testing, the difference between AAC and ALAC became very apparent to my ears. I used well recorded classical musics and my favorite rock songs. Even with hard metal rock songs, the difference in sound staging was pretty apparent. Funny thing, it was easier for me to tell the difference btw the files using my e4 than hd595.

cool - did you use an amp or was this straight out of the headphone jack?

 

[unkoman]

I used go-vibe mk3 w/ ad8066 through sik din line out.

 

[shplorgh]

Why not try it for yourself?