Is WAV worth it?

[i_don't_know]

I'm either filling my Sony S639F with WAV files or MP3 files encoded with LAME in 320kbps insane setting. What audible differences are there between these two formats? It's likely I'll be doing an A/B comparison test, but I'd like to get a general consensus before I download all the programs, bunch all my CDs together, and hook up my DAP.


From what I understand, 16gb would hold (on average) about 330 50mb music files, right? So how much of the 320kbps LAME MP3 music would I be able to fit?

 

[moonsurf]

IMO, I think WAV sounds better than anything. However.. I have 1 year old sony A816.. and, on sony, the improvement is less than others, I think. Perhaps sony is not a good WAV player or sony is just very good at playing MP3 files. Anyway.. for sony.. i don't think using WAV is worth it.. considering sony usually have small capacity.

 

[Alexkhv]

it depends of your headphones, and your own ears, if you don't hear the difference it's not worth it

 

[NajoBB]

If you're happy with "only" 300 songs on your DAP then why not? It's a shame though that Sony doesn't support any lossless formats which I've discovered only after buying it (stupid me...). I use AAC and some WAV files instead of MP3 on it(NWZ-A826). There's an audible difference between WAV and MP3 but you have to see for yourself if it's noticeable enough for you with your current phones or any. For me, it's less noticeable than on iPod video 5G or Meizu M6 that i have. Don't know why though.

 

[b0dhi]

IMO it's only worth it for certain music. Also, for your A/B testes, I strongly recommend ABC/HR Java version RareWares available there. There are a lot of badly designed AB/X programs out there.

Edit: I refuse to correct that.

 

[Z4N5H1N]

FLAC is your friend.

I'm not sure about your player, but a lot of players don't support FLAC. There's an app called RockBox that replaces you firmware and lets you play FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. I'd look into to it. It worked for my iPod 5g.

Rockbox - Open Source Jukebox Firmware

 

[ethan961]

I'm with Z4N5H1N on this one, WAV is good but if your player supports another lossless codec like FLAC. Also, rockbox is certainly something worth looking into, especially if you are an open-source junkie like me It is open-source, provides many functions that default firmwares don't, and supports many more formats, including more lossless formats (like FLAC) and more lossy formats (like OGG/Vorbis).
Ethan

EDIT: I looked on the list, and of appears that your player is not developed for yet. Out of the choice you have for formats, I would reccommend 320kbps AAC for best quality:size ratio. If you don't notice much of a difference between MP3 and the WAV, the difference between AAC and WAV will be even less. I tend to either use Apple Lossless for things I have the source of, and 320kbps AAC for everything else. There isn't much difference between the two IMO. Also, the largest I have ever seen a MP3 file was 15MB, and that was a 320kbps 9 minute long song (GNR

)

 

[Agnostic]

Apart from the fact that it's very unlikely that even under the most advantageous conditions you will be able to distinguish WAV from 320kbps MP3, WAV has the added disadvantage of not supporting tags.

Do a double blind abx if you want to be sure.

 

[justaguy93]

I put some orchestral music on my s639 (movie score) in both wav and vbr v0 mp3 to test this exact thing just last night. On my drive to work this morning I was 8-1-1 in IDing which was which. Correctly identified which was which in 8 cases, guessed wrong 1 time, and wasn't sure enough to call on 1.

In every case the treble was the telling part of the music. The track that I couldn't tell a difference it was mostly quiet low notes and in that case it didn't sound very different. But high voices, trumpets, violins, things like that the difference seemed pretty distinct most of the time. The wav files seemed sharper on the upper end, the mp3s just a little dull in comparison.

But this test was one set of music on one set of speakers while driving, so take it with a grain of salt. I personally think lossless makes a significant difference, but only with certain types of music. For your average popular music I'd say mp3 is more than adequate.

 

[ILikeMusic]

It's also possible that the difference is in the decoder in your source (mp3 output rolled off vs. CD, etc.) I would say more like probable, since it is very unlikely that you would otherwise be able to easily tell the difference between lossless and -V0, in your car no less.

 

[DunninLA]

To answer your question about file sizes, going from memory here, in a 60 minute cd, converting to:

WAV 600 MB
FLAC 275 MB
mp3 v0 255: 85 MB

So how many 60 minute cds will fit on your S639? about 180 mp3 v0 would fit on your S639. About 60 FLAC albums, and about 24 WAV albums would fit.

Clearly I don't think flash memory players are a good match for WAV files.

 

[justaguy93]

Definitely possible. Or maybe the Sony puts extra on the top to compensate for lossy compression which means the wav files are actually being oversharpened, so to speak. Maybe with another player the two would sound identical, hard to say.

I don't pretend to know the whys, I just know what I hear.

 

[krmathis]

Well, only you can tell if you hear an audible difference between WAV (PCM I presume) and MP3 (LAME 320kbps).
So encode some sample tracks in both formats and compare them.

 

[Vincent Masamune]

This is very subjective. Everyone's perceptions are unique, and of course, their equipment are vastly various. Therefore, I suggest that you conduct your own ABX tests. The answer lies within you.

 

[davidw89]

No use FLAC. Also FLAC is open source, built for audiophile, and smaller file size too.