[synaesthetic]

I'm not really hi-fi... more mid-fi, and it's okay. The music sounds good, I don't really notice any artifacts too badly, but I keep my files high-bitrate.

 

[tfarney]

If only there were an audiophile equivalent to a sports bar, where guys could be lured into placing bets on their illusions instead of the data; where I could wager against them identifying lossy file vs cd in ABX tests more than 60% of the time. It would be so much easier than working for a living...

Tim

 

[matt_wants]

I noticed my iPod was still distorting on the bassier songs, such as Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz, so I went through and put all my albums onto my iPod in full quality AIFF instead of 320kbps AAC and now I have about 2gb left on my 80gb iPod. So yeah, I do regret being picky and needing non-distorting sound, especially with the unsubtle Panasonic HTX-7s and their extrovert bass response. The combination of AIFF, line-out on the iPod dock and my Pannys sounds good to my ears at last, so I'm happy enough with what I've got.

 

[gradesm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt_wants_hp890s_again /img/forum/go_quote.gif I noticed my iPod was still distorting on the bassier songs, such as Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz, so I went through and put all my albums onto my iPod in full quality AIFF instead of 320kbps AAC and now I have about 2gb left on my 80gb iPod. So yeah, I do regret being picky and needing non-distorting sound, especially with the unsubtle Panasonic HTX-7s and their extrovert bass response. The combination of AIFF, line-out on the iPod dock and my Pannys sounds good to my ears at last, so I'm happy enough with what I've got.

So did that fix your problem? If you were using itunes to rip to aac you may want to try EAC instead. Or at least make sure to turn off "smart encoding adjustment" and "filter frequencies below 10hz".

 

[Sherwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt_wants_hp890s_again /img/forum/go_quote.gif I noticed my iPod was still distorting on the bassier songs, such as Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz, so I went through and put all my albums onto my iPod in full quality AIFF instead of 320kbps AAC and now I have about 2gb left on my 80gb iPod. So yeah, I do regret being picky and needing non-distorting sound, especially with the unsubtle Panasonic HTX-7s and their extrovert bass response. The combination of AIFF, line-out on the iPod dock and my Pannys sounds good to my ears at last, so I'm happy enough with what I've got.

Hopefully you don't feel slighted by this, but I have two other comments:

1) Are you certain -- CERTAIN -- that you have no EQ on? iPod EQ is absolutely terrible when it comes to distortion.

2) Every version I have of Clint Eastwood distorts, no matter what I play it on. It's poorly mastered. Everything from the original CD played through a meridian 508.24 into an Orpheus/ES-1 to my supplied iphone buds distorts. No getting around it.

 

[mow_the_hawk]

I use mostly 320 now. I have a few lossless of essentials and some old 128/192 and some 256. I do not really care about the music that it 128. Also I have to say that the Rhapsody music player sounds very good for being 192 or whatever.

 

[tourmaline]

The better my rig gets, the more i am looking for high end recordings.
I don't use mp3, if i have to, only flac on the computer. For the main rig, only original cd's.

 

[Ear Damage]

I back my shiz up on the computer with Apple Lossless(ALAC)

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt_wants_hp890s_again /img/forum/go_quote.gif I noticed my iPod was still distorting on the bassier songs, such as Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz, so I went through and put all my albums onto my iPod in full quality AIFF instead of 320kbps AAC and now I have about 2gb left on my 80gb iPod. So yeah, I do regret being picky and needing non-distorting sound, especially with the unsubtle Panasonic HTX-7s and their extrovert bass response. The combination of AIFF, line-out on the iPod dock and my Pannys sounds good to my ears at last, so I'm happy enough with what I've got.

Regardless of some misconceptions you got going on here, you DID rip those "full quality AIFF" files straight from the original CDs, right?

 

[TehNomad]

I have mostly illicit V0s on my hard drive, with a few FLACs of albums that I can't find in V0.

I rip all my CDs to FLAC though, for archival purposes.

 

[kintsaki]

This has always been a controversial subject.

All double blind tests performed in Greece
in recording studios with quarter million dollar
"home" rigs failed to prove that regular people or
audiophiles could tell the difference between real
and >160 kbps Lame encoded material.

I have encoded a jazz audiophile CD titled "Tropic Affair"
in 220 and tried to see If i could identified it, but I failed to do so. So did my 19 year old son with his young ears.

Our source was a Lynx2 driving the Etys directly and
through a Corda prehead.

However a recording of the SACD version of the "Tropic affair" being played by a Sony medium level player and
recorded (digitized) by Lynx2 at full 200000 samples/sec, and 32 bit was ided by both of us 60% of the time.

Funny thing the sacd played by sony was ided from the
220 lame encoded cd also 60% of the time.

So either the double blind tests at the studio were right or my hardware and my ears are not up to the task.

Well what can I say?

Very Controversial subject?

or

Very "placebo effect" sensitive subject?


either way if sound quality is of greater importance than
convinience or cost then you must go with lossless.

This is what I did.
Music is emotion and I want to be sure that I am in the right state of mind to enjoy it.

So even though I cannot tell mp3 from lossless I use
lossless ""....just to be sure...."".

 

[matt_wants]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMarchingMule /img/forum/go_quote.gif Regardless of some misconceptions you got going on here, you DID rip those "full quality AIFF" files straight from the original CDs, right?

What misconceptions? Yes, ripped i AIFF from the original CDs, only about 10 were off copies. To answer someone else's reply, I had the EQ off.

 

[Sherwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt_wants_hp890s_again /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had the EQ off.

Then the only next step I can see is to go to the music forum and gripe about how poorly recorded everything is these days.

 

[matt_wants]

Could just be the iPod's headphone socket; I hadn't tried the Line Out before then. I agree about mastering these days to benefit those who listen out and about where noise is an issue. The White Stripe's latest album suffers where the others do not. Quiet passages of music seem to be lost.

 

[Sherwood]

Only if you bought the CD of Icky Thump, though. The vinyl was mastered by Steve Hoffman, and it is a work of art.

Needledrops are readily available. I am not advocating any specific place where they can be had, but there is a digital ... inlet ... for ... sea bandits ... where one might look. It will come to you in a deluge of bits