[thoughtcriminal]

Tonight I got my new CD ripping setup together. Decided to finally install EAC, got the newest LAME codec (3.99.2.5), set it up to compress to V2 (since back in the day I ripped all my music at 192). Slapped in an Armor for Sleep CD. When it was done I gave it a quick a/b versus the CD and it sounded OK.
Stuck in Schizophonic by C E, ripped it the same then gave a listen... on the very first track Alright, Already I noticed something was off. The brightness and warmth was missing and the guitar sounded completely flat. Ripped it again at v1 and v0 and compared the three. I can definitely pick the v0 out without problem. I think I can hear a difference between the v0 and the CD too but that might be autosuggestion. Now I'm paranoid that I'll be missing something in all my old rips. For sure I'm going back and doing the armor for sleep album again. It isn't the best recorded CD and I can't hear a difference but I really don't want to miss anything. I guess I'll be pulling the whole collection out again :/

 

[StudioSound]

Rip everything as lossless. I recommend either FLAC or ALAC as they are the most commonly supported formats that have good metadata support.
If you don't rip as lossless, you'll probably find yourself re-ripping everything again a few years from now.
 
If you need compressed files for portable playback, just make conversions from your lossless originals. (but don't replace them)
I purchased dBpoweramp for this, because it make the process go much faster.

 

[proton007]

320 kbps is best for listening, better still, FLAC if you have the space, and for digital storage.

 

[NA Blur]

Can you post the two files you are talking about so we can have a listen?  I would like to hear what you have.

 

[thoughtcriminal]

Can you post the two files you are talking about so we can have a listen?  I would like to hear what you have.

I deleted them but I'll get them together as well as a possible flac rip for comparison. I think this is one of those freak albums, because I didn't notice any huge differences like this back in my younger days. In fact I settled on 192kbps MP3 because it was transparent (at least to my untrained ears) without being too big. I noticed there is a small difference with the Armor for Sleep album, but this is way different. In the first 20 seconds it slaps you right across the face