[astro]

I know a lot of you are going to call me deaf. I have a hard time hearing the difference between 128kbps mp3 and 192kbps mp3, or even between that and cd audio.
I do most of my listening on my Chaintech AV710+mr.radar's foobar guide+Sennheiser HD497.
I can hear a clear difference between kernel streaming and waveout, yet I am having a difficulty hearing a difference between 128kbps/192kbps mp3.
I've also listenend to an album(128kbps mp3 burned onto a cd) from frou frou on my neighbor's $2000 McIntosh amp.
I later went out and bought the cd expecting a large difference, but I was unable to hear any difference.
I can hear a LARGE difference between my Chaintech AV710 or onkyo amp and my neighbor's McIntosh amp. The difference was like night and day. All the detailed sounds in frou frou seemed to suddenly light up with the mcintosh. They seemed just and clear and detailed in the 128kbps mp3 as it did on the original cd.
Is it the recording that allowed 128kbps to be transparent to the cd?
I've also compared a lot of incubus/metallica/utada hikaru on 128/192, and had a hard time finding any differences.
Before I really started to look for the difference, I would used to swear there is a difference, I could just feel it.
I asked a lot of people this, and they claim they can hear the differences on their tincan logitech speakers.

Maybe their recording allowed them to hear a greater difference?

 

[Distroyed]

I can hear the difference between 128 and 192, but rarely is the difference audible beyond that, even on expensive hardware. Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to justify their ludicrious credit card statements.

 

[commando]

I can easily hear the dif between 128 and 192, and sometimes between 192 and higher bitrates, 256 or 320. I've never tried a blind test. I use flac because I might upgrade my equipment later, plus I back up my CDs as lossless in case I lose them.

I think the 497 is your problem - I consider them quite low end. Also the 710 requires an amp to sound it's best. Plus the 710 is a great value source, not a great source.

 

[tiberian]

umm i can easily hear the difference between 128 and 192 mp3, i can sometimes pick up the difference between 320 and lossless (they are very close i admit, however mp3s are a bit smeared)...you should get rid of the 497s as commando suggested, i tried them before and they sucked.

 

[astro]

Could you hear the difference between these two?
#1
and
#2

I know my HD497 aren't the greatest, but people are claiming they can easily hear the difference on their tincan logitech speakers.

 

[commando]

In this case no, I can't hear any difference between them. It's rock music though, in which distorstion plays a significant part. It'd be interesting to try it with something with a cleaner sound, and it'd need to be longer.

Right now my system is AV-710 -> PPA (diamond buffer) -> A900

 

[xantus]

sometimes (like in this case) 128 sounds transparent. sometimes it sounds like total crap. but in this case, i can't tell the difference on my setup. (and I would like to think my setup qualifies as good)

but yes, maybe a longer section (and parts with vocals) would help people make up their minds better.

some people just expect 128 to sound awful all the time...but there's always exceptions, some things just encode better than others.

 

[Piccolo Daimaou]

On my Audigy 2, I can hear the difference between 224 and 256, but above 256 doesn't really sound any different to me. I've never tried listening to mp3s on my Chaintech, though, so I can't comment.

 

[lan]

I believe to tell the differences in encoding and such, you'd need a resolving enough setup. Just a better source may sometimes not be enough. To me the differences between these two encodings is rather large in some ways. First the soundstage of the 128kbps recording is quite collapsed. Since I use AKG K1000 I notice this probably more than other headphones plus mine are powered by monoblocks. Next the low level details are somewhat missing. You'd need good power / conditioning to notice this more. Finally it's more blurrier which makes dynamics weaker and the highs are just smeared up. This is most evident in percussions like the kick drum and high hat. This could be tough to hear componding what I mentioned before with your amp provided the juice and control for the bass and your cables weren't messing up the highs.

A good MP3 is pretty good though although I prefer MPC and OGG. I would go as far to say an MP3 on a high end system still sounds better than a CD on a low end system.

 

[dip16dac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by astro Could you hear the difference between these two? #1 and #2 I know my HD497 aren't the greatest, but people are claiming they can easily hear the difference on their tincan logitech speakers.

It is easier to see with cool edit frequency analysis that the 128 one only goes up to about 16 khz were as the 192 one has 18 khz stuff. It depends on how good your hearing is to be able to tell the difference since most equipment can handle both.

 

[Mr.Radar]

For ABX'ing an Etymotic ER-4x paired with an EMU 1212m and a very detailed amp would probably be the best.

 

[NeilPeart]

I can almost always discern a difference between alt-preset extreme and FLAC with my current system (RME->DAC1->HD650 w/Oehlbach); the cymbals are the main violators, as well as certain basslines.

However, on my girlfriend's iPod Mini->ER-6i I cannot hear a difference between alt-preset standard MP3s and lossless - not even on songs where I can obviously determine on my home rig.

The two main factors are the system's resolution and one's familiarity with the tracks (and how well those tracks are recorded, of course).

 

[roadtonowhere08]

MP3's are a dead giveaway with extreme low frequencies or recordings with outstanding high frequencies. Downloading songs off the net is no fun anymore thanks to you buttheads

 

[Distroyed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilPeart I can almost always discern a difference between alt-preset extreme and FLAC with my current system (RME->DAC1->HD650 w/Oehlbach); the cymbals are the main violators, as well as certain basslines.

I have the Emu0404 -> Dac1 -> hd650 and I cant hear the difference. The very rare instances in which I do is hardly worth the extra hd space lossless takes up; not to mention Im probably imagining the differences to begin with.

That being said, I still encode my cd's lossless. If that's not proof that there's something wrong with our hobby, I dont know what is.

 

[averydonovan]

I find the easiest way to distinguish between compressed audio formats is by listening to the soundstage and transient response. MPC sounds the closest to lossless to me, I usually can't tell the difference since it generally handles everything right. Soundstaging is where it falters slightly, but in quality 8 or above it is extremely hard to tell the difference between an MPC file and a lossless file. MP3 suffers from poor transient response, the attack and decay just sound a bit off compared to the original, and its joint stereo modes noticably collapse the soundstage. I generally can pick out whether a track is joint stereo encoded or really encoded in stereo throughout with pretty good accuracy, even though headphones like the Koss KTX-Pro/RadioShack Pro-35s. But a well-encoded MP3 still sounds pretty good overall, it mainly tends to fall down when compared against the original. I use a Terratec EWX 24/96 card connected to a Singlepower PPX3 amp with AKG K271 Studio headphones, and this system resolves quite well IMHO.

Most of the time I honestly don't care what format the music I'm listening to is in just as long as the music itself is enjoyable

Edit: And I used to encode in MPC q8 but now I'm ripping to FLAC since I have the space and don't want to lose any quality if I don't have to.