[spickerish]

Hi
I'm thinking of buying the Ety ER4P but 80% of my music is ripped at 128 kbs. Will they be too unforgiving or will I still be able to enjoy my music. Are the Shure se210's more foregiving or are they about the same?

 

[Bizzel]

Either might begin to expose flaws with that bitrate. You could always re-rip and enjoy either, however time consuming that may be.

 

[spickerish]

Thanks, but what do you mean with flaws? What will it sound like?

 

[intoflatlines]

The main thing I notice with files encoded with a low bitrate is that the cymbals (and treble in general) sound "watery", for lack of a more intelligent word.

Some people that I know don't really notice it, but I can always pick it out and it is very annoying to me. I think that anyone can hear the difference if they are made aware of it, but some people just don't notice it.

 

[ILikeMusic]

What encoder did you use? 128 kbps can sound pretty decent with some encoders and not-so-great with others.

 

[intoflatlines]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILikeMusic /img/forum/go_quote.gif 128 kbps can sound pretty decent with some encoders and not-so-great with others.

x2 on that.

Now that I think about it, a lot of the files that had the problems that I complained about in my earlier post were converted awhile ago. The more recent of the few files that I have that are 128 kbps sound decent. Of course, the lossless files and even the 192 kbps files sound better, but if you use a good encoder (like LAME?) it will sound alright.

 

[spickerish]

I'm sorry but I don't know what an encoder is. I'm a newbie to all this audiophile stuff. I just use iTunes if that helps.

 

[facelvega]

well-encoded 128 can sound alright, but like anything in audio the little audible flaws will drive you nuts once you start to hear them. I'd start a slow systematic bitrate improvement if I were you, and make do with your old files in the meantime. Also, what dac/soundcard/dap are you using? It doesn't mean much to talk about these differences without that piece of information, because it can make such a big difference.

 

[intoflatlines]

The majority of my ~5500 songs are encoded at 192 kbps AAC VBR and they sound great to me. I'm sure that someone with more expensive equipment and/or more detailed listening might say that it sounds horrible.

For albums that are very important to me or more complex, I use lossless encoding, and truthfully, it does make a difference in the sound.

You can switch your importing/encoding settings by going to iTunes and (on Windows) going to Edit>Preferences>Advanced and clicking on the "Importing" tab. You can switch your preferences there.

I would suggest encoding with AAC if you are pressed for space, because from what I've heard, it offers higher quality in a smaller file than mp3. However, if you want files that are compatible with the most devices/programs, you would have to go with mp3.

 

[spickerish]

Thanks for the advice. But is there a program where I can turn 128kbs into higher bits since I don't have all my old cd's anymore.

 

[Brian_the_King]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spickerish /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the advice. But is there a program where I can turn 128kbs into higher bits since I don't have all my old cd's anymore.

Unfortunately, that's impossible. Once the data is compressed [and all the bits are thrown out], it's gone for good.

 

[VolkswagenFox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spickerish /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the advice. But is there a program where I can turn 128kbs into higher bits since I don't have all my old cd's anymore.

You can't turn low bit-rate music into higher bit-rate music.

 

[intoflatlines]

As everyone else has said, it's impossible.

While you can technically use a converter and convert a 128 kbps file into a 192 kbps file, it will sound worse than the original 128 kbps file did. You're basically taking an already highly compressed file and compressing it again.

 

[alex223]

As you can read, the mp3 is a lossy bitrate. That means some informations are lost when you use an encoder. A bitrate of 128 kbps is lower than 192 kbps or 320 kbps. It equals you lose more information in a low bitrate than in a high bitrate. Because of that, a high bitrate takes more place than a low bitrate on your hard-disk.
So, don't re-encode your 128 kbps mp3 in higher bitrate. The sound quality will be less you in the higher bitrate than in the 128 kbps.
No chance: the only possibility is to take the cd's and encode them ONCE in a higher bitrate.

Ah, someone was faster than me...

 

[spickerish]

Okay thanks again. But now for my main question. I want to buy a new pair of earphones and which of these 2 would you recommend to me: Ety ER4p or the Shure se210, I live in Holland and I can only get the ety's for 185 euros, the shure's however are only 150 euros. Do the ety's really sound that much better with the low bit-rate in mind or am I better off with the Shure's and a bit of money left over.