I think most people only care that the sound is perfect for all kinds of music. They don't care about being a foot over the line as opposed to an inch. They just want to be sure that everything they rip is perfect. AAC 256 VBR is perfect for me. No need to fuss with anything lower than that.
I myself don't care that if my audio files are perfect, because my ears aren't. Perfect audio would be wasted on them. I'm 55 and my high frequency hearing is pretty much nonexistent. So 160kb AAC files sound identical to FLAC's for me. I've done hundreds of ABX tests and never got close to telling the difference.
I have always lurked on this thread. I wonder how long it will be before the discussion is meaningless. When this thread started, devices only had a few GB and you had to economize on your audio formats. Now most devices have a TB or more in some cases.
It's going to get to a point where there won't be a good reason not to have all your audio in WAV or DSD 10 billion. Otherwise you would be paying for storage space you wouldn't use.
I have always lurked on this thread. I wonder how long it will be before the discussion is meaningless. When this thread started, devices only had a few GB and you had to economize on your audio formats. Now most devices have a TB or more in some cases.
It's going to get to a point where there won't be a good reason not to have all your audio in WAV or DSD 10 billion. Otherwise you would be paying for storage space you wouldn't use.
We have options, which is good IMO.
You’re right that the thread is meaningless, because it’s all about personal decisions based on personal priorities and personal hearing(or more often than not, beliefs about personal hearing abilities).
People can and probably should use whatever they want.
People should do controlled tests to KNOW what matters to them, not just go by what some golden eared audiophile tells them or what they imagine is true based on looking at numbers they don't even have any context for. Once they know, they can make an informed decision.
Grab one of those memes with the guy sitting at the table with a sign that says "Convince me that you can hear the difference between lossless and high data rate modern current codecs." Paste me into the picture. I am open to the possibility, but in nearly a decade of looking, I can't find anyone who can prove that. And all the published tests tell me the same.
People should do controlled tests to KNOW what matters to them, not just go by what some golden eared audiophile tells them or what they imagine is true based on looking at numbers they don't even have any context for. Once they know, they can make an informed decision.
EDIT: Yes, everyone can have their own opinion. But not all opinions are created equal. Some are based on research, testing and understanding the principles involved. And some are based on ego, bias and outright delusion. I reserve the right to call a spade a spade. I won't coddle ignorance just to be "nice". They can get a clue for themselves.
In my opinion artifacting is less harmful in portable playback, because the environmental sounds (other people, traffic, wind, birds, etc.) tend to mask the sound more. Who cares, if a cymbal crash of a Japanese "killer track" has artefacts in it when an angry dog on the street conveniently barked and masked it!
We should not only ask if we can hear artefacts. We should also ask how much artifacting is ok in different listening scenarios. Do they hinder your enjoyment of the music? People (yes, me too) used to listen to (and enjoy!) portable C-cassette players, "Walkmans" in the 80's ja 90's. They had noise, wow & flutter, tape distortion, reduced frequency range etc. Compared to those days, 128 kbps mp3 sounds amazing.
I don't know why you need to put up with it. I don't know about you, but I play the same files on my portable rig that I do on my home rig. I just encode at AAC 256 VBR and it sounds perfect on the road and in my living room. The difference in file size between 128, where I might hear artifacting, and 256 where I don't is so small, I don't know why people stress this so much. Just encode a notch or two over the line and don't look back. You don't have to put up with artifacts nor rolloff. Perfect sound everywhere is simple.
Sometimes I think people enjoy theorizing and validating their theories more than listening to high fidelity music. I don't get that at all.
Sometimes the theory crafting is more enjoyable than the end result and people get carried away. I only personally use high bitrate/lossless on specific albums.
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