[bass man]

ety. + rio 800 + 160kbps mp3 lame = excellent!

i have rip all of my music collection to mp3s at 160 CBR using LAME. cause 160 kbps provide good sound and good file size for my 128MB mp3 player. to my ears, 160 kbps is as good as CD quality

by upgrading to the ety. er-6 or even 4P.. do you kind that 160kps mp3 is GOOD ENOUGH? meaning not "too revealing codec flaws"

 

[andrzejpw]

Ugh. I shudder @ mp3s these days. lame is awesome, though. With etys, u should be able to hear flaws.

 

[Gluegun]

Use 192 - 320 VBR....

 

[bass man]

im no audiophile but do you think its wise of me to get the ETY ER-6 since i cant tell the difference between 160 kbps mp3 [using LAME] and the actually CD.

i know headroom has a good return policy but living outside of the USA. i dont want to pay custom and international shipping for TESTING them.

 

[bass man]

while i use different bit rate with different genre of music

for example, for electronica/techno i use 192 CBR

and for r&B/slow-jam i use 160-192 CBR

"Use 192 - 320 VBR"

i dislike VBR cause mp3 file size will be bigger than the usual VBR. not great on my 128MB mp3 player

 

[Pepsione1]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw Ugh. I shudder @ mp3s these days. lame is awesome, though. With etys, u should be able to hear flaws.

Mind if I ask what these flaws are that you are hearing? Cracks, missing freq. range and etc?

I personnally think that it loses dynamics so it sounds horrible.

 

[Pepsione1]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw Ugh. I shudder @ mp3s these days. lame is awesome, though. With etys, u should be able to hear flaws.

Mind if I ask what these flaws are that you are hearing? Cracks, missing freq. range and etc?

I personnally think that it loses dynamics so it sounds horrible.

 

[DesBen]

Dr. Gerhard Roth or the NRC was heard saying that "discerning listeners" can't hear the difference between 256Kbit MP3 and CD. Below that, artifacts are noticeable. Most people giving 192Kbit a rating of 4+ (4 = barely noticeable, 5 = not noticeable). I forget the source for those numbers... I think they were from the initial psychoacoustic studies performed by the MPEG group.

I just thought I'd share this little tidbit

 

[Audio-Me]

Most people can't tell the difference between 160kbps and actual CD if they are listensing using anemic equipment. That said, the Etys obviously interest you, so go for it, it can't hurt, you can always return... BTW, order from HeadRoom. http://www.headphone.com

The loss of dynamics is due to poor compression and/or by the nature of compression techniques which are ATH (low pass filters and such) and removal of some bass information.

 

[Audio-Me]

Dang it! Double post, stupid AOL Time Warner.

 

[Gluegun]

Um, yea, I can sure as hell tell the difference between basically any mp3 I've heard and the original CD...

of course, one of the reasons for this is that there aren't that many sound cards that are as good as a good cd player.

and there are no sound cards that are as good as the best cd players...

 

[DesBen]

MP3 compression is based on 3 principles:

1) Human ear "frequency range". The human ear is NOT linear. It it much more sensitive in the 2KHz-4KHz range. You can plot this and cut out the sounds not heard by most people.

2) Frequency masking: if a 60dB tone is played at 1KHz, a 1.1KHz tone would need to be about at least 50dB to be heard. If it is any lower, MP3 cuts it out.

3) Temporal masking: after a loud noise, the ear needs time to be able to hear soft ones again. E.g. after a 60dB kick-drum, the ear might need 5ms before it can hear a 40dB guitar. So MP3 cuts out the soft sounds after a loud one (in a similar frequency range).

If you guys want, I could try to summarize in more details how MP3 works. I just had a great lecture last week by Dr. Roth on the subject. (plus it'd be a good exercise for me, so I remember for the exam

)

 

[DesBen]

Gluegun, try this: convert an MP3 into a WAV, burn it onto a CD, and listen to it in an "audio" CD player. It sounds much better than out of a SoundBlaster (let alone "on-motherboard" audio

)

 

[bass man]

Quote:

If you guys want, I could try to summarize in more details how MP3 works. I just had a great lecture last week by Dr. Roth on the subject. (plus it'd be a good exercise for me, so I remember for the exam

ok. that would be very helpfull

 

[Audio-Me]

Gluegun - I disagree, the best sound cards ($1000+) rival the best CD players ($1000+), they're also have more uses than just playing CDs. Heck even my relatively moderately priced sound card has a great DAC which sounds just as good if not better than some home cd players in the same or a little above price range.