[Spiritboxer]

I'm considering purchasing an iMod and all my music is 320kbps AAC. Will this be sufficient SQwise or must I go lossless? I only have 22 gigs worth of music at 320 but I don't want to rerip all those CDs unless I have to.

 

[EFN]

Depends on your ears and the rest of your rig. If youcan hear the difference of audible improvement, then it is worthwhile to re-rip into Lossless.

Get your iMod and do AB test. Select a few song that you are fond of, compare them with ALAC version.

The difference that I am talking about is in how Dynamics are handled, the solidity of decays and attacks, body glare in lossy if you can "feel" them.

Again I stress that this also depends on how resolving is the rest of your rig.
Always trust your own ears and not the words of others.

 

[Spiritboxer]

Thank you for responding.

 

[mrarroyo]

320 kbs is very high quality and most people would not be able to tell the difference with lossless. But like EFN said try it and trust your ears.

 

[Spiritboxer]

Thanks, that's pretty much what I needed to hear, that 320 wouldn't be unbearable. I don't have the time to re-rip right now but I know I'll do so at some point. The issue was, should I buy it now and possibly be disappointed or wait 'til I can do it right.

 

[Spiritboxer]

Well, that was easy. Plucked a 4G 60GB iMod Photo, an RSA Hornet and three great cables off the For Sale forums this weekend so I'll know soon enough. Ahhhh, life is good.....Guess I'll have to get a pair of Senn's now to match up with the Hornet....

 

[monolith]

I also suggest you try encoding your mp3s at LAME's V0 preset. It's essentially indistinguishable from 320kbps, but it's about 75% of the size if not a little less.