[Laokid18]

You could rip them to 192 VBR .

 

[emann]

Well let me ask this even though I think I know the answer. Is there any way to convert my 128 rips to 192 without having to re-rip them all over again? Obviously it's going to be very time consuming if not.

 

[appophylite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by emann /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well let me ask this even though I think I know the answer. Is there any way to convert my 128 rips to 192 without having to re-rip them all over again? Obviously it's going to be very time consuming if not.

No. Basically, all your doing is ripping a lossy format file with a lossy format. It will do nothing to improve sound quality. The only way to directly improve the quality of your audio files is to re-rip them all.

As to your previous question (about ripping at 160 kbps), I'd strongly recommend avoiding that and going straight to 192 kbps or 192 VBR. At 160, your files will sound better but you'll still have the same problem with better headphones revealing worse rips. 192 isn't all that great either but it is better than 128 or 160.

 

[emann]

Quote:

Originally Posted by appophylite /img/forum/go_quote.gif No. Basically, all your doing is ripping a lossy format file with a lossy format. It will do nothing to improve sound quality. The only way to directly improve the quality of your audio files is to re-rip them all. As to your previous question (about ripping at 160 kbps), I'd strongly recommend avoiding that and going straight to 192 kbps or 192 VBR. At 160, your files will sound better but you'll still have the same problem with better headphones revealing worse rips. 192 isn't all that great either but it is better than 128 or 160.

Yeah I think I'm just going to slowly start re-ripping everything at 192. Probably be the best compromise for someone like me. I sure wish I would've done this originally though as I've got a LOT of ripping to do over again now. Thanx.

 

[emann]

By the way what is the difference between kbps and vbr? How do I choose between the two at iTunes?

 

[toughnut]

192VBR is good enough. Good luck and have fun ripping

 

[toughnut]

Bitrate controls are ABR (average), CBR (constant) and VBR (variable). kbps is kilobits per second, which meant amount of data per second.

If u use ABR, then u will need to set average, lower and upper limit of bitrate.

For CBR, music will compressed to a constant bitrate u set.

VBR encode music from 0 to 320kbps, depends on quality u set. Normally V0 to V8, with V0 the best.

 

[lifesundeath]

Quote:

Originally Posted by emann /img/forum/go_quote.gif Curious as to why you would think you're getting trolled??? I've been a member here for 5 years. Just haven't posted much as I had 2 kids and a lot of other stuff going on to worry about.

This is precisely the reason why I think I'm getting trolled. In five years you've been on this board yet you don't know the difference in the quality of MP3 rips? I personally invested some time in reading what's already all over this forum in terms of headphone reviews, information on encoding quality, source quality, amps, etc., and I've learned an awful lot in a short amount of time. So it almost feel like you're pulling my leg with all this for some strange reason...the answers are right at your finger tips, just hit the glorious search button.

 

[emann]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lifesundeath /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is precisely the reason why I think I'm getting trolled. In five years you've been on this board yet you don't know the difference in the quality of MP3 rips? I personally invested some time in reading what's already all over this forum in terms of headphone reviews, information on encoding quality, source quality, amps, etc., and I've learned an awful lot in a short amount of time. So it almost feel like you're pulling my leg with all this for some strange reason...the answers are right at your finger tips, just hit the glorious search button.

Well since I'm not trolling, I really have nothing to say to you. Thanks for the help Toughnut.

 

[astroid]

I have the EX75, you will notice an improvement for sure, bigger soundstage (EX75 are quite in your head) , the 128 rips are a limit but you will still notice an improvement over the sonys.

 

[Hot Pixel]

Why don't you (instead of re-ripping everything) try it out on a couple of songs first, and go from there? Also I suggest ripping everything in a lossless format (WAV, FLAC, APE, etc), to make a digital archive of sorts so you won't have to take out your albums everytime you re-encode (if, for instance, OGG takes off or something).
Good luck!

 

[music_4321]

I've noticed a bigger difference between 128 and 192 than from 192 to 256/ 320. So I'd agree the minimum should be 192.

Also, as someone suggested, try converting say 10 very different types of songs and see/ hear if your ears tell you anything - this is what I did when I got my high-end IEM's (ES3X, W3, SE530). At the end of the day it's your ears that will dictate what's best for you. Some people say they hear virtually no difference between 128 and 320/ FLAC. Try and choose very different types of pieces of music, eg, pop, rock, metal, acoustic, classical (orchestral/ chamber), vocal, etc. to give you a better sense of the differences you may encounter.

Also, I'm not convinced 128 would always be the bottleneck. At 128 I found a vast improvement when I got better IEM's. I insist that it should be your ears that should tell you whether or not to change anything. You may notice a difference in sound quality, but maybe not as significant as to make it worthwhile shrinking your 2,500-song music library.

 

[emann]

Thanks ya'll. I played the UE 700's last night laying down to go to sleep and they DEFINITELY sound way better then the EX75's do. I'm still on the fence about what to do as far as bit rates go. A lot of my stuff sounds just fine at 128 but there are some songs that have way to much bad sounding bass, etc. The original cd is not like that so I'm assuming it is because of the low bit rate rip? I always liked having all of my stuff ripped at the same bit rate but wonder if I should just re-rip the bad sounding songs at 192 and leave the rest at 128?

 

[qusp]

all of your songs will exhibit a marked increase in quality when you move up from 128kb; 128kb is really very poor and regardless of you thinking that these ones that exhibit problems in the bass are the only real problems; you will not believe the difference a decent rip will give. With the new hP, you will become more and more aware of the shortcomings of the rips and some will actually turn you off the music and you may not even enjoy them anymore. To me this is not worth the risk just to allow the whole lot to be on your nano at the same time, how often do you listen to your entire collection in a couple of days??

bass and highs will be the most obvious to show the inferiority of 128kb mp3, but do yiou really want your music to be tuned to be just passable. sorry I just dont get it; ymmv of course, whatever floats you boat as they say

 

[twylight]

Here is what you need to do:

Rerip entire collection to FLAC on to an external NAS - buffalo 4TB or something
Use dbapoweramp converter to either make a large 192kps selection or lossless collection and move them into itunes.

The difference between at 128 and 192 is very obvious and again at lossless.

Just put everything in FLAC so you can play around with it as needed. I have ~3000 lossless songs on a 32gb ipod touch and it just smokes my 128-160 kps original rips I did many years ago.

Dont bother with anything else until you do this. Then go buy those shure e530/SI8/W3 and be VERY happy with your portable music (no need for an amp for portable)