New head-fier looking to upgrade for Beyer 770 and facing a problem...

[Julesfromparis]

Hi everybody, I've been reading you for a couple of month now and it is really fun and always interesting.Following advices of several head-fiers, I bought an AKG K416P and a Koss Porta Pro, both have made me very happy.
Now i'm looking towards the real stuff : Beyerdynamics 770-80 and a small amp.From what i heard, it is quiet an experience

But i have a big problem : for two years now i've been buying all my music on Itunes, which means it is all in 128kbs and there is no turning back.

Here is my question : even though i will do so in the future, there is no way that i buy again every CD i've already bought.Do you think there is actually a point to spend 300$ or so on good cans that will be used to listen to 128 kbs files??
I know there will be a huge loss, but will i still see an improvement compared to my current HP or is it totally pointless?

Thank you very much and congratulation for your forum!

PS : Excuse my english, I'm french...

 

[jonnywolfet]

128kbps, while damaged and lo-fi is not as terrible as it used to be in the days of napster. i say go for the amp + dt770's, the difference will be big, even though your files are not 100%.

ne fait pas d'excuses pour votre anglais, c'est certainement mieux que mon français!

Jon.

 

[Julesfromparis]

will i lose SQ in general or is soundstage worse or what? what is lost when listening to 128kbs?
Will i all the flaws of my tunes while listening to them through good hp?

 

[santiclaws]

Good phones will very quickly bring out the poor quality of the recording. My 128 mp3's always sounded just fine to me until I heard them for the first time with a decent pair of cans. Ugh!

As far as re-buying all of your CD's, there's certainly no need to do that. Just rip them at a good bitrate, and you're good to go.

 

[Julesfromparis]

Ok that's great...screw
I bought the 2/3 of my music online so I can't re-rip it...and it will sound terrible on high-end cans...
I'm depressed

 

[Julesfromparis]

So... people please...tell me if I should buy the HP, I'm really hesitating with my wallet in hand right now...

 

[carlineng]

Buy the headphones. AAC, the format of iTunes songs, is pretty efficient. A 128 kbps aac file is roughly the same quality as a 160-192 kbps mp3 file. Most people (including myself) have a hard time distinguishing between 192 kbps mp3s and lossless files when using a double blind comparison test.

 

[Shahrose]

no don't worry those itunes files are pretty good quality. i agree with carlineng (poster above). it's not as big a deal as you're making it out to be. in fact, most people wouldn't be able to tell a difference between that and a 320kbps file. (or very very slight diff if any)

and by the way, whenever i download songs off itunes, i receive 192kbps m4p files, not sure why you got 128. maybe there's an option to select?

 

[Julesfromparis]

Thank you very much! I think i'm going to give Santa a call

 

[hardstyler]

My 770 sounds great even with 128kbs mp3s but I probably need a better source. I only got Audigy 2 zs.

 

[carlineng]

How do the 990s sound through the Audigy?

 

[hardstyler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by carlineng /img/forum/go_quote.gif How do the 990s sound through the Audigy?

Well they sound good but I just realised that Audigy 2 zs is very bright. Yesterday after about 2-3 hours of listening at moderate volume levels my ears started to hurt. The highs became unbearable. I don't get this problem with my cd player.

So yeah bright headphones + bright source is not a very good combination.

I don't use any EQ btw.