[Hyperfluxe]

I have a question. Do you think that it's worth it to buy expensive audio gear when yo have badly encoded music? I am about to buy a RE0 with a iBasso T3 amp, and was wondering if it's really worth it if I have badly encoded music. The thing is, on my iPod Classic 160GB, I have about 20 000 songs. They are all MP3s, and some have good encoding and bitrate, and some have bad encoding and bitrate. I cannot look for the badly encoded albums and re-download them because there's just too many, and most of those albums are very rare and obscure so I can only find them on Blogspot.

So my question remains; is it worth it to buy an RE0 IEM with a iBasso T3 amp for my situation? Thanks.

 

[grokit]

If by "good encoding and bitrate" you mean 320 kbps, then you will definitely hear a benefit with that music. The lower the bitrate, the less of a return you will get, as far as technical satisfaction. But one cannot measure the emotional satisfaction of having rare and obscure music in one's collection, either. You don't have to upgrade all of your music files at once

 

[Napilopez]

While I have no experience with the RE0s, from my experience you can still extract a lot of experience detail from low bitrate recordings. I find it a bigger issue when the recording itself is poorly mastered or such. Others may disagree though. Perhaps you might want to go with something a bit less revealing. I'll let others chime in =P

 

[semisight]

Honestly, I can't hear any distortion above 160 Kbps with my RE0s. Even 128Kbps is okay, although those would be where I would start to upgrade. Don't worry about it, just be conscious to look for high bitrate files in the future.

If you want to find which songs are low bitrate, make a smart playlist (only applies in iTunes of course) which matches the rule:

Bitrate > is less than > 160 Kbps.

 

[rawrster]

with the RE0 it shouldnt be that bad where you can't use them due to the bitrate of your files. I think anything above 192 is fine. IMO the two biggest upgrades you can get in portable are the iem's and the quality of your files.

 

[Hentai11]

This may be my fidelity bias, but better sound is always worth it. Re-rip the rare, low-bitrate stuff, scour the used record/tape/cd scene, on- and offline.

It's time, it's work, it's networking--it's worth it. You don't collect 20,000 songs by not caring about music. Stretch yourself a little.

 

[beamthegreat]

It dont think it really matters. I need to critically listen to tell wether its 192 kbps mp3 or a FLAC with both my IE8 or HD 595(amped).

 

[jbergan]

IMO I don't think you could hurt your music experience by upgrading to the RE0's, it may just not be the best return with very low bitrate tracks.

 

[IpodHappy]

IMO, always get the best drivers you can afford. If you can't hear the artifacts of poorly encoded music with the IEMs you have, upgrade because the poor frequency response, distortion, or sound stage is keeping you from hearing all the signal that's there. The added clarity should only increase your enjoyment of your music.

I agree with Napilopez that many times, poorly mastered recordings are more problematic than 128kb/s encodings.

(To really get frustrated, train yourself to hear the audio defects in the bit rate you pick AFTER you finish re-ripping your 20000 songs. I did!)

 

[tstarn06]

Agree that recording/mastering means more than bit rate. How often do you have a playlist with all 320k rips (say they are all downloads from Amazon, to avoid how the tracks were ripped), and some sound a lot better than others? Happens to me all the time.

 

[semisight]

Doesn't Amazon use 256Kbps CBR?

 

[grokit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by semisight /img/forum/go_quote.gif Doesn't Amazon use 256Kbps CBR?

Great question, and I wonder if there is any standardization with their "sample clips" as well.

A useful project for members who download music may be a cross-reference comparing options, bit rates, prices, and other useful info. I would probably give it a shot if I downloaded music, but I almost never do, used CDs are usually cheaper, higher-quality, and are your ultimate "back up"

They're the next best thing to vinyl, the "original lossless storage medium"

 

[grahamnp]

I find that with the RE0, the quality of the original recording is more critical than the bitrate. I did an experiment with a few songs transcoded from FLACs, and the songs I know to be well recorded sound better even at 128kbps than 320kbps songs that were poorly recorded or average.

I am more aware of the shortcomings of my low bitrate files when using the RE0 but it doesn't affect my enjoyment too much.

 

[Hyperfluxe]

Ok then, I will buy the new gear, but I'll have to re-download all my albums when I have time. That's going to take a while...

Also, I many badly mastered/recorded albums, because those albums were made in the 80s/90s, and the bands didn't have any money at that time, so that's something to consider. I guess I'll just have to deal with it. I'm fairly sure that modern Metal (after '00) is relatively well recorded/mastered.