[badmonkey]

Maybe "where the metal meets the meat" would be more appropriate

 

[bigshot]

Do they teach logic or debating in schools any more?

See ya
(Old man) Steve

 

[badmonkey]

I wouldn't know in the USA. I hear it's been replaced by something called "creationist science". Let's not go THERE.

 

[scompton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do they teach logic or debating in schools any more? See ya (Old man) Steve

Not in the US

 

[fuzydice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif I see a few people here who have a good perspective on things, but too many people ask the wrong questions. They post, "Recommend me the best headphones" instead of "Tell me how to go about choosing headphones". The first request elicits recommendations of whatever the person answering happens to own, or the most expensive equipment available. The second gives the person the tools to make their mind up on their own.

... which lead to "what's an upgrade from this?" threads, which is more of the same. "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day...", couldn't agree with you more.


Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot Do they teach logic or debating in schools any more?

Yes, but just like with mathematics, there are 'substitute' courses to get around them (at least in state colleges/community colleges here in CA) if your major doesn't require them, despite the requirements 'life' presents

 

[Joshatdot]

my ears are shot, so I just encode with LAME -V4.

 

[AS1]

Can you hear the difference? YES I do!

I always used 192 kbps mp3 which was good enough but not anymore.
With my current setup I can tell the difference between 192 and 320 kbps mp3. 320 kbps is more refined and 192 kbps is not free of artifacts.
I just tried FLAC last week. Another shock!

MP3 clearly smoothes the edges compared to FLAC. MP3 just sounds a bit dull compared to FLAC. I already converted a bunch of cd's and I'm thoroughly enjoying them.

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AS1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Can you hear the difference? YES I do! I always used 192 kbps mp3 which was good enough but not anymore. With my current setup I can tell the difference between 192 and 320 kbps mp3. 320 kbps is more refined and 192 kbps is not free of artifacts.

What encoder? What setting?

Quote:

I just tried FLAC last week. Another shock! MP3 clearly smoothes the edges compared to FLAC. MP3 just sounds a bit dull compared to FLAC. I already converted a bunch of cd's and I'm thoroughly enjoying them.

I would encourage you to take HiFiRE's public ABX test. No-one yet has been able to differentiate LAME -V2 (approximately 192kbps VBR) from lossless. You could be the first.

 

[OverlordXenu]

Bitrate doesn't mean much for VBR.

 

[fuzzy fuzzbucket]

yes i can hear the difference..

especially with my floorstanders and SR60 amped...

 

[Steve Cat]

Newbie to this board, but no newbie to this debate. It goes nowhere. Anyway now for the virtue of self interest. I bought an Ipod nano and I want it to sound as good as I can while maintaining a certain level of portability. I had a Dell DJ which worked well and held a lot of data. There I used EAC and Lame and encoded at 320 VBR and was happy with it. I read on Hydrogen Audio that AAC is actually a little better than MP3. I think I believe that. I now encode AAC at 256 and am happy with it. So I guess what I am saying is that I can't hear the difference between the two, and have no idea which is the smaller file size. I have have only 4 megs to play with here so I was thinking about dropping it further. I agree that this stuff can be quantified to a point, and hence this question. I was under the impression that Lame used some sort of "psychoacoustic" model to determine what to leave in and what to drop out. Not just the frequencies that the average hear ear perceives. I was OK with that because sometimes I think I hear lame as more enjoyable, whatever that means, than wav. Is this true? The psychoacoustic model thing, not my perception, and if so could it be possible I would like some sort of setting in lame say as low as 128 or 256 vbr and it might sound better than 128 in AAC even though the experts say aac is better at the same bit rate than mp3 especially as one gets into the lower bit rates? Yes, I could try it and find out, but that could be a lot of fooling around for naught if I'm just barking up the wrong tree. Yes the other solution is to edit the song lists and only keep what I really love, but then I run into the problem that I like both takes of Flamenco Sketches, but do I like having both take better than another song. Oh well.......

 

[scompton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chu /img/forum/go_quote.gif Small sidetrack. It's not that hard to train yourself to listen to hear the difference between .mp3 and lossless. This has nothing to do with things like "soundstage," "seperation," and other various terms we usually talk about when it comes to audio quality and everything to do with the fact there are certain audio patterns that gives the algorithms used to encode .mp3 fits. There are quite a few archived here. Once you know what to listen for you can ABX these without too much trouble. Be warned, this is not something you can unlearn.

I'm planning on doing some ABX testing to see exactly where I can here the difference between AAC and Apple Lossless. I assume some of these samples would be good. Any in particular? Any suggestions of others would be welcome as well.

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Cat /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, I could try it and find out, but that could be a lot of fooling around for naught if I'm just barking up the wrong tree.

That's how you learn for yourself. It's a pretty valuable thing.

See ya
Steve

 

[Chu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scompton /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm planning on doing some ABX testing to see exactly where I can here the difference between AAC and Apple Lossless. I assume some of these samples would be good. Any in particular? Any suggestions of others would be welcome as well.

I really don't know much about AAC other then, well, most people on HA concede it's superior to mp3 in almost every way, but these people should be able to help.