IEM for 192kbps MP3
May 27, 2008 at 7:38 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 5

babi12

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Hi all,

I'm wondering which IEM or earbud that's best to listen for my old mp3 collection are which mainly compressed to 128 - 256 kbps ?

I think buying excessively expensive IEM will be pointless as I listen to "normal" quality MP3.
 
May 27, 2008 at 8:09 AM Post #2 of 5
What are you listening to them with and what kind of money do you have to spend?

192kbps mp3s will in many cases be indistinguishable from the original CDs.
 
May 27, 2008 at 8:15 AM Post #3 of 5
My budget is $350 at max.
But, if I can't distinguish $100 and $350 IEM with my current MP3 compression, then it will be useless to spend $350.

A friend of mine said that to be able to appreciate > $250 headphone, the quality of the music should be high, preferably uncompressed one or 320 kbps. Otherwise, it will just sound as good (bad) as cheap one.
 
May 27, 2008 at 8:22 AM Post #4 of 5
Quote:

Originally Posted by babi12 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
A friend of mine said that to be able to appreciate > $250 headphone, the quality of the music should be high, preferably uncompressed one or 320 kbps. Otherwise, it will just sound as good (bad) as cheap one.


Not entirely. You still need to be able to differentiate the SQ of the music that you listen to. Personally, I don't find 320kbps mp3 to be that much better than lesser compression rate that I'll want to trade off the extra space, even when I am listening to some of the best IEM out there.
 
May 27, 2008 at 8:59 AM Post #5 of 5
Depends on what music you are listening. If it's todays overcompressed mainstream Pop / Rock / HipHop studio recordings then there isn't much point into investing much money into headphones. Musical structures are simple and the overcompression in the studio killed already all hidden details before the record company pressed the CD. It's just loud with a lot of bass. Every LoFi headphone can reproduce that. LoFi headphones would even have one good point over MidFi headphones: They hide the compression artefacts better that appear when you squeeze your music to 128 kbps MP3.
If you are into classical, folk, jazz, country, world music, live recordings, indie Pop / Rock / Metal , mainstream up to the mid 90's, electronical music, noise, ... then it is definitely worth to invest money into good headphones. There is hidden detail which you won't hear with speakers or with cheap headphones. You can dive into such music and discover new things nearly every time when you listen to it if you use good equipment and didn't cripple your music with too high compression.
So take a look at your music collection: Is it just modern Top Ten chart music, then you can't do any better. Keep your actual headphones and forget about HeadFi, as you would just waste money without gaining anything.
If your music is other than actual chart stuff, then dump those pesky 128 kbps rips first and rerip them to at least 192 kbps with an actual version of Lame (3.98), use a better compression algorithm (AAC or Ogg Vorbis) or even better rip them to lossless (FLAC, Apple Lossless, WavPack). After that think about mid or good quality headphones. Your wallet won't be happy, but you might walk around with a happy smile because you hear the hidden things in your music that most others will never be able reveal.
 

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