[Bolardito]

Hi,

I just ordered the new 5.5 gen Imod and reading on RWA site they say that Lossless formats should be used with this high end portable player.

I hardly notice the difference between MP3 320 CBR and Losless (FLAC) when using my current rig: Creative Zen Vision M + Quablas LOD + Tomahawk + Shure E500. So dou you think If I use 320 CBR MP3 with the Imod the difference vs. Lossless would be huge ? Should I sacrifice space vs. higher quality with the Imod?

 

[Wildcard30]

I have not heard an Imod but I have heard a pretty large difference in sound from 320 cbr and Lossless flac.

 

[Raphael]

It is noticable, but I don't know about large. I wouldn't put it as subtle either. The differences are audible. But if you're listening only while you're on the go, I don't think it will make a difference.

 

[mcmyers]

That was one of my big concerns when I bought a 4g imod, in part because I had a lot of music I had purchased as MP3s from Emusic, and I didn't want them to become unlistenable.

I wasn't able to hear a difference between lossless files and MP3 before I got the Imod. Now I can hear a difference, and Lossless definitely sounds better. But MP3s still sound good. This might be because I listen on Sennheiser 595s. If you have especially bright or analytical head phones, MP3s might become harsher sounding with an iMod.

It also depends on the music you listen to. Classical and acoustic music is less forgiving of compression than hip hop or techno.

What I'm doing right now is putting all my favorite (and well recorded music) in an "audiophile" playlist, which is primarily lossless. And then I still listen to the rest of my collection as MP3s.

 

[mcmyers]

One other thing. If you use Itunes (rather than rockbox) you can set up smart playlists that will automatically update each time you sync. This is a great way to conserve space, as there's no way you could listen to all the songs that fit on an ipod in a single day. So you can create a playlist and limit it to the 100 most recent songs or whatever, and then each time you sync it will get updated. That way, you don't have to put everything on there all at once.

 

[melomaniac]

again & again, the differences ARE noticeable:
96 kbit/sec (508KB for 42 seconds): distortion, not useful for music...
128 kbit/sec (676KB for 42 seconds): very bad compression artifacts
128 kbit/sec VBR (760KB for 42 seconds): still very fuzzy
160 kbit/sec VBR: still a significant amount of gurgling
192 kbit/sec VBR (1MB for 42 seconds): just acceptable, somewhat muddy
320 kbit/sec VBR (1.6MB for 42 seconds): acceptable on a middling system
BUT: for your head-fi conditions, you should not be stingy with space - you will be rewarded!

 

[lan]

Everybody's threshold of hearing is different. I think it's a comparison you should make yourself.

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by melomaniac /img/forum/go_quote.gif again & again, the differences ARE noticeable: 96 kbit/sec (508KB for 42 seconds): distortion, not useful for music... 128 kbit/sec (676KB for 42 seconds): very bad compression artifacts 128 kbit/sec VBR (760KB for 42 seconds): still very fuzzy 160 kbit/sec VBR: still a significant amount of gurgling 192 kbit/sec VBR (1MB for 42 seconds): just acceptable, somewhat muddy 320 kbit/sec VBR (1.6MB for 42 seconds): acceptable on a middling system BUT: for your head-fi conditions, you should not be stingy with space - you will be rewarded!

This type of post is useless without reference to the encoder. Not all MP3s are created equal.

By the way, there is no "320kbit/sec VBR."

 

[Kabeer]

For me using LAME 3.97 at Q2 New (~192k/bit VBR), I find it very hard to tell from the original. Although there are occasions I think I might. Maybe with a super high end system it might be easier, but its VERY close to CD quality for me at this setting.

(This is using iriver h140 line out + amp btw....)

But seriously, I dont think I have ever seen a discussion about bitrates and lossless end in anything but tears lol and a conclusion.
If you want to be guarenteed perfect use lossless.
If size is more important to you, use one of the reccomended LAME presets and you will have a very high quality file almost at CD quality, its as simple as that.

 

[Demonmnky]

Go lossless unless you'll fill up 80gigs. Then Lossless your favorite albums and LAME -2v the rest.

 

[LDMES]

My Suggestion...Take your favorite CD. Rip it to both lossless (I went with Flac as my iMod is Rockboxxed) and your favorite flavour of MP3 which seems to be...MP3 320 CBR, then load both sets of files onto your iMod and do and A/B comparison yourself. Then you can decide which way to go, and if you decide to go lossless, you can go ahead and re-rip everything to lossless.
I tested my iMod this way and decided FLAC was the way to go. Enjoy your new iMod.

 

[lan]

If he's going to go lossy, wouldn't AAC be a better choice than MP3?