Quote:
Originally Posted by jiiteepee
On that chart (behind link), where would be the point (in generally), you're not able clearly to notice/hear the quality difference (quality 1-10/setting)
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This is an impossible question to answer on an individual basis, because everyone's hearing is different. The best way to answer is to speak in generalities. As mentioned above, -V 2 should be transparent for the overwhelming majority of people--perhaps 99%. But higher settings will still be transparent to most people.
The best way to find out what is good for you is to do this:
1. Start by encoding a file to mp3 with one of the higher numbers, like -V 7 or even -V 9.
2. Use Foobar's ABX comparator to compare the mp3 to the original file. (Decide in advance how many trials you are going to do. It should be at least 10). The ABX comparator will report the likelihood that you were guessing.
3. If the likelihood that you are guessing is more than 5%, stop. You've found a setting that is transparent to you.
4. If the likelihood that you are guessing is less than 5%, it is safe to conclude that you can hear a difference between that level of encoding and the original. If so, then move to the next -V level and repeat the process.
The nice thing about going through this ABX process is that it allows you to generate the smallest files that are truly transparent to you. For example, I *thought* that I needed files to be encoded with at least -V 2 to be transparent. When I did the ABX test, I discovered that I really only need -V 5 for portable use. There are many people around here who will say that they use 320kbps CBR "just to be safe." That is really overkill; even the LAME developers don't advise using 320kbps CBR because the quality improvement between -V2 and 320kbps is marginal compared to the relatively large increase in file size. An ABX test can let you find the lowest bitrate that is transparent for you without wasting disk space.
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| Using EAC, a Flac encoded file was 22MB, while the 320kbps Lame MP3 was only 8MB. So, I guess I'll continue to use Lame since at age 36, my hearing is only being reduced to a frequency range of 500Hz-15kHz probably, with a sensitivity of about -65dB. |
If you are archiving, I would recommend using a lossless format like FLAC, not because it will offer any perceptible improvement to you over the 320kbps mp3s that you currently use, but because it offers more flexibility to moving to other formats or bitrates. IMHO, 320kbps is the worst of all worlds for archival purposes. It gives you files that are much bigger than files generated using the - V settings with little (if any) perceptible quality difference. However, if you want to switch from 320kbps to another format or bitrate, you need to do a second round of lossy encoding, which will result in a bigger quality loss than if you had encoded directly from the source to that other format or bitrate.
